Doing this when you add a blog to your website?

I was recently asked by a client whether or not they should add a blog to their new website. They were particularly interested in knowing from an SEO perspective whether or not it made sense relative to the keywords they wanted to go after. I’ve been asked this question a lot. Our clients are a smart bunch and they want to allocate their limited resources effectively. If they can save some money by trimming a feature out of their web development budget while not missing out on a greater opportunity cost, then they’re going to do so.

As far as SEO goes, a blog is almost always an excellent way to build up your presence in the search engines regardless of your market, keywords and competition. Nevertheless, the answer I usually give is “You might not want to waste your money.” (I’m definitely aware of the delicious irony as I compose and publish this on the medium of a business blog!)

There’s three things you must consider when deciding whether or not to add a blog to your site:

1. Is Search Engine Marketing a minor part of your overall marketing effort? If so, then don’t bother with a blog.
2. Will your organization consistently commit the time and/or money into regularly creating content (i.e. 2-4 blog posts/ week for 12-18 months)? If not, then definitely don’t bother.
3. Will your organization commit the time to socially promoting your content? If not, then you probably don’t want to bother with a blog.

I suspect I’ve already inflamed some blog lovers and blog purists out there with #1. The blog purists tend to believe that “the journey is the destination” and that blogging is it’s own reward. While I’m sure this is the case for many bloggers, our clients are savvy business owners. They can certainly trim their web development budget and get the same personal edification and benefits by keeping a personal journal using old fashioned pen and paper for less than $5. I’m not going to advise our clients to shell out the extra cash to add a blog to their site, just because it can be a personally enriching exercise. Business Blogs have to give a return on investment that justify their cost.

However, the web development cost of a blog is just the tip of the iceberg. Building infrastructure into a website is the easy and affordable part. What you really need to ask is: are you willing to invest the time, energy, money and resources into developing and promoting your blog’s content? This can be a very substantial investment, but the rewards can be even greater. Here’s why:

Google loves blogs!

There are numerous reasons Google loves blogs and most pretty much boil down to them being a social proof of value for a particular piece of web content. One metric Google looks at on a blog post is how large and how active the comment thread is. I’ve seen a prominent national brand name badgered by a “Why Brand Name Sucks” blog post that shows right beneath their site on page 1 of the Google for a search of their own brand name. It has become THE magnet for that brand’s haters on the web. Anyone with a gripe against that brand that’s ever queried Google with the brand name appears to have read the blog and then shared their beef on the comment thread. It’s now a self-perpetuating feedback loop. That post is firmly entrenched on p1 right below the brand name’s own website (even though it has minimal backlinks and PageRank) which is too bad for the brand owner.

Also Google can be “gamed” via on-site structural tricks. Just repost identical content across multiple URLs and then shuffle those unique URLs across multiple keyword targeted category pages. Wash, rinse, repeat and presto! Instant and effective on-site SEO without the need for messy link building. Some might call that fishy, spammy or gamey, but no one disputes that it’s currently working.

Lastly and perhaps more compellingly, well written blogs that serve as linkbait can be a cornerstone of an organic link building campaign. For instance Jeb’s blog post on Compendium was interesting and controversial enough to get some in the blogosphere to join in the conversation and link back to his post that started the whole fracas. More natural backlinks coming into your site = better SEO! This is an SEO benefit that will survive many, many changes to the Google algorithm.

But here’s the catch!

After seeing all these SEO and SEM benefits to blogging you might think only an idiot wouldn’t bother adding one to their business website. However, there are two big catches you need to be aware of.

First, creating effective content takes time (or money to pay someone else to do it for you). Blogs start losing their value when you aren’t committed as an organization to blogging (i.e. to creating the content). At a minimum you’re looking at blogging at least 3-4 times a week for the first 12-18 months. Once your domain and blog get established and build some authority you can start to ease up the pace.

