They are called blogs.
Short for weblogs, they are a phenomenon that is sweeping the online community. If you think they are all about navel gazing teenagers, and what the writer had for lunch, you haven’t been paying attention.
Blogs are much more than online journals.
Blogs mean business.
They also appear very highly placed on search engine results, and came through the Google "Florida" update with flying colors. Many blogs are sporting some very strong Google PageRanks as a result.
I’ll bet that caused you to sit up and take notice.
You might consider having your business become part of the blogging trend. You should think seriously about adding a business blog to your marketing program.
What can a business blog do for you?
A business blog will enable you to reach your current and prospective customers, in a new and personal way. As you write your blog entries (and for new blogs, daily postings are best to build a regular readership), you and your company will become more familiar to the general public.
There should be no shortage of material for you to write about in your postings.
Your article topics could include industry news, product information from a consumer standpoint, various "how-to’s" of using your products and selecting vendors, and regular updates about what is happening around your company. Linking to industry related news stories is another way to add additional content.
As you write new blog entries, people will feel they know you, and your business, on a more personal level. No longer just a faceless business entity, your business blog enables you to place a human face on the company
People generally prefer to purchase products and services from people they know. Thanks to your business blog, you already have that leg up on the competition.
Blogs and search engine optimization
From a search engine optimization (SEO) standpoint, a blog is everything the search engines dreamed of in a website. Blogs have tons of fresh keyword rich content, and incoming links galore.
Bloggers (the people who write the blogs) update their weblogs on a very regular basis; often adding brand new posts every day. Because the content is so fresh, the internet spiders (the computer robots sent out by the search engines) crawl and index blog pages very frequently.
The search engines, including industry leader Google, devour fresh content. Weblogs deliver that tasty morsel by the plate full.
As your newly added content is indexed, into the search engine data bases, your blog will begin to appear on numerous web searches. Since your content is likely centered around your most targeted keywords, your blog will appear very highly in the search engine results.
It is not uncommon for blogs to appear in the top ten search results, for some very competitive keywords. As a result, more potential buyers, for your goods and services, will find you through your business blog.
Blogs attract lots of incoming links
A second aspect of blogs, that makes them ideally suited to search engines, is the blog’s high number of incoming links.
Bloggers are frequent and generous linkers; often obsessively so.
Bloggers link to other websites, numerous blog articles, and permanently to one another. Links to other blogs, are regularly added, without asking for a reciprocal link in return. If link exchanges have been a problem for your website in the past, you will be pleasantly surprised, by the linking practices of the blogging community.
The main concern, of most blog writers, is finding links to interesting articles and information of interest to their visitors. It’s not about chasing PageRank (Google’s measure of the importance of a web page based on the number and quality of incoming links), or even about search engine positioning. For most bloggers, those optimization concerns are merely a byproduct of their daily routine.
As a result of focussing the attention on the blog’s reading audience, the blog owner achieves the goals so diligently sought by many webmasters. By searching constantly for articles of interest to their visitors, bloggers create and retain very loyal readerships.
Concern for the needs and wants of the visitors is a strength of blogging. It’s simply a focus on the customer, done in a new and interesting way. Look after your customers needs, and your business will prosper. Bloggers seem to know that fact instinctively.
Because of the strong customer orientation of blogs, their incoming link totals are high. As a result, PageRanks for blogs are usually very strong. Many blog Pageranks were increased during the tumultuous "Florida" update. The heavy emphasis on fresh and interesting copywriting, boosted blogs to the top of many internet keyword searches as well.
Instead of suffering through the "Florida" update, most blogs prospered.
If you’ve never thought of adding a business blog to your internet presence, it’s time to reconsider that oversight.
Blogs mean business, in more ways than one.
***Note***
This column first appeared as a special guest article in Jill Whelan's prestigious High Rankings Newsletter.
