So, you have a really great story about your company- perhaps you have a great new product that is going to change the way that people do something. You have a CEO who is attending several charity functions, or you have something about your company that you want to get noticed. You know already by now how to get your press released noticed, but if you want the vast visibility that an online press release can bring- you’re going to need to optimize it properly.

The first thing is the keywords- this is the most important aspect of any optimization task- putting them in the title, summary and somewhere towards the end of the body is good, but you have to make sure that they are natural and flow with the rest of the release. Random keywords out of nowhere are spammy and well, let’s face it that does not make any sense. I’m writing a blog about press releases and if I suddenly throw in a word about catfood, it’s going to be obvious. When I say that though, notice, in the context of this sentence, putting the word there was appropriate- what I mean, and I think we have all seen it- are the random keywords just thrown in here and there that are completely out of context.

So you have the keywords, now you have to work with your anchor text links- that is, if the site you’re distributing from allows them. Ideally, they do- but not all sites are going to give you this so be sure that you have various press releases written, tailored to the sites you are using. You have been through the keywords- and you have those three important ones in the body- so now what? You take them, and use them to link to the target web page using the keywords.

Now I have mentioned the tailor made press releases for the various places you distribute them- but what if you submit the wrong release to the wrong site? No one will ever see it, it likely won’t make it through. You really have to pay careful attention to the sites that you are using for distribution. Editors will want releases that are not only relevant, but present them with the least amount of work for their time. Format correctly, and this should be a given- but run your spell check on it, correct any grammar errors, and be sure that all of your links are appropriate and not broken.

When shopping around for distribution or submission sites, make sure that they are indexed by Google news, and that the sites themselves are already very search engine friendly. If they turn the title of your press release into the URL- and your summary becomes a Meta description, this will work out much better. As I mentioned above- if you want to have more impact, be sure that you are submitting to sites that allow for the anchor text links. You can still submit to the sites that don’t, but this will take your releases and improve your visibility.

Here are a few simple ways you can boost your content in a way that is much more beneficial, both to your potential target audience and for bettering your search engine rankings. These are just a few of the ways I have seen and helped many businesses to overcome the content hump for a much more rounded, user friendly web site.

A Testimonials page- it may seem cliche and cheesy, but the truth is, people want to know that you can do what you say. This is expressed in the knowledge you show in your given field, yes, through the articles and blogs you may have on your site, but also, it never hurts to have a good word in your favor. Things like before and after experiences or just a small handful of people that have used your services and would express how well you performed a given service for them can be a big boost. If you’re selling products, this can be anything from the quality of the product to how well your customer service operates. Longer user testimonials make for great blog entries.

Another way that you can make your users feel not only welcomed but important while at the same time boosting content? Think about having an on site forum- but be careful it is well moderated. Allow users to add photos of their family, or photos of your business, products, or even happy, smiling photos of the client with your employees after the fact. These are wonderful to go up on Facebook as tagged photos, as well.

On the same concept, you can also work in a Questions and Answers page. This is no regular FAQ or Frequently Asked Questions section at all- though having one of those is always good content. What this is, is an opportunity for your potential clients or even your existing clients to ask the things they want to know, and for you to answer- and in doing so, obtain much needed content for your site. If you are working with social media networking, both of these things can be powerful to link to throughout your blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter and more. If you are using a blog, or perhaps even a forum, these are great places to announce your Questions and Answers, but also consider a “Contact Us” page with a special drop down tab purely for the purpose of this.

While we are on the topic of social media networking- consider a calender of events and use it. Even if it is just educational events you’ll be attending for your given field, a calender of events is a great peek into the inner workings of your business. This again works particularly well if your business is active in local charities, or if you frequently attend betterment conventions and the like. Any thing that you can display as a sign of your business’ commitment to both the community and your clients is a wonderful thing to add to the list- whether your visitors can attend these functions or not.

When you are optimizing your blog for both the search engines, and the users- you find that this combination is a definite win. You can make it easier for your viewers to come back to your blog, to get into discussions and also, help them not have to deal with the complications and other issues that your competitor sites may have. There are quite a few ways to do this, and understanding that getting those repeat visitors is what makes the difference. These are the ones who become your blog following, and those who will be more likely to share the information that they find. You really don’t have to compromise optimizing for search and optimizing for user at all. Just follow these tips and you will find that it all comes together nicely for better traffic.

