Awhile back I wrote a post titled: 7 ways to boost your SEO career profile. One of my suggestions was to get SEO certified. Many people had an opinion about that so instead of just giving the advice, I decided to go for it! I am now a student with Market Motive enrolled in the Social Media Masters Certification program. I will be sharing some insight as I know some of you have had questions about what it’s like being enrolled in an online course for certification. I think the course can improve in some areas but so far so good. Keep up with me because over the next couple of months I will share many more details!
It does not matter if you are a big shot in sales or simply a person desperately wanting people to know you hold thirty-two world records for odd things nobody has heard of. A blog is beneficial and necessary to anybody who wants to get noticed. The days are gone where people have to call customer service. Instead, people are able to use social networking to have their needs met. Blogs allow the target audience to get involved with products and interests by communicating in a comfortable environment with a variety of options.
The best thing about having a blog, as most of us know, search engines LOVE blogs! With the constant communication on blogs, they continually bring in an audience which helps them appear authoritative. A blog helps build credibility and loyalty in a unique way.
First steps to Success:
1. Define your goals!
- Are you trying to increase sales?
- If so, what are your selling points?
- How will your blog integrate back to your website?
- How are you going to draw people in?
- What do you hope people do when they get to your blog?
- Will there be registration opportunities?
2. Know your writing style
- Reporter
- Investigative Reporter
- Analyst
3. Do not use a third party domain
- Make sure your blog URL is an extension of your website.
4. Choose the best blog template
- Select contrasting colors and fonts but nothing hard on the eyes
- Pick a template that describes your personality or brand
5. Add SEO plug ins
- Helps increase rankings
- Great WordPress Plug ins
Making Success Happen:
1. Headlines are a big deal!
- Headlines should be in a bold font.
- Make them clear and easy to read
- Use the Copy Blogger formula! It’s a great cheat sheet that works like a charm J
2. Always remember keyword longtail
- Use very specific keywords opposed to generic
- Make keywords relate to theme, news, or product
- The more specific the keyword, the more likely you are to attract people who know exactly what they are looking for
3. Tags
- Choose about three words that describe the post
- Will help to build link presence
4. Permalinks
- Make sure to incorporate the post title and even the selected category into your URL’s
5. Archives
- Do not use dated archives. People rarely click on dates.
- Set up your archives by choosing appropriate categories that will draw people in
- Keep them organized!
6. Your blog roll is important!
- Select only a few sites. Do not get blog roll happy!
- Choose only trusted sites that your audience will appreciate
- Try to stay in your niche
- If done correctly, you will probably receive a decent amount of traffic back from the blogs you chose
7. Add social networking
- Give your audience options to connect with you in more than one way
Anything that brings success takes work so keep it up:
1. Visible RSS feed and e-mail option
- Blog navigation should not be rocket science. Many people do not know what an RSS feed is
- Make it easy for your fans to follow you.
- Give them the option to subscribe via e-mail in addition to RSS
- Make both options clearly visible
2. Obtain feedback
- Controversy generates conversation
- Give credit where credit is due by linking to readers and responding to comments
- Be sure to edit your configuration setting for commenting
3. Use a website that tracks keywords and conversations
- KeywordSmash
4. Blog often! If you’re not paying attention to your blog, neither will your audience
Joanna Batten is an SEO & Linking Analyst at Search & Social, an SEO & social media marketing firm which is the parent company of Search Engine Journal. Joanna specializes in developing long term linking strategies and building overall web presence for S&S’s client base and web properties.