You can’t reasonably expect your web developer to write the content for you b/c it’s not their core competency. Jeb and I met with one of the owners of a local company that blogs on behalf of businesses for the business blog. It’s all they do. He seemed like a nice and able fellow and I’ve been wanting to try them out for some time. For some businesses with less time than money this could be a great solution.

Second, blogs have to be promoted which also takes time. If you build it, they will NOT come. Social bookmarking sites like Digg and Mixx, social networking sites like Facebook and SmallerIndiana, and the emerging wunderkind, Twitter, are all necessary tools. In the early days of Internet marketing you could use primitive, mechanical, spammy methods to promote a blog (or any site for that matter). But those don’t really work anymore. Successfully promoting a blog amounts to building a community around your brand and/or products/services.

So, for these tools to be effective you have to be social (after all they are first and foremost social media). This means seeking out like minded individuals that share common interests and having a conversation with them OUTSIDE your blog and ON the various social media channels. You might cringe at allocating resources to building content on other people’s sites, but it is a necessary evil. Building up a social network around each of these tools will require an investment of your organization’s time. Our own blog didn’t really take off until after Jeb built up his own Twitter network and then started using it to promote his blog posts.

If you have to pick one social media tool to focus your energy on, I’d currently recommend Twitter. It’ll one day implode under it’s own weight (like a super nova or MySpace), but should be good for at least a couple more years.

Well there you have it. Don’t waste your money on a business blog (unless search engine marketing is an important piece of your overall marketing efforts and you’re going to invest the time and effort into making it work). I defy you to get me to change my mind.

Is your business struggling to survive in the current economic environment? Are you seeing your cash reserves dwindle as new business drys up? Even if you are doing well I have the same advice- Use the web to save and grow your business.

Here’s a 7 step strategic plan that should fit most small businesses. Naturally a good deal of hustle will be needed to implement this kind of plan while doing everything else you need to do to keep your business afloat. There are businesses that can help you implement this plan as well- wink, wink. But if you can dedicate the time and resources I have no doubt that you will see serious ROI. I have seen it in my business and with many of our clients.

1. An Effective Website- your website is really your front door and sales floor. If you had dozens of people coming to your door everyday, looking around and leaving then you would probably freak out! This is happening right now on your website. Your prospects are sticking their heads in, looking around, finding nothing of interest and moving on. An effective website is one that knows its audience, guides them quickly to where they want to be and removes obstacles for conversions or contact. An effective website is also an active one, updated often and doesn’t look dated. Think of a grocery. If you went every week to find the same thing wouldn’t you shop somewhere else? Don’t underestimate the importance of a fresh website. So make sure your new website is built on a Content Management System (CMS). This way you don’t have to pay a web company to make the updates you should be able to easily make with a CMS. This is really important since it plays into all your other efforts.
   
2. Email Marketing- now that you have an effective website it’s time to build on your contacts. Now you have somewhere to link to without shame. Send out monthly email newsletters with specials, updates and useful information. Once you have this rolling you will want to divide your email list into interest categories in order to tailor the emails to different audiences. I also recommend doing some A/B testing with your email titles. It can really impact your open rate. There are many email list providers. I’ve been really happy with Constant Contact and have used them for the last 8 years with no major issues.
   
3. Search Engine Marketing- time to step it up a notch. You are confident in your website and communication so now is a good time to increase your site’s traffic. There are many ways to do this but the most effective is using search engines. If you are a company serving a local audience then chances are people are already looking for your products or services. If you sell Widgets then people are searching for “City Name Widgets Store”. Make sure your site is optimized for this. Are you on the top of page one of Google for this and other related searches? If not then someone is eating your lunch. It doesn’t matter if you are best Widget maker in town. Google doesn’t know this unless you tell them. If you can’t get to the top organically (meaning showing up in the unpaid listings) then you can pay to be there. Regardless, you need to be there. Local search is increasingly important and there is a land grab going on around you. Start paying attention now and it will be much easier to get your spot on the first page of Google for your local search.
   
