C1-Partners.com BLOGGING for BUSINESS The 2013 Marketer’s SEO Guide to Your blog is a marketing asset that is critical to driving traffic to your website and for positioning your company as a thought leader in your market. Many equate the blog as the “accelerator pedal” or “throttle” for your car. Want more traffic? Blog more. Want less traffic? Blog less. Before getting started, there are a few things to remember about blogging for business. First, frequency matters. You should blog at least once per week, and if possible, 2-3 times or more per week or more. Research has shown that businesses that blog at least 16 times a month have twice as much traffic as those that blog less than four times per month. Second – optimize your posts. Use targeted keywords to drive your topics, and then optimize your blog posts like you would optimize your website pages. Pay attention to the URL, the headings, and the content. Third – use your blog posts to solve your customers’ problems and position your business as a thought leader. Finally, you want to use your blogs to drive leads, so they need to be action- able and they should tie to the downloadable content on your website. Blogging Stats • Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors • Nearly 40% of US companies use blogs for marketing purposes • Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links • B2B companies that blog get 67% more leads per month than those that don’t • B2C companies that blog get 88% more leads per month than those that don’t
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C1-Partners.com
BLOGGING for BUSINESS
The 2013 Marketer’s SEO Guide to
Your blog is a marketing asset that is critical to driving trafficto your website and for positioning your company as athought leader in your market. Many equate the blog asthe “accelerator pedal” or “throttle” for your car. Wantmore traffic? Blog more. Want less traffic? Blog less.
Before getting started, there are a few things to rememberabout blogging for business. First, frequency matters.You should blog at least once per week, and ifpossible, 2-3 times or more per week or more.Research has shown that businesses that blog atleast 16 times a month have twice as much traffic asthose that blog less than four
times per month. Second –optimize your posts. Use targetedkeywords to drive your topics, andthen optimize your blog posts likeyou would optimize your websitepages. Pay attention to the URL, theheadings, and the content. Third –
use your blog posts to solve yourcustomers’ problems and position your business as a
thought leader. Finally, you want to use your blogs to drive leads, sothey need to be action- able and they should tie to the downloadablecontent on your website.
Blogging Stats• Companies that blog have55% more website visitors
• Nearly 40% of US companiesuse blogs for marketingpurposes
• Companies that blog have97% more inbound links
• B2B companies that blogget 67% more leads permonth than those that don’t
• B2C companies that blogget 88% more leads permonth than those that don’t
Finding topics to blog about is one of the most common challenges thatdigital marketers face. Start by answering your customers’ most common orpopular questions. You should also audit your current sales and marketingmaterials and internal communications. Take these materials and look torepackage them as blog posts. Once you have these materials and questionsto answer, hold brainstorming sessions to generate additional topic areas.
PROCESSTHE
STEP 2: DETERMINE FREQUENCY
Your goal should be to blog at least once per week, and ideally more often. Once you you’re yourlist of content and topics, take a look at your target list of keywords and persona issues. Begin tolay out an editorial calendar that will guide your writing and publishing of your blog posts. It isgood to plan out the keywords ofyour blogs 2 to 3 months in advance.If you don’t plan and work ahead,you will always be scrambling towrite the next blog post.
Work carefully on the titles of yourblog post. They need to be eye-catching for your reader. Think ofmagazines in the supermarketcheckout lines – they have headingsthat grab the attention of thereader. You want to replicate theway those titles get the reader topay attention.
STEP 3: WRITE AND OPTIMIZE YOUR BLOG POST
Now that you have topics, keywords, and content to use, it is time to draft your blog posts. Thekey to the blog post for the reader is that it is informational, educational, and actionable. Goodblog posts range in length from a 300-400 words to 600-800 words. More than 800 word blogposts can usually be broken into 2 or more blog posts. Remember that people are busy andaren’t looking to spend a lot of time reading. They want to get in, get the information, and geton with their day.
Format for ScanningUse bullets, lists, and frequentheadings for readers who scan
Calls-To-Action in text and in sidebarCreate buttons and links to your landing pages to drive leads
Make it entertainingNo matter what you are selling,you can make it entertaining
Social Media Sharing ButtonsEnable readers to easily push contentinto their social networks
Heading TagsOptimize for keywords
Make content actionableHelp people solve problems andthey’ll come back
Alt text for ImagesPlace keywords in image alt text
Attention Grabbing Titles Be sure to optimize with keywords
Use Meta DescriptionsOptimize for keywords
Frequency of posting is important, but don’t forget about optimizing your blog post. You willneed to optimize your posts so that they are more readable for humans and so they will rankwell in search engines. Here are several ideas you should consider incorporating into yourblog optimization efforts
STEP 4: PROMOTE YOUR BLOG
There are lot of blogs out there, so if you want to stand out, you will need to make the effort topromote it. Promotion drives traffic to your blog, increases awareness of your blog and yourbusiness, and positions you as a thought-leader in your market. Once you have optimized yourblog, you should begin to try some of the ways listed below to promote it.
Run a contest
Create video about your blog onYouTube
Incorporate blog into email signature
Share blog posts on social media
Cross promote with other bloggers in your industry
It’s a waste of your time if you blog but don’tmeasure and analyze your results. It helps youdetermine what and how to write in the future,and ultimately how to drive more traffic to yourbusiness. There are many data points you canlook at, but if you have too many it isn’t useful.Here is a list of some common, important metrics to keep track of:
• Visitors
• Leads
• Subscribers
• Inbound links
• Social Sharing
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