First of all, if you have a really heinous color thing going on, it has to go. You may think that a bold, brightly colored site is sure to catch attention when in fact, all it really does is make it hard to read your site. This is particularly true of blogs and forums. This is one of those areas though that really depends on the products and services you provide. However, if you want to look professional, softer shades, earth tones and complimenting color schemes generally work out much better than hot colors and brightly lit text. When you’re working on how to set your blog  up, do consider going with a different design. Plain templates blogs may be easier, but they are not all that appealing- either hire someone on to make it unique or look for some of the different templates out there that are available.

If you are not RSS available and you want your blog to be spread- make sure that you have it done. If your blog site doesn’t automatically enable this, you can add it yourself- it’s fairly easily done, and this will make it so that you can put the link where people ca find it. Put it together with the rest of your side bar information and this makes it much easier for your users to access that, and to subscribe to your blog. Once you do this, make sure that you have those big, orange RSS buttons. They may not go with your site theme colors, but that’s what people usually look for- and the one click ease with which they make subscribing definitely helps. Also bear this in mind for things like connecting via Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets. Also put in a place where they can subscribe to your posts via email- because not everyone wants to deal with RSS, and some prefer to receive posts in this manner.

Of course, there are always the requisites- make sure that you have paragraph breaks to break up long points, use spell check, and are careful if you share links that they are active links. All too often a good post with a great supporting link is derailed by a broken link.
These are just a couple more ways that you can optimize your blog working with both the searches and the user experience.

When done correctly a blog can bring a dedicated audience to build upon and share expertise, information, ideas and content.  Blogs will also boost awareness of your company and brand.  If done incorrectly, however, customers will be left feeling dissatisfied and ready to run to your competitor.  Here I will share a few ways to leverage a blog.

Make friends out of your consumers.
Promote your company, product or service by creating a blog that features how to advice, new and other information of interest to you customers.  Through your blog visitors can post testimonials, feedback, questions, comments and participate in surveys.  By taking an informal, non-sales approach, a company can interact with customers, gain useful feedback and build an audience that can be directed to the company’s website or store.

Provide customer support.
You can supplement your company’s existing technical support and customer service with an online forum for customers to openly post questions.  Employees can update and maintain this type of blog, and users can feed it with comments and also tap into the knowledge of other users by reading questions from the past and interacting in the forum.  When done correctly this type of blogging can dramatically cut the cost of technical support and customer service.  You can even check the comments section for the most frequent users, and they can be recruited as bloggers to further increase you blog’s content.  They can also be asked to host certain threads to encourage dialogue on topics that need a little extra care.

Increase credibility.
A blog is an ideal tool to position yourself as an expert in your field.  By sharing your thoughts, knowledge, experience and insight your expertise will shine.  Obtaining expert status can increase your earning potential, make it easier to land a new job or promotion, and help attract new customers.

Gain exposure.
You can ask independent bloggers to write reviews and articles about your company.  Having your information published on different blogs will build your legitimacy and exposure.  Also it is often faster and easier for a business to get blog content listed with the major internet search engines than it would be with traditional website content.

Target your audience
Before you invest time and money you should clearly define your potential blogs goals and objectives and then determine your exact target audience.  Figure out what you will offer that is unique or that will set your blog apart.  Make sure you have enough potential content to keep your blog continuously updated and fresh.

Figure out how you will drive a steady flow of traffic to your blog and build its audience.  Properly and creatively promoting a blog on an ongoing basis is extremely important for building an audience.  For many bloggers this often is their biggest challenge.  Having unrealistic expectations about how quickly and easily you will be able to drive traffic to a fresh and new blog is one of the biggest reasons by bloggers fail.

Only, not so much. If you are wanting your link campaigns to grow- there are a few things you need to do. I have mentioned networking with bloggers and other things- but there’s also a vital aspect to all of this that you should probably consider if you’re wondering why all of your efforts to get those back links has not worked out for you- is your content worth linking to in the first place? Quality is something that is longstanding. You may be able to work with the search engine spiders based on the quality of your site, but you have to have a very good quality content, updated regularly to back that up. More and more of the searches are checking links, and checking other factors as well- so just having random smatterings of things that don’t really matter is well on its way to being a thing of the past. More and more are adopting better, more ethical white hat techniques as opposed to the days where you’d find page after page of random words just repeated over and over.