4. Blogging- your website and email newsletters will get you some good results but in order to take it to the next level it’s time to establish yourself as an expert in your particular field. So if you know widgets better than anyone else around- prove it! Talk about what you know, share your knowledge. This benefits you two ways. The first is that it adds valuable content to your site. Your existing visitors will appreciate your insights and your site will become a destination for them if they need your knowledge/information or share your passion. Blogs really help create a comfort level with your prospects. Remember, these are real people so the more your site feels like a real person is behind it the more comfortable that prospect becomes. The second benefit is that your blogs will create new content that is indexed in search engines. So if you blog about “10 Tips on Installing Widgets in your House’s Thingabob” then you run a good chance of showing up for a related search. The people typing that search in are probably looking for the goods or service you offer so you are well on the way to gaining a new customer.
   
5. Social Media Engagement- with an active blog you are well on the way to jumping in the Social Media waters! What is Social Media? It’s Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. It is also a Webinar or Instant Messaging. Anything that using the web to create an environment for people to gather and have a conversation. So chances are you are already using Social Media on a regular basis. But I also bet you aren’t really finding it a good lead generation environment, yet. The key to Social Media is to focus on the relationship and not the sale. Sales as we once knew it is in danger of extinction. Instead of pushing products and services on people you must now enage them in a conversation. You will need to listen as much as talk. I personally find Twitter a great environment to quickly share information with others, get their feedback, join in their conversations and build relationships. Some relationships will never result in business, some will. That’s ok, I still get value from the conversations. Focus on meaningful conversations since those are the ones most likely to bring value to your life and business.
   
6. Press Releases- time to toot your horn and blow the trumpets! You have really made some exciting changes that others should know about. Maybe you’ve set up a cool microsite for a special promotion or sponsored a series of events that you promoted across all your different platforms (website, email, social media, etc). So now is a good time to go after some earned media. Put together a concise but exciting press release letting everyone know about the cool stuff your company has been up to. How you’ve shirked the industry trends to grow in a downturn, how you’ve launched a new product and used these New Media tools to get the word out. Send it out to the local/industry press and also promote it using PRWeb.com. Make sure to add links back to your website when you send out the release!
   
7. Analytics or Tweak and Repeat!- by now you should really be rolling with great website traffic, lots of leads or sales coming through your site, an active and meaningful online conversation with colleagues and prospects, good buzz in your industry, an overall increase in business and new energy in your team. So what now? Make sure when you set up your website and email marketing that you have good Analytics set up as well. For the web I recommend Google Analytics and Get Clicky. They give you two different ways of looking at traffic and both are valuable. For email I recommend using Constant Contact or another email list provider. This will let you see what emails were opened, what links clicked on, etc. Valuable stuff all around. Not everything you do will get the same return. So find out what works, tweak and repeat!
   

Want to add anything else? Please do below using the comments feature!

Is it better to have 100 hooks in the water with stale bait or only 1 or 2 with the tastiest bait in the world?

I’ve been thinking about content, SEO, blogging, etc a lot recently. Some of it has to do with a recent post that has stirred considerable interest but mostly from some private conversations with industry folks I really respect.

It suddenly hit me that there are generally two approaches to content. Quantity vs quality.

If the web is an Ocean and Google the tour guide then what is the best way to be a featured stop on the tour? Is it to have as many attractions (read pages) that aren’t necessarily that vibrant (read activity) but show up at every turn or is it better to invest more energy into the BEST stop on the tour (assuming a search query is the “tour”) that people go out of their way to find?

I think the answer is different depending on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are looking to sell a trinket and make a quick buck I would argue that having a shack at every stop makes sense. The web version of a hot dog cart.

But if you are looking to be a destination, build customer loyalty, have repeat business, charge a premium for your services and products then I would argue you should invest in one really good destination (your website or blog) and maybe put up some signs along the path pointing to your awesome place. The web version of “Rock City”.

