Simon Wharton, managing director of specialist online search marketing agency PushON, outlines the keys to success for those who are considering blogging to business success.
If you have decided that a blog might give you a new and effective opportunity to connect with your market or have started a blog and what a few handy tips to attract more readers the following article should be of some value.
And those who are not sure what a blog is, it is simply an online diary or journal that gives you a real voice online. It enables you to discuss your particular specialism; increase the interaction with your fellow professionals and potential or indeed current clients. It amplifies your presence and influence. If this sounds of interest to you read on. (Please feel free to contact me (I have a great introduction published in Creative Times) or go to the article page on www.pushon.co.uk to obtain free background information on blogs).
I have outlined my thoughts on how to increase your audience, your interaction and your ranking in search engines:
- Blog
regularly: The strength of blogs compared to many Internet sites is
that they are updated regularly. This provides fresh interest for the
reader, hopefully generating return visits, comments and links to your
blog. The greater the activity the higher up the search engine your
blog will go and the easier you will be to find. Regular writing will
generate unique content that will have a greater chance of talking
about a subject that will appeal to a potential client.
- Entertaining
and insightful entries: I believe blogs should inform and entertain.
Think of any media you use; how does it capture your attention and keep
it? Blogs are no different.
- Short
entries: A controversial point! Some bloggers insist on writing reams
of words. Why? It is not very easy to capture the reader’s attention
for too long and it is hard for some people to read from the screen. I
prefer concise copy; just my viewpoint. If the subject really captures
the reader’s attention provide links to more in-depth articles to be
read at their leisure.
- Be transparent:
readers will be able to assess if a blog is written by a third party,
such as an agency ghost writing entries. Indeed L’Oreal wrote a blog
purportedly by a client about their products. It was found out within a
few hours.
- Linking: When you write a post
be sure to use links to your sources and sites of interest. It all
provides greater visibility with the search engines as well as allowing
your reader to investigate your article further.
- Images: I have to say I like to illustrate the odd entry with an image. It makes the blog more appealing to the eye.
- Reward
inbound links: Inbound links, that is comments, provide greater
visibility for your blog with the search engines. Encourage links by
allowing readers to link back to their blogs and websites, which allows
greater visibility for their blogs.
- Permanent
links: If you have a strong relationship with another blogger or
website owner ask them to post a permanent link to you blog; it all
helps with search engines.
- RSS feeds:
These allow you to inform the reader, by way of a message to a
subscriber’s computer, of a new entry. The reader will not have to come
to you blog to check if there are any new entries if they wish to
follow your blog they will be automatically notified. RSS feeds enable
blogs to establish a loyal readership.
- Tagging and book marking: Tags are keywords or terms associated with a piece of information. They allow the readers to find entries, via an index page, assigned to the tag; this provides easier location of entries of interest to the reader. It is worth noting that social bookmarks, such as Del.icio.us, attract entries on their reference sites. Google and other search engines are influenced by such reference sites and how popular an entry proves to be can be a real driver of traffic to your blog.
And remember; enjoy blogging- it underpins your blogging success!
Simon Wharton, managing director of online search marketing specialists PushON welcomes comments and questions and can be contacted on 0870 757 4888 or simon@pushon.co.uk