There are no short cuts in search engine optimization, unfortunately. A good, long term SEO campaign will be something on going- a combination of know how, expertise and excellent content and networking. It is not as easy as it looks, and understanding that it will take a little time is important. Anyone who tells you that it will happen overnight, is likely not employing proper technique and will end up doing you more harm than good- this is where SEO transparency comes in, industry wise- most of us will tell you, this is going to take a little time, and there will need to be some effort- this is for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it’s not ethical to lay it all out there as though everything is going to just be effortless and quick. For another, if you’re really wanting true results- you know that already. What most of my clients ask for are not just quick, one shot deals- they, much like anyone else, want to be able to gain the traffic, the conversions, and the sales or new clients they need and they don’t want that to just happen once, no. You want something that is on going- and that is something that ethical search optimization can in fact provide.

One of the cornerstones of this, is quality content. Sure, a huge volume of updates will give your site a quick boost- but if that content is lacking and does not give the reader what they came for, it’s not going to be anything that is consistent or strong. It’s definitely not going to result in those sales and new clients. I think the key thing to remember is, is that it is about much more than simply getting your page ranked high- it’s about visibility. This leads to you being able to convey a message. Thinking along those lines, consider the message that you are conveying with your content.

One area that many people do not think too much about when they are just starting out with SEO is copy. This is something that is usually a beginner mistake- but it’s one that can cost you if you’re not paying careful attention to it. Sure, good copy gets your site indexed, but it also defines your site, makes you stand out in a way that personalizes- and furthers your transparency. When it comes to marketing online- transparency is quickly becoming something that has a vast amount of importance in and of its own right.

When writing your copy, you’ve got to think like an advertiser, without being an advertiser. That doesn’t make sense until you realize that you have to be able to have all of the products or services you’re wanting to provide- represented well. These should then be sort of keyworded, and linked to the relevant pages on the site itself. While you have to have all of this information- it still has to be done in such a way that someone could end up on your landing page, give it a quick skim and know what the main points of interest are. If it’s too long, you will lose their interest and they will simply move on to a site where the information they came for is more easily accessible. People are often seeking out the phrases and the words that stand out to them- the things they want to see, or at least a quick way to get to that portion of your site. One way to work with this is in making sure that your titles and headers are properly optimized.

Balancing your keywords within your copy is a crucial aspect of all of this- again, not too much, but not too little, and where are all important factors. If you are writing decent, clean copy that accurately depicts what it is you’re trying to convey, you should not have a problem. Keyword placement will usually be pretty natural to what you are writing about. However, there’s another thing to consider- link baiting. Even if you are not blogging, link baiting is something that needs to be heavily considered in good copy. When your viewers finish reading the text on your pages, they need to have something they take away with them- this may be just some facts they didn’t already know, or maybe just the next steps they should take. But it has to be something that is useful and puts you ahead of all of the others in your industry- something they will think about. So, much like link baiting, this is similar- you’re working on getting the person reading your site to want something, be that more information or a product. Essentially, your copy needs to answer the question: Why would someone want to buy/utilize your services? It should also contain distinct wording that sets it apart from competitor sites, with a clean, clear message and only the bare minimum of keywords used in order to optimize properly.

The guys at WordPress weren’t messing around when they designed their software. It’s pretty clear that they had a firm understanding of search engine optimization and made it so that it was very accessible. However, if you feel like your WordPress based blog is not quite getting all the traffic it could be, here are a few tips to help you get your blog just a bit more in line with you campaign.

Make sure that the theme of your blog actually goes along with the W3C standards. Wait- what are those? That is a really, really long explanation which I can sum up rather easily- as far as a theme goes, you want one that is very accessible. The more accessible it is, the more favorably you’ll see your blog picked up with search engines. When you’re working with that theme, also consider the placement of your content- this is all going to have to be within the structure of the site, but you have some control. Keep your content code fairly close to your opening tag. (That would be the <body> tag.)

On the subject of that content, you have to make sure that your titles and categories use headings- this will tell the searches that they’re a bit more important than the text around them. You can find a little bit about the technical aspects of doing this here. (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/override-post-title-with-first-content-heading/)

As you know, the easier it is for your pages to be crawled, the quicker your pages get indexed. There’s a great plug in for that- Google Sitemaps. This helps you to have an XML sitemap for your Wordpress blog. It’s also supported by yahoo, Bing, Ask, and of course, Google.

