All Entries in the "Blog Consulting" Category

A Blog Is The Best Link Building Tool You Have

I love it when people verify what I’ve been saying for years. Michael Martinez back in February had a great post that discussed the three best link building tools. One of those is blogging.

Here’s what he says about the benefits of blogging:

Pros of Blogs
–They are usually easy to set up and low-maintenance
–They are more powerful and flexible than widgets, gadgets, gizmos, and plug-ins
–They allow you to populate multiple domains/subdomains quickly

And I’ll add this to the pro list on blogs as well – They achieve better search engine results more quickly than any other tool available. Yes, even better than articles. Better than static websites. Better than social media. More powerful than a speeding bullet. Etc.

Why are blogs so good for search engine optimization, including link building? Because they are crawled – like all updated content – every single time you update them. The more often you update your blog, the more it will get crawled. The more it gets crawled, the more opportunities you have of achieving great rankings. Each and every blog post you write is treated like a separate web page by the search engines. Therefore, every ranking factor that applies to any web page applies to every single blog post you write. If you have a blog with 500 blog posts then that’s 500 chances to rank for your keyword, 500 chances + for your links to build link juice and gain the age advantage, 500 chances to build anchor text links with high quality and relevance, etc. Blogging is guerrilla SEO on steroids!

I could write all day about the search engine benefits of blogging. But, do it wrong, and you can kill your rankings. That’s why it is important to choose an expert in blogging, ghostwriting, and SEO who can steer you in the right direction and keep you away from dangerous waters.

Want to know more? Get a free consult with a blog consultant.

Business Blog Consultant – Why Do I Need One?

Most people think; “Blogging? How hard can it be?” or “Of course I know how to blog”, or even; “I’ve been writing my personal blog for a long time now and I know all about blogging.”

Okay . . . You run a business. You’ve spent thousands of dollars to develop and promote your website. Now you’ve decided to have a business blog. Mary Sue and Billy Bob, who work in your marketing department and handle your offline marketing both have blogs. Mary Sue is on MySpace and Billy Bob has a blogger blog.

They tell you they can handle all the blogging. no need to outsource. After all, Mary Sue has 112 friends on MySpace and Billy Bob’s post about bull riding on his blogger blog had 32 comments! And they both know offline marketing! Wow! You are in good shape aren’t you?

First: Offline Marketing and Online Marketing are two different animals altogether.

Second: Writing a personal blog and managing a business blog are also two different animals. There was no money invested in mary Sue’s MySpace blog or Billy Bob’s Blogger blog. Your business did not depend on those blogs.

I have a client that shall remain nameless, but they are a multinational corporation. The person I deal with understands the different ways blogs can be used for business, but some in their marketing department do not. Their company has several blogs that are written internally and they send out a newsletter to promote them.

Their mailing list is huge so they do get a lot of visitors to their blog. They have a lot of pride in the number of visitors they get and rightly so.

However, since I do the SEO for some of their websites, I keep up with how they rank in the search engines for their targeted keywords and phrases.

None of their 12 blogs rank for any of their search phrases. Their websites rank very well. But the blogs do not. They have about 60,000 unique visitors per month to those blogs so they have the traffic, but it’s all from the newsletter.

So basically, except for a few new signups each month for the newsletter, the same 60,000 people visit those same blogs every month. if they have not sold these people something yet, will they ever? It’s like preaching to the choir.

We set up a blog for SEO purposes and within one month we were ranking on the front page of Google for the targeted keywords. The first time their company has had a position that high for those phrases. But it did not have 60,000 visitors yet.

It also was not promoted in their newsletter. Ahhh, so you want me to get the same number of visitors that you get to your other blogs, but you don’t want to give me that same tool you use to get them? I see.

However, the visitors we get to the new blog are NEW visitors you never had before. A large percentage of them visit the website we are promoting. And a good number of those have converted to leads.

