Despite Wired.com declaring that blogging is ‘so 2004’, rumours of it’s demise can safely be said to be premature. The Wired article’s main assertion is that fresh, innovative, genuine content has been drowned out by a "tsunami of paid bilge", that blogs are gunging up the Internet, repositories of junk copy generated through low-rent SEO. Wired insist that the action has moved elsewhere,
They argue that we are now moving beyond blogging - from the blogosphere to the Twitterverse. They also argue that people have neither the time nor the inclination to bother with blogs these days and have moved onto short-form social networking as a more efficient way of communicating, rather than the strung-out and less intimate form of the blog. This seems the logical extension to the ‘my brains have turned to Google’ line, implying that our attention span is now so short that we fail to cope with more than the 140 characters in a Tweet or a one-line status update you see on Facebook.
Nonsense, we say. Twitter and the like work alongside more traditional blogs, complementing them, rather than replacing them. They offer a new, smaller, more intimate communicative space as opposed to blogsphere’s louder more abrasive (on occasions), more open conversational approach.
As SEO specialists, we live by not only working to create relevance, but by enabling the search engines to identify it too. Relevance needs context through informative, useful content. Content is THE critical component of the Internet. Blogs serve to provide the content that the engines assess for relevance. Blogs aren’t going anywhere for a good while yet. Some would insist that even blogs (let alone 140 word tweets) fail to offer the depth and expertise that is necessary to elevate you above the competition.
When Jakob Nielsen refers to in-depth content adding in-depth value, he’s saying that it’s better to write fewer, high quality articles than lots of poorly written blogs. A thousand monkeys writing for 1,000 hours won’t write Shakespeare – they’ll create a thousand random, low quality postings that don't give readers a comprehensive understanding of the topic, “even if those readers suffer through all 1,000 blogs.” He’s got a point. Blogs should be carefully crafted, as should articles, as should all components of your SEO campaign.
The BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones comments, “If blogging is supposed to be a conversation, does it really make sense to take fright when too many of those taking part in the dialogue turn out to have little to say that is either articulate or polite?”
Whilst throughout blogworld there is certainly what seems an endless supply of poorly written pseudo impartial blackholes and vanity publishing disasters, all washed down with anonymous invective, it shouldn’t detract from the fact that some of the most informative and influential content on the web is delivered through blogs. Great writing, great content. It’s the examples of excellence that we should aspire to and be inspired by. It’s these examples that serve as ‘best practice’ examples of how we at SEO Consult ideally like to deliver client blogs. Blogs that gain trust, authority, high search engine placements and huge traffic largely through high quality inbound links - The SEO endgame.
Robert Peston's has seen his blog ‘Peston's Picks’ (which largely covers the current financial crisis) read avidly in the City and at Westminster. It gets an audience of more than 650,000 on some days, and hundreds of comments from readers.
Techcrunch, a blog about dotcom start-ups in Silicon Valley started by Michael Arlington in 2005, has quickly become one of the most influential news websites across the entire technology industry. Business Week named Arrington as one of the 25 most influential people on the web.
Perhaps the most famous blog is Arianna Huffington’s Huffingfton Post. Then there Gizmodo, Engadget and on and on. Is bbc.co.uk a form of blog? It’s certainly got many of the right attributes; it’s well written, well designed, aware of its audience, frequently updated, extensively linked, invites and receives huge audience input. Interesting. Inspiring.
At SEO Consult we apply experience and expert skills to all aspects our client blog strategy. From strategic input, to copy writing, technical development and blog submissions, we support this important aspect of business blogging every step of the way. Blogs, whether blogging or blog outreach (provision of blog content to third party sites), can play a critical role in any marketing strategy, especially when it comes to SEO.
Creating well conceived, well-written blogs revolving around a specific topic and delivered in a natural, honest tone, not only generates additional traffic and brand awareness, but also more importantly provides linking opportunities. Blog outreach when applied empathetically and intelligently is also useful. It is, in effect, the exchange of high quality content, a press release or exclusive video perhaps for high value links. Other bloggers are always looking for good content, so if you have it, share it for links – great for optimisation.
It’s important that clients ‘buy into’ what is trying to be achieved through a blog, that they appreciate the importance of regular updates and the personal touch. A well-written blog uses the writer’s natural voice and is a thing of beauty - gentle, amusing, and more human than other types of writing.
Blogs are a space where many writers and businesses drop the professional formalities and show their human side. We encourage this. Let your readers get to know you and your organization intimately. The closer you are able to be to your audience, the better the experience for all. Engage your audience and interact. Blogging is a conversation: speak to your readers, always keep them in mind and at the centre of everything including the topics you cover, the way you write, what choose to include and what you omit. Make blogs concise and scannable, format using bullet points and include lists that offer useful tips and advice.
Promoting your blog is of course essential for success. It’s important to promote your blog to as many people in your market as possible. You’ll also want to do it as often as possible.
As well as posting linked comments on other popular blogs, comments on UseNet or other Internet message boards or forums or posting press releases and articles, the easiest and most efficient way to promote your blog is through RSS feed and blog submissions to directories.
Not only do we manually submit client blogs and XML site maps to the major search engines - we also make sure we cover the dedicated blog search directories including The Technorati Blog Directory, Boing Boing, Answers, Digg and Feedburner.
Submitting blogs to many of the RSS and blog directories is considerably easier than submitting standard sites, as there are automatic systems in place that allow submissions of updated blog versions to directories without doing any form-filling.
This automatic pinging system for submitting your blog to RSS and blog directories will send the latest update from your blog to all of the largest blog directories.
For more information on SEO Consult’s blog creation, maintenance and distribution as a component of your Internet marketing campaign, contact us anytime. When it comes to blog, development, content generation and promotion, we are delighted to share our vast experience and expertise with you.