Another great thing that you can check out, is the WordPress Optimization Cheat Sheet. You can find this here: (http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Optimization/Cheat_Sheet)

And lastly, it all comes down to content again. A blog, like any other sort of site, requires frequent updating- not only because of the search engines, but blog readers like to see that things are routinely updated. So, adding new content in a consistent way is smart on both ends. You can still go ahead and put a couple of keywords in each blog, while still making it flow and be easier for people to read. Some people advise that you sort of stockpile blog posts, that is- perhaps think about your particular niche and if there are some things that you feel are pretty routinely asked about, blog about them ahead of time. Compile a batch of blogs that are all about the basics of whatever industry you happen to be in, the history of it, and so forth- this is a good thing to have on hand, and if there’s nothing really new going on, you have something to update with. This is also very good for those working with more do it yourself sorts of SEO campaigns because if you’re also running your company- you may not always have time to sit down and jot out a blog about current events. I’d still recommend doing so, but if you’ve got a day or two where you just don’t have time, it’s taken care of.

You’ve been blogging for a while, you mostly enjoy the experience.  You are getting some links, traffic is steadily growing…but you start to think about it and realize that blogging eats a lot of your time, and while you enjoy it, you are just not getting paid for it.  Yet.  It’s time to bring on some advertisers, and make this blogging thing work for you. I’m going to tell you how to integrate advertising into your blog so that it’s easy to run, and how to make it more attractive and desirable to advertisers.

The first thing you need to do is make your blog attractive to advertisers.  You are probably wondering how do you do that.  Well there are a couple of steps.  The first thing an adverstiser wants to see are some traffic stats.  You can use a service like Quancast for traffic and demographic information, they will also give you a nice little embeddable iframe that you can put up on your blog.

You will also want to show how many RSS subscribers you have.  You can use feedburner and they will also give you an embeddable chicklet you can put on your blog.  Unfortunately feedburner has a tendency to be less than reliable.  Numbers will sometimes vary by several thousand, so just be aware of that.

The next thing is that you are going to want to set up an analytics report that just shows the number of page views and unique visitors.  This is something you can mail to the people who want more information.  I would suggest putting all of this information on a “advertising information” page, with a contact form so that advertisers can get in touch.

Once you have and can prove you have the traffic they want, the next item on the agenda is creating a space that is advertiser friendly.  Blogger Patrick Gavin wrote a great post on blog advertising, I suggest you read it as he does a stellar job of explaining it from an advertiser’s point of view.  But to simplify, what an advertiser wants is traffic that is on target for their market, and prime real estate for their ads.  If you are going to offer 125 buttons they better be above the fold!  Masthead ads are okay, but the more you can integrate them the better.  Leaderboard ads above the mast head are pretty much useless.  Leaderboard ads in the top or bottom of the post are much more attractive.

As a publisher you want two things, ads that are easy to set up and take down.  And you don’t want to have to keep running after people to pay you.  The easiest way I have found to handle invoices is using paypal monthly subscriptions, it auto bills advertisers every month, and they can cancel whenever they feel like it.  The Ad Rotate plugin seems to be the most flexible in the way of managing and setting up advertising.  After the plugin is installed, set up the “banner groups” this will give you the ability to set aside certain areas and assign ads to them.

While I hate to admit it, my dirty little secret is that I’ve been unsubscribing from SEO blogs for the past few months.  Last week the total number of marketing blogs I read dropped below ten.  I think the time has come for an intervention here.

You need to ask yourself, “Is my blog boring people?”  And if it does, you have to decide upon a course of action to change it!  Making your blog not suck may take a while.  There’s no blog magic to apply.  However I am asking you to examine some things about your blog, through these inquiries I hope you can get to the root of the issue, and start the long road to recovery.

How do you measure your blogs success?  There are many measurements to take, traffic, page views, user engagement, links, comments, RSS subscribers.   It is okay, not great but okay, if one or two of these measurements flatlines or drops.  However if most of them have turned south, you have a serious blog problem on your hands.
What is your writing style?  What topics are you writing about?  Are you writing about things that are definitely of interest to your readers and your community?  Do you know how to stay on topic and make your point?

Are you engaging the community?  You have got to interact with your readers.  Do you have discussions in the comments/  Are you engaging people in twitter, and not just looking for retweets?  Show the community through your writing that you are a real person.

Are you a helpful person?  Are you making tutorials that instruct people on how to do something?  Are you taking questions from the community and answering them?  Do you pay it forward?

Do you publish regularly enough?  You don’t need to post something every day, but you do need to publish enough that people don’t forget you exist.
What’s your timing like?  Are you posting at such a time when your community of readers are most likely to be at their computers?  Remember if you wait until night fall to post, today’s news is already ancient history.