I know, imagine that. Here I am more concerned with higher rankings in the search engines for their keywords, getting NEW visitors to their blog, generating leads and what their conversion rate is. Shame on me.

We tried to offer them a course on how to do a little better with the search engines on those blogs they write, but their marketing people and inhouse bloggers said, “We get 60,000 visitors per month to our blog, so we don’t need to learn anything new. As a matter of fact, we are going to start writing the blog that you guys created for us.”

Are you one of those people who think you know all there is to know about writing a business blog and think you do not need to learn how to improve it? if so, you wasted a lot of time reading this post.

However, if you are not one of those people and you truly want your business blog to be a success, give us a call at 786-317-8774 and we’ll give you a free business blog consultation. What have you got to lose?

Why Do I Need a Blog?

Why do I need a business blog and why should I hire someone to manage it for me?

By now, most business Website Owners have learned there are advantages to having a company blog. But why do I need a company blog? How will it really help me?

Most bloggers, even those who have been blogging for a long time, do not truly understand all of the ways a blog can benefit your business. They are good bloggers. They even may know a little about SEO and can put all the keywords and phrases into your blog. But do they really know about blog marketing and what the benefits are for their clients? Do they really know SEO or the technical aspects of operating a blog?

Do you know all of the benefits of having a business blog?

Let’s see;

Why does my Business need a Blog?

A business blog is the most cost-effective way to add fresh content to your website daily.

It is the most affordable way to build link popularity.

A business blog can make you money through Conversational Marketing.

A business blog will help drive more traffic to your website.

It gives you a place to offer special deals, make announcements, issue press releases, and get feedback from customers.

You can have a private blog that your employees or shareholders read.

There are way too many ways your company can benefit from a business blog to list on one page. As they say; “Think Outside The Box” and create new ways blogs can be used. All the uses for a blog have not even been invented yet. Be the first to try something new. Call us at 786-317-8774 and get a free business blog consultation. We’ll brainstorm with you!

Your business blog can be within your website or on it’s own domain name.

Your company blog can be used to help capture a specific search phrase or phrases in the search engines.

You can have a company blog in your website and one on its’ own domain name, each achieving a different purpose.

You can have multiple blogs all working for you at the same time. The options are endless.

It is not a one-size-fits-all deal. Our Blog Consultant will talk with you, analyze your business, and come up with a strategy that benefits your business. Click here to get a free business blog management quote.

Blog Management and Marketing

Blog Content

Your blog content will make a lot of difference to how well you do with both the search engines and with visitors. Whatever your goal is for your blog, to make your blog popular to read, to make sales, to drive traffic to your website, to get people to sign up for something like a newsletter or affiliate program, or something else, you will need good, original content.

Not only do you need good original content on your blog, you need it every single day.
Blog search websites like technorati.com and Google’s BlogSearch list blogs by the most recent posts that match the user’s keywords. If you are not posting daily, you can get buried beneath all of the other blogs that do one post or more every day. Our daily blogging service will make sure your blog is updated every day or more often if you choose that option.

Blog Posting is more than just writing. If you want your blog to be interesting to user and also rank well in the search engines, you need to know how to structure your blog posts properly.

Do you know the proper way to write your blog post titles?

Do you know how to use keywords in your blog post for the search engines without seeming spammy or obvious to your readers?

Do you know how to use good anchor text and a proper linking strategy?

Our bloggers are trained to write relevant, interesting blog posts that are also optimized for the search engines. Read more about our Daily Blog Posting Service.

Social Bookmarking and Social Networking

Social Bookmarking and Social Networking are extremely beneficial to your blog. It can help you with link popularity, attracting more visitors to your blog, more comments on your blog posts, and even help you rank better with the search engines. However, social bookmarking is time consuming.

Many people try to automate the process for that reason. Automated social bookmarking will not get you all of the benefits that social networking will get you if you take the time to do it yourself. Most business owners do not have the time it takes to participate on these social networks. That is why Blog Content Provider does it for you. Our basic social bookmarking package comes with our Daily Blogging Service, but we also offer social bookmarking as a standalone service. Read more about our Social Bookmarking Service.