By “invest” I mean engagement. Be active, encourage others to engage, be that “tasty bait” that the fish can’t resist. Google will see that activity and reward you for it.

Neither approach is wrong, it really matters who your audience is. I would argue that a service company is best served by being “Best In Class” and a product company is better served by having as many hooks in the water as possible to catch all the fish swimming by looking for a quick snack but not a relationship.

Ideally you want both but there are only so many hours in the day and it’s important to use your time effectively. I would argue you closely consider your audience, your product and put together a strategic plan that finds a good mix between quantity and quality.

Note: due to the interest in this blog and the many excellent comments posted in response I want to encourage those finding this post for the first time to also take the time to review Chris Baggott’s comments in particular. He is the CEO of Compendium and I feel his responses are particularly useful as a counter balance to my points made in the following blog. Compendium blogs do a lot of good things for a lot of good companies. Although I still have concerns that I voice in my own comments below I do feel that Chris has done a great job of explaining and defending his company’s software and I encourage readers to balance my critique with his response. Chris is a real gentleman and has earned a good deal of respect from me for taking the time to answer in detail my, and others, questions and concerns.Thanks! Jeb
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I’m asked about Compendium Blogware on a regular basis. The questions come from friends, associates, clients and prospective clients. They’ve all heard about Compendium and want to know my take. This is what I tell them…

First off, I am not eager to critique a local company, especially one that is doing well, which is why I have waited months to post this blog. But I feel I need to post my concerns in a public venue since others might benefit from it as well as Compendium since I think there is definitely a market for business blogging services and I think there are some fairly simple things they can do to fix the issues I identify. Also, I don’t think it’s fair to Compendium to not give them a forum to respond to my feedback and I hope they do on their own blog or using the comments below.

What is Compendium? They are an Indianapolis company founded by Chris Baggott, of Exact Target fame. Their service is providing customized business blogs on their proprietary blogging platform. The primary “twist” that gives them an advantage over free services like Blogger and WordPress is that they provide keyword research and create “compended” URLs based around targeted keyword phrases. Here’s a couple examples from a blog for Monon Coffee here in Broad Ripple (great place btw!)

http://mononcoffee.compendiumblog.com/blog/broad-ripple-cafe
http://mononcoffee.compendiumblog.com/blog/broad-ripple-coffee-shop

See how the content is almost the same but the URLs are different. They are set up to show up as different pages in Google and target their respective searches- “Broad Ripple Cafe” and “Broad Ripple Coffee Shop“. And they do show up right at the top of their respective searches.

So what’s wrong with that? Well the real problem is that Google doesn’t like intentional duplicate content meant to manipulate search results and this is exactly what Compendium’s software does. It “compends” the same blog (content) under different static, keyword rich URLs as I demonstrated above.

Right now Compendium is essentially gaming Google’s algorithm but it may not last forever. They run the real risk of Google changing their algorithm to punish the Compendium blogs essentially pushing them down in Google’s listings. Google tweaks their algorthim about 400 times a year, so every day they run the risk of being “tweaked”. Since many of Compendium clients are on sub-domains of compendiumblog.com this could mean a big loss of traffic for their clients from Google. Not good.

In my experience Google will eventually eliminate any inefficiencies from their algorithm as they become exploited. The more successful Compendium is, ironically, the more they are at risk. While I think what Compendium is doing is novel it is essentially a Grey Hat trick. They are gaming a system for clients and it’s pretty clear from my conversations with some of their clients that most of them do not realize the risk Compendium is taking on their behalf. Compendium, however, does not see this as a risk.

Another reason their clients’ blogs get indexed quickly for relevant searches probably has something to do with the fact that many of the blogs are all a sub-domain of compendiumblog.com- i.e. clientname.compendiumblog.com- which essentially gives the blog a big push into the search engine waters. This pro could easily become a con should that main URL get blacklisted by search engines for duplicate content.