Are you capable of stepping outside of your comfort zone?  Can you challenge those you think are wrong?  Are you willing to own your opinion, sharing even though not every one will agree?

Do you give them eye candy?  Use pictures not only to meet a visual quota, but good pictures make a post better.

Are you innovative?  Do you evolve and improve how you do business?  Do you try new methods and techniques?  Do you write about those experiences?
What are you doing to be interesting, to be worth reading.  What about your blog is going to stand out to someone in your community of readers and make them stay long enough to read your latest post and continue to come back for more?

If all else fails, if you don’t feel like blogging anymore, if you want out of the bloggosphere…delete your blog.  Make room for interesting reads.

Almost everyone out there has started a blog, and this is one of those areas where you either do really well, or you don’t- and there are very few that are in between. If you don’t think that there are some major players in corporate blogging, first have a look. The following is a list of just a few corporate blogs that I know about:
Google:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

Dell:

http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/

Linkdn:

http://blog.linkedin.com/

Wal Mart (No kidding, Wal Mart has a blog):

http://www.checkoutblog.com/

Bank of America:

http://futurebanking.bankofamerica.com/

McDonalds:

http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/csr.html

I could probably keep going, if you wanted, but you get the idea. Blogs aren’t just for small businesses or online only places. How are these blogs making it work? Well, here are a few ideas to get you started in corporate blogging.

•It’s not ALL about you- make sure that you are not making the blog to only talk about the services or products that you provide. You might be trying to boost your sales or get your name out there, but this is dull. It’s boring, it’s dull and honestly, only a select few people enjoy a solid stream of information in that way. The success stories that you see not only talk about themselves, but they also talk about things that matter to a broader range of people. For instance, let’s have a look at the Whole Foods blog- since I did not mention that, the link is:

http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/

Now, you will note that the very first blogs on the page are not so much about Whole Foods- no, these are human interest stories- things that matter to a great number of people. Scrolling around the site a bit, you can see that there are not only recipes, there are stories about the FDA regulations, stories about Haiti, health and many other topics mingled in with deals and information about Whole Foods. This is smart for several reasons, from an SEO standpoint- these are high trend topics in the search engines, these are things that really do catch people’s attention. From a branding perspective, these showcase a caring, very involved company.

•Focus, people. This one may seem counter intuitive to the first point, but it isn’t. What is the message you intend to convey, the image of the company you’re looking to promote. For attorneys, you may want to blog about advocacy from time to time, you may want to add a bit of what you give to the community. Whole Foods’ blog may seem to run a gauntlet of information- but, it all has a common factor. This is a health food store- the topics are all about health food, healthy living, food in general, and yes, they throw in charitable causes for good measure- but it’s all very relevant to the image they wish to project, the theme of their business. Basically what you need to do with a blog is to ensure that you’re giving the reader what they came for.

There is a bit more to it than simply posting the content on your site or simply having a blog. There are a number of different ways that you can also fatten up your search engine optimization. When you write articles that are interesting, informative and above all- well written, you can create something that is actually worth reading. That probably sounds like it goes without saying- but have you had a look at some of the content that is out there, these days? I have an entire blog about the nonsense articles you see and why you see them, but, for now, let’s stick to some of the other ways you can get your content out there, your brand recognized and known, and more importantly- your message to a wider audience.

First of all, as I said- having the content on your own site is the first and best way you can begin to delve into some basic do it yourself optimization. However, if you’re wanting to reach out to an even wider audience, you may want to consider submitting your articles and content to some of the directories out there. There are literally hundreds of article directories out there, either free or paid that you can submit them to. When these are published, they make the articles available to various outlets, and once your content is in the applicable category, those who are seeking the information you have- get it. So, you do reach out to your target audience in a better way. Most of these directories are fairly high ranking themselves, so, in this it has some merit, as well.

Another thing is a bit of B2B networking. If you’ve come across a site that seems to be in line with the message you’re sending- there is no harm in sending them an email and letting them know about your article. Sometimes, you can work this out so that you get a link back to your own site- just a brief write up on another site, and a link to yours, for a double impact.

Some people also use email lists for this- while you can’t really customize your work, there, you can, however get it sent out on a wider scale. This one can be a little bit tricky because when you’re using email lists, there tends to be a great deal of duplicate content issues- so, you have to be sure that you have different articles on each of the web sites that you intend to promote through email lists.