Professional Full Service Blog Management

Let our staff completely manage your business blog for you. We will handle everything. We will choose a domain name for you where necessary, provide blog hosting, do the installation, create or choose a blog template, optimize your blog for the search engines, provide the daily content, and do the social bookmarking. You turn your business blog over to us and we do it all for you. Read more about our Complete Business Blog Management Service.

Blog SEO and Programming

Blog Installation

WordPress claims you can install wordpress in just 7 minutes. Some cpanels have fantastico that will automatically create a database and install wordpress for you. But is that all there is to installing a wordpress blog? No. There are better ways to securely install a wordpress blog on your server.

Then you need to choose the right plugins to enhance the usability and improve the SEO of your blog. Every blog is different. Every blog has different goals and obstacles. So choosing the right plugins is more than just going to someone’s favorite list of plugins and using them all.

Some blog service companies brag that they install wordpress with more than 80 plugins! Wow! 80! How many of those plugins do you really need? Usually just a few. We securely install your wordpress blog and choose plugins for you that fit your specific needs. Read more about Blog Installation.

Blog Setup and Configuration

A lot of people will tell you that choosing the settings in the admin area of your wordpress blog is self-explanatory. To who? There are a lot of choices to make in the admin area.

An experienced Blog Manager knows which settings are best to use from experience. For instance;

Do you know the best sites to put into your ping list?

Do you know the proper way to create categories?

Post Slugs?

Is time-stamping a good idea?

Do you know how to configure all of the plugins or get an API Key?

Our Blog installation specialists will set everything up for you. Read more about Blog Configuration.

Blog Theme Installation and Editing

Here again, it sounds easy. You choose a theme, upload it to your themes directory, and voila! You’re done right? No. Choosing a theme isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are tons of free themes on the web. You could buy one from a designer. You can have one custom made for you.

Do you know a good theme from a bad one? I mean besides how pretty it is. Did you know that sometimes free themes have hidden malicious code in them, put there by the programmer/designer?

Are you able to determine good code from bad code? Is the code in the theme written in a way that will hurt your chances in the search engines?

Do you know how to edit the php in the header.php file, sidebar.php, or footer.php to add the enhancements that will make your blog both more attractive and more productive?

Choosing the right theme for your blog is more than just finding one that looks nice. You do not need to have a custom blog theme built. You can use a free blog theme. But you need to know how to choose the right one. Our Blog Installation Service includes choosing and installing the right theme for you. If you want a custom theme, you can read more about Custom Blog Themes here.

Blog SEO

You need to optimize your blog for the search engines. That means editing the code of your blog theme, setting up proper permalink structure, creating the right categories, and even choosing the right plugins, among other things. Our Blog SEO specialists go over your blog theme line by line to get rid of unwanted or unnecessary code.

We fix the blog title structure. We install and configure your blog plugins. We create a proper permalink structure. We edit your blog template to install feedburner, email scripts, affiliate buttons, or whatever else you need. Our clients are very happy with the search engine rankings their blogs are getting. Let us show you how we can improve your results. Read more about Blog SEO.

If you are not sure what you need, call us at 786-317-8774 for a free business blog management or SEO consultation.

Why C-Level Execs Need A Blog

C-level executives can use a blog for a number of things. You can use a blog to discuss important information with and for your employees, you can use a blog to discuss important stockholder information, or to communicate with members of the public about your brand. A blog is a type of mass communication tool that allows you to communicate important information about a specific topic with a large number of other people interested in that topic.

Whether you are CEO, CFO, CIO, or another important C-level executive at your company, a blog that communicates details of interest regarding your area of expertise is an important asset, not just for you but for your entire company, and can affect the bottom line in so many ways.

If you’d like to know more about how a C-level blog can help you and your business grow and be more efficient, call Blog Content Provider today.