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Find it here: Catching Up to the Internet
Part Seven of The Small Business Website Guide for Business Owners
We've reached the final leg of the Small Business Website Guide: learning how to market your new small business website. We've come a long way - you now know how to think about a website, how to prepare for one, how to handle the creation process and finally, how to prepare for search engines to show you off just right.
Are you ready for the last stretch?
Here is a quick look at Part Seven, which covers how to use a blog for your small business marketing strategy:
- Back to basics: What is a blog?
- The pitfalls of having a blog
- Blogs are great for search engine optimization
- Blogs are great for growing traffic
- Blogs are great for building community
- Blogs are great for giving you focus
- Blogs are great for driving conversions
- You are stupid to not even try having a blog
You read that last one right. Guess you better read all the way through and get to the end to find out why!
Back to basics: What exactly is a blog?
What is blogging?
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andypiper/341429556
If you're here and still brand spanking new to the web, you may be confused by all the lingo. Do not worry! I am here to explain everything.
The word "blog" originally came from the words "web log". Say that out loud. You heard it, didn't you? The word blog just came out of your mouth with an extra noise at the front. Everyone online figured that Blog is a lot faster and easier to say than Web Log. A little squishy squooshy with the words and out comes little baby blog.
You can learn more about the History and usage of the term at Wikipedia.
Okay, well, what is a web log? What IS a blog?
Think of say, a magazine. Now imagine that you published a magazine article by digestible article throughout the month instead of in one big overwhelming publication.
That is a blog as it applies to you. You have your own magazine to publish the hottest tips, ideas and information for your business and industry.
The pitfalls of having a blog.
You could not write in the blog. That's not really a pitfall, just a sad neglect of an incredibly useful tool.
You could start writing in your blog and then forget about it. That's not really a pitfall either, just another case of neglect.
People may not always agree with the things that you're posting. Again, is that really a pitfall? There will always be people who do not agree with you or your business. You just aren't aware of it until you become a celebrity. Woah, celebrity? That doesn't sound like a pitfall to me.
Well, if you can think of a real pitfall, please post it in the comments.
Blogs are great amazing the best thing ever for search engine optimization.
Do you remember how you learned to optimize for search engines in the last few lessons? It's okay if you need to review.
- [How to research keywords]({{ site.url }}/small-business-website-guide-seo-keyword-research-free "Keyword Research: How to get started with small business SEO (for free).")
- [How to write content]({{ site.url }}/small-business-website-guide-seo-writing-for-the-web "Six lessons to better content for the web and small business SEO today.")
Each and every blog post opens up a whole new world for keyword optimization and represents a sharpened tool forged specifically for search engine traffic. With a blog you can even more narrowly focus on your main key phrases. With a blog you can expand to specific sub-niche keywords. Rinse and repeat.
Blogs are great for generating traffic.
Sometimes a keyword just isn't planned, but brings in more traffic than you could have thought. Even if it's not targeted exactly the way you want, getting traffic is never bad.
For instance, I've had this website since May 2007, and never really focused on blogging here until recently. However, when I felt inspired I would hop on and share whatever I'd felt the urge to share.
About a year or so ago I wrote about [Facebook RSS status feeds]({{ site.url }}/facebook-status-rss-feed-how-to-find-it-and-what-to-do-with-it "Facebook Status RSS feed: How to find it, and what to do with it"). I get nearly 1,000 hits to my blog every month for searches like 'facebook rss feed' or 'facebook status rss'. Did I intend for that when I felt compelled to share about how I found my status feed? No. But it's helped my blog grow, even though that isn't my focus.
Blogs are great for building community.
{: .float-right } Blogs help you build trust and a community.
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carnielewis187/5699606382/
It's hard to build a community from scratch, but having a blog really helps solidify what community you do have and is a great starting point for building a new one.
Even take my baby blog here for example. I don't get a hundred comments when I post something new but I do get questions via email and requests and I do my best to get back to those asking legitimate questions. Getting those emails tells me people are paying attention.
As my blog grows we'll all begin to see more feedback and conversation in the comments - and I'm sure a good number of them will be from a lot of the people who have reached out to me personally.
Don't be afraid to reach out to a community by posting your thoughts and opinions in the comments. Even if you disagree with the post, everyone will benefit.
Blogs let you create focused content for every niche of your target market.
Everyone has a general target market, but you can always find more specific ways to define each facet of that target market.
Keeping a blog for your company allows you to publish unique posts that are directed to a very specific group of people. You can get into their heads and focus on keywords that exactly relate to their needs. These posts will help you expand the keywords your site ranks for without compromising the integrity of your site.
Blogs help you drive conversions higher.
So if you add focused content, higher traffic and a closer community, what does that mean for you?
If you are strategic and plan things out correctly, that will mean more conversions. The better you get at writing content that delivers for its audience and is properly written for the keywords you're aiming for, the higher conversions you're going to see.
You're stupid (if you don't try a blog on for size).
A blog is a free tool with unlimited potential and very little chance of hurting you.
You're stupid not to try it to see if it works for you.
I hope you've enjoyed today's edition of the Small Business Website Guide for Business Owners. Tune in next time to learn about using Social Media as part of your marketing strategy!