One of the best tools for spreading your brand far and wide is definitely the “resource box”. If you have ever been reading a really great article, and you have come to the bottom of the page- there you find the author of the article, a brief little bio, and a bit about where they work and a link or contact information, you have seen a resource box. Consider making sure that yours stands out when you decide to submit your articles to any medium.

As you well know by now, there are all types of content out there. You also know that content is king- if you glance around any SEO forum or blog, that’s the thing you’ll see repeated over and over. And, I just repeated it here. It’s vital to the success of your web site that you continually update with regular, fresh content. It’s not only for the search engines- but for your users also. As far as it goes, though, writing out content takes time. Many people may be great salespeople, lawyers, doctors, you name it- but they may just not be inclined towards writing. That’s pretty normal in and of itself. It’s usually not all that hard to optimize things, but wow. Three articles every other day, or a few blogs every day, and you begin to sort of go cross eyed whenever whatever program you use to begin text based content comes up. Even those of us who do write quite a bit, are sometimes stuck for what to write about, but, there’s a way around this and that way is user generated content. This is beneficial for a few reasons.

Think about it. You’re trying to build fruitful and profitable relationships with a target audience. The internet has shown us time and time again, that people want to be heard. Giving your web site visitors a chance to do that is great. It makes them feel as though you value their opinions in an even bigger way. It also generates content for you so that you can be doing other things. Granted, you cannot depend on user generated content for all of your needs, it can definitely help. It’s especially a good idea because whenever someone does something like this, they want to show it off. Instant back links. It’s a different sort of approach that has worked well for a number of people and businesses.

Many businesses have things like polls on their sites, or question and answer sections- these are all incredibly intelligent choices as they encourage the user to participate while at the same time, can display your know how and understanding of your niche. This also answers questions and, if when you’re putting it together for the site, you happen to frame those questions perhaps a bit long tail- you’ve got a winner.

You might be sitting there asking, “Well, what would my web site visitors possibly be able to say about my business/industry/etc?” You’d be pretty amazed, and you’d also be interested to know, if your business participates in anything charitable, you’ve got a shot right there for a marketing campaign that really pops. For instance, say your business is a regular supporter of Habitat For Humanity. Your employees or partners are often on site helping out, you even just donate a bit of money- however you handle it. If there were an incentive to participate, say, by a contest on your blog- there you go. Not only do you get to help out your great cause in a powerful way by raising funds and awareness, you will have people participating on your site.

eMarketer recently released a survey that showed that fifty eight of the United States internet users would be reading blogs on a regular basis within three years, which is a twenty percent jump over the current total. By that same time frame, there is an estimated thirty percent increase in users that will be blogging- which means people will be talking. Think about it, they are out there. Your target audience. Talking about, discussing, and waiting to hear input- possibly already hearing input from the competition. It’s important to get your head in the game when it comes to the blogosphere. These are people that talk about the things important to them, and if they are talking about issues with, or benefits of your industry, it seems intelligent to pay attention.

The first step in any blog related marketing strategy is to find out if and where your business is being discussed. There are a few ways to do this, and if you use the methods that I’ve discussed before to measure social networking analytic, you can use the same to find out if your company already has a reputation brewing online. If you do find that there are some bloggers discussing your company in a favorable light, those are the ones that you want to focus on, not the negative ones. Curry favor with those who already seem to appreciate your business, and you will have much of the battle against those who don’t already won.

Be sure to pay attention to the posts where your company’s been mentioned and respond politely, but there’s a right way to go about this, as well. You need to identify yourself and explain a little bit about who you are within the business and why you’re reading the post. Go through the post, addressing things as you see them written, but leave out anything extra- stay on topic. Thank the blogger for their post, and then, offer to answer any questions, answering those promptly. If you are keeping a list, subscribe, keep aware of what is going on and be very open to talking to bloggers.

You’ll find that the more receptive you are, offering interviews, announcements and the like- the more exposure you gain. This is one very powerful yet free means of taking advantage of the free flow of information that the internet has supplied. The very last and most important aspect of engaging the bloggers is this: don’t only do it once. Make sure that you are open to questions, comments and continually on top of things.

Give them something to talk about and they will, it’s obvious to any one who has ever either had a blogger unhappy with their service or exceptionally happy- word travels fast, particularly if you’ve engaged an already popular blogger with a big following. The two options for doing this are mass emails which nine times out of ten just annoy the bloggers, or, you can do this the right way and enjoy the benefits of a well played blog move.