Compendium will argue that their compended blog pages are actually the best result for the related search even if there is duplicate content on them. I would disagree. Who goes to Google to make two different searches to pull up two different pages to find the same content? That is not what I use Google for- I want new, different information when I modify my search. (note: Chris’ response below does address this concern satisfactorily in my opinion).

How can Compendium fix this problem? First off, stop duplicating content under static URLs. Secondly provide content writing services for clients so they have real, relevant, not duplicate, content under every static URL. There are already other companies popping up to provide this valuable service of interviewing clients and ghost writing their blogs (not this one!). Some clients will self motivate, some really need help, provide this help and charge for it. This is potentially a huge market, go after that along with making the Compendium platform SEO friendly in a very White Hat (no tricks) way.

(note: another idea I had after posting this blog was to have their software only allow blog content to be compended in 10-25% of the static category/keyword URLs).

Chris, Ali and their team at Compendium have done a fantastic job of identifying their market and promoting their platform. I am really impressed with their sales strategy. I’ve met Chris a couple times and he is a genuinely nice guy with good ideas. This is not personal in any way, in fact, I have avoided posting this blog since I have conflicted feelings about critiquing a local company. But my main concern is that their service may be putting their clients at risk and is potentially a house of cards built on an ever changing algorthim. Maybe they will get lucky but I wouldn’t bet on it.

About Duplicate Content- here is a link to a blog on Google Webmaster addressing this issue. Not all duplicate content is bad but if it appears “intentional” with the aim of manipulating search results then Google can punish the site for this. Another Webmaster blog addresses this issue and includes this quote- “In the rare cases in which we perceive that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we’ll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved.”

First off let’s not assume you know what SEO is. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s often used as a catch-all term for all the things that go into getting a website listed on a search engine for specific terms, usually industry terms. For instance if you sell Widgets you will want to show up for Indianapolis Widgets right?

So why is it time to get serious about how your company’s website shows up in Search Engines like Google? Bottom line is that 72% of all purchases now include research online. How do you think people research? Most will have their first stop at Google.com and their search will probably look something like this…

Are you at the top of the listings when they type in that search? If not you are losing out on business, probably on a daily basis.

How do you get to the top of your listings? Here are the three basic elements of SEO, do these well and you will probably be on page one for your local industry search.

1. On-site keyword optimization. This is mostly title tags (what shows up in the browser) and on page content. Don’t stress out too much over Meta Tags, do them if you can, they aren’t too important anymore. Use tools like Google Adwords Keyword Suggest to find out what keywords you should be using. Here is a screen shot of some of the results for “web design” a search we compete for locally. Note that it shows the volume of searches on a monthly basis. In general you will want to optimize your site for the searches that get the most traffic.
   
2. External links. Make sure your site has lots of good links from other sites including relevant industry directories. Be wary of companies offering to sell you links. Google usually recognizes these links and it can actually hurt your rankings. Not sure how many links your have? Use good research tools like SEO for Firefox to help. Once you have it set up, search for your company and then, with the tool turned on, you can easily see how well your site is doing. Here is what we look like with SEO Firefox turned on when searching for “Small Box”. 
   
3. Update your site regularly. A good policy is to update your site in some way at least once a week. To do this you will need a good Content Management System. If you have to use a web company to update your site then you probably need a new web company! A good company will build your site wil a CMS so that you can easily make the changes without having to pay and wait on them everytime you want to update the site. This leads to sites never being updated which is a big no-no. Here is what our CMS for this site, smallboxweb.com, looks like (only partial view but hopefully you get the idea). You can demo our CMS by contacting us.

Obviously there is a lot more to SEO but these are great starting
points. Obviously this is what we do at Small Box full time. Everything
we do relates in some way to SEO. We obsess over it for ourselves and
our clients. We would love to obsess over it for you! Want to see how
good we are? Search for “Indianapolis SEO Companies” or “Indianapolis Web Design” and see for yourself.