In an age where social media and Internet use continue to grow at blinding rates, many businesses are asking, “Should we start a blog?” It is no surprise that blogs have become more and more popular. In the last two years alone, RSS feed subscriptions have increased from 5% to 7%. (1). Not only that, but blogs are now used by 24% of Internet users, which is up from 13% in 2005, a number which is said to be continuously on the rise.

Prior to logging on and creating your business’ online journal, there are a few things to consider. This is especially true if you are looking to appeal to your customers and generate a good flow of online traffic. Here are some tips, blogging best practices, if you will, that will help you to create a strong foundation for your blog and build buzz for your business.

Be relevant:
Make sure the content ties into your business. The last thing anyone who follows your company wants to read about are topics that are unrelated to your business and its workings.

Find your voice/message:
Do not try and be someone you are not; use your personality, but remain professional. And, when choosing content, be brief and to the point, and include visuals when necessary.

Blog regularly:
In order to keep visitors coming back, it is important to blog regularly. That does not mean you need to blog everyday, which could become exhausting. Blog two to three times per week. An even better idea is to create a blogging schedule by blogging on the same days each week. Your blog’s update frequency will play a major role in the audience following.

Allow for comments:
Blogging is a conversation; it is meant to be two-sided. Be sure to enable comments on your blog. And, if you are worried about spam comments or negative ones, most blog platforms have built-in controls to help you to prevent spam and monitor your comments.

Optimize for search engines:
So, you want to increase traffic? Use relevant keywords in your post titles; link throughout the post when necessary; and write about what your target market will be searching for… use search-friendly keywords.

Get social:
Use social networks, when appropriate to market your blog. Sites like Twitter and Facebook can help to increase traffic flow. Also, link up with other blogs and sites in the same industry as your business. This helps to increase the credibility of your blog.

What’s the next step? Begin to research topics, join social networks and start blogging. The first step in marketing your blog is to start one.

(1) Ketchum and USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center

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With over 76% of web searchers using Google, everyone wants a #1 ranking. The reality is there are no guarantees for that top spot but there are many factors that you can control (free of charge) to optimize your site and set yourself up for success.

With the search engine landscape changing continually, the strategy for improving rankings is constantly in flux. Welcome to the beauty of organic search.

Let’s start by answering the basics.

Wikipedia provides a convenient definition for SEO as the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.

An “optimized” site is when the content and HTML increase relevance to keywords and remove barriers to the indexing activities for engines. The site code is “SEO compliant” in order for the search engine crawlers to easily read the site, understand the most important content and rank you accordingly.

Here’s what you can do to “optimize” your site for positive search engine rankings.

Content – Update relevant content to build authority.
In the SEO realm, content reigns supreme and remains the number one factor to improving rankings. Fresh, original content helps to build authority and trust with the engines and proves that the site is legitimate and knowledgeable.

Meta Tags: Keywords & Descriptions – Put yourself in the searcher’s shoes.
Carefully consider the keywords and key phrases that users will search to find you. Hint: The average web user is not searching by industry jargon. Add these keywords in your site’s page content, meta tag descriptions, alt tags and page title tags.

Keywords and descriptions are implemented both site-wide and per page to help crawlers index the site. Recent research indicates that only the first 10-20 keywords are relevant, so keep it targeted.

Page Title Tags – Improve rankings one page at a time.
Page title tags appear at the very top of the browser window and provide the opportunity to introduce more keywords for crawlers to index. Analyze each page of your site to extract keywords specific to that page and create unique, page-specific title tags.

Bad Example: ESPN – home
Good Example: ESPN – World Leader in Sports

Linking: Internal & External – Link it and the crawlers will come.

Internal Lateral Links
Crawlers are attracted to sites with multiple lateral links. It’s best practice to have at least one link on every page of your site link to another page of the site. Always utilize descriptive words and phrases for links within content to better lead the reader and avoid cryptic conventions such as “click here”.

External Reciprocal Links
Crawlers quickly and easily index sites that have multiple external reciprocal links. The more legitimate sites you link to and have linking to you, the greater relevance you will have with site crawlers.

Alt Tags – Describe your media.
Crawlers cannot read media files. Thus, an alt tag provides a written description of the media on your site (i.e. – videos, documents, images, etc.). This is another way to implement keywords and phrases and enrich site content to improve rankings. Alt tags may also be employed to provide greater descriptions to site links (for buttons, menu items, content text, etc.)

Search Engine Friendly URLs – Keep it simple and logical.
According to Google, friendly URLs should be created with descriptive categories and filenames for the documents on the site in order to keep the site better organized and it could also lead to better crawling of your documents by search engines.

Social Linking & Social Bookmarking – Go social and get seen.
Social media is changing the SEO landscape with networking sites continually popping up in search results. Your presence on these sites strengthens your validity and drives traffic to your site.

Make it easy for users to share your site with their friends in their own way. With relevant content, social bookmarking your site will be a no-brainer.

XML Sitemap – Make your site an open book with no page unturned.
Implement an XML Sitemap in the code (behind the scenes) and allow crawlers to access every page of your site, especially pages that aren’t discoverable by automatically following links.

With a little bit of luck and these simple methods, you are on your way to site optimization. As search engine sites continue to evolve, we will continue to provide tips to get you closer to the coveted #1 ranking on Google.

We all know that some people choose to keep it natural, while others pay to have their “placement” improved.

Surprisingly, web sites work in the same way.

Optimized sites have relevant and effective keywords, as well as habitually changing, quality content. Search engine bots will rank your site organically based on these factors, and place you on the 1st page of search results (Hot damn, you’re a 10), or on the 45th (you might as well not even leave the house, you’re beat).

One option commonly used to make up for one’s natural shortcomings, is (cha-ching) money… and many companies choose to pay to boost their search engine placement through pay-per-click campaigns. No matter how ugly or inapplicable, their sites can appear in top and premium placement for the keywords they choose.

To credit others, paid campaigns are used to help those in oversaturated markets- who may have great, naturally optimized sites, however by pure volume alone cannot make it on the first page (the search engine promise land). Others use them to run specific promotions, advertise a new site awaiting its organic placement, or to test out keywords (as testing through organic measures is significantly slower.)

So just how many “I am good enough, I am smart enough, and gosh darn it people like me”-s does your web site do in the mirror every morning?

A Keyword Discovery can help your web site with a little natural self-improvement. Unfortunately, the days of slapping a long list of keywords throughout your site’s code are over. As Internet users get more savvy in their searches, so do the search engine bots, and the algorithms that determine how desirable your site really is. Google will no longer let you get away with a face that only a mother could love.

Or perhaps you opt for a little nip and tuck– Paradigm can provide recommendations for other SEO/ SEM tactics, as well as manage your online campaigns- to help your site get noticed, turn heads and stop traffic on the almighty “information superhighway.”