Everywhere you look on the internet, it seems like someone has a blog. There are a variety of them for almost any niche you can think of. Did you know that blog is actually just a shortened way of saying weblog? And the concept of blogging isn’t new. They’ve been around for quite some time and they are a tremendously valuable source of not only information, but cost effective marketing gold. With so many people out there having blogs, generally, if a website doesn’t have one, people wonder why. There are many reasons that any industry can utilize a blog, and not all of them just relate to search engine optimization. This has in fact become so important that there are even blogging consultants out there to help businesses set up, maintain and continue to publish blogs on their websites and off site.

One of the key benefits to having a blog is because this makes for another thing for search engines to pick up on- but not only that, this puts your site in different directories, as well throughout the blogosphere. You end up with a great deal of extended reach, and furthers your own sort of voice, helps your business to connect with clients, customers and potential clients and customers in a much more beneficial way than before. As to optimization, you have to look at a couple of benefits here- for one thing, almost every blog interface is its own content management system, so first off, blogging is easy. It may look a little daunting at first, but set up is generally minimal and can be done without the aid of a web guru. Going from that, then you realize as you look at the newly set up blog- the URL structure is remarkably simple. This makes it easier for search engines to index them. Again, the fresh content issue is resolved here because if your site’s got a blog, and you update it regularly, the search engines really like that, but also, so do your readers- this results in repeated hits. Consider also what happens when you have written a blog that makes people think, or even something that just gets people talking. Blogs are conversational in tone, so this is much more likely to happen- and that is when you get viral marketing help, inbound links and the like.

For business that have a very specific niche, or perhaps a specific service or product, blogs are a competitive way of connecting with that audience that not many seem to understand or grasp yet. When you consider your business, think about the sorts of questions that your clients have- and then consider how many people all over actually have those same basic questions. These things, when answered in informative blogs, really show integrity and a know how of your given field. This isn’t to say that you should not be careful, after all, this is still something connected to your business, and more casual or not, you have to maintain your professionalism- depending on what you do this may be more important in some instances. But if you have a business, and your web site does not yet have a blog, you may really be missing out on some very important search engine marketing options that you could easily update on your own, at any time.

If you own a small business, you know that sometimes, when you’re working on your public relations, press releases can lend a big boost to exposure. However, sometimes, it can be hard to get the media to pick up your press release- and this is a problem that quite a few business owners have run up against when trying to initiate publicity in this way. There are a number of things that you can do to get your small business press releases out there, seen and picked up.

Your headline needs to be absolutely finely crafted, with a skill that any popular writer would envy. This means you need to make sure that it is clear, its concise, but it draws someone in. If you are working with search engine optimization, you are going to need to also balance leading keywords with your company name. When you send the press release to the media, themselves, however, you have to remove the keyword, and then focus on making the headline simply grabby. Sound confusing? It can be. The headline is typically the area that causes public relations professionals the greatest amount of headache. How do you sound newsy, but still interesting? Make sure that if you had a look at your title, you’d want to read it. Does it seem interesting, does it make you curious about what the rest of the story may have to say? On the topic of keywords, don’t try using them for releases you intend to send to the media. Just don’t. They will notice those and shut you down faster than you can click the red x at the top right of your screen. Marketing in the virtual world means usually making two different releases- one for the actual press, and one that is search engine optimized for other submissions. So, classic style press releases to the media, optimized ones for the internet at large.

You’re pitching, but you aren’t. When you’re writing press releases for the media, steer clear of any sort of sales talk. Sure, you may be announcing something big, but there is nothing the media detests more than a thinly veiled sales pitched trying to pretend it is a press release. And, believe me, they think that all sales pitches are thinly veiled. I cannot stress this enough, make sure that you write your press release in a way that says “news”, that confidently conveys something- but is not a sales pitch. There are very few ways that will send your press release to the trash faster.

Adding meaningful and significant quotes to your press releases will also make them stand out. Sometimes, the media won’t use the entire release, but if there is a quote there that is powerful- they will pull that out and use it. This is always a good thing, so, when you’re writing your media press release, consider taking a minute to compose a meaningful thought, or to obtain one from your CEO or business owner.

The talk of why content is so important wears on- there’s always room to discuss the why and how’s of content supply, but how do you make sure that the content you have works for your search engine optimization program? There are a few key things to remember when you are creating content, and I tend to lean towards user friendliness, making it so that it’s readable and that the visitors to your site can actually use it. However, there are a few ways that you can make sure that you are also making it enticing to search engine spiders and therefor helping your rank. You do not have to sacrifice the user friendly experience in order to do this, and you can balance both.

All too often, people are not sure where to start. There’s good reason- there are numerous changes you can make to a web site’s content and sometimes, it’s hard to figure out what to do first. However, there are a few basic things that can help you to get started. Beginning with the webmaster- you have to decide what you need to do to improve your position in the search engine rankings. Having a look, first at keyword research- which is another area I talk about quite a lot. When you look into your particular niche, consider your competition, the most requested terms, and you will generally be able to identify which key words are used by the audience you are looking to target. Of course, as is often said- you have to use it in the title and meta tags, definitely, but also, it’s vital to use them on the page itself. After all, it’s the words on that page you’re wanting to get positioned, isn’t it? Getting right down to the very base of things: just make sure you’re using the keywords you want to target in your text often enough.

I think everyone wants to have a really excellent site where it just stands out. The problem here is that when you throw in so many graphics and even when there is a great deal of text on the pages, so many people forget or fail to put the search terms they want to rank with. Take for example, if you sell cherry cheesecake. You’re wanting to get rankings for the terms, “cherry cheesecake”- so, of course this would be a keyword phrase you’d use, right? All too often, that’s not the case, and the text will read “home baked goods from the heart”- which is nice, it’s appealing, but not to the spiders. You can balance this, with the user friendly experience by targeting “cherry cheesecake” even still. You just can’t achieve the kind of results you’re looking for unless you’re utilizing fairly consistent and frequent use of the term, “cherry cheesecake”, though. Using exact terms is important. Even if you’re working with longtail, “the best home baked cherry cheesecake” nails your target keyword phrase, and, may be something users are looking for exactly- all at the same time.

As I mentioned before, blogging can be a fairly casual sort of communication with your target audience. This does not mean, however, that you need to let your guard down and be anything less than professional. Making sure that your blog is still grammatically correct, and spelled properly, is important, and what you write about, equally so. If you are careful to ensure that your blog is sharp, but more in the vein of being witty or clever, but also, reflecting your business and the reputation you wish to convey, your blog can be a great tool.

In order to do that, you will want to be able to follow some other blogs that are in line with your own business. Industry blogs work well for this, surf around and find the blogs of others in your field, commenting and interacting. If you develop some good relationships via networking this way, it really helps- because when you comment on others’ blogs, they tend to return the favor as long as you aren’t leaving spam links behind with cut and paste responses. Make sure that your comments are relevant, genuine and thought out. You really don’t need to be sort of hounding people for links or putting them in where they aren’t all that appropriate, but one of the great things about being new to the blogging world is- people love to give advice. If you post to someone’s blog because it is similar to one you have posted, asking for constructive critiques, you can not only get some needed pointers and advice, but you can drive a little traffic your way in doing so.

You need to also pay attention to who visits your blog and what they say. You can do this via just paying attention to the comments you receive, but also, using tools like Google Analytics can help this out a great deal. This will tell you also what pages they visit most, and that can help you to sort of craft things in a similar way so that you are continuing to appeal to that audience. Another good thing to do is openly encourage discussion. Offer incentives for discussions like how to guides or question and answer sections. Make sure that you are openly engaging your audience to discuss matter relevant to your business. As you do this, you can also use polls- this is one of the most powerful ways to not only encourage discussion, but also to gain insights into what it is that appeals to your audience most.

Understanding that your blog may not be an overnight success will help, too. It’s fairly easy to get caught up in the vast amounts of people who are excited about the medium- it’s a very good way to obtain the needed content for updating your site, appeal to your audiences, and to better communicate, yes, but it can be a slow moving one. It takes a little more time than more traditional forms and if you are continuing to post regularly and keep up with things- you’ll begin to see progress.

I’ve talked a little bit about mondo times and about how to reach out to press outlets- but what about how to write a press release that really gets some attention? How do you make sure that those lists you make, the releases you send appeal to the news outlets and get some notice? There are a few key elements to crafting a press release that just pops- whether you are doing it for print or for the internet. You can write a press release that is sure to get the point across and open the door to future releases being accepted and distributed more freely.

Make it relevant to the current news climate- if your point isn’t so much newsworthy, you can almost always find a way to tie it into a current event that matters to people. This is a very easy way to find your “in”. An example, if your business is engaged in things for the social good of your community, bringing up a few statistics to show why that’s important will help.

Look in the paper. Figure out which headlines gain the most notice- and this is where a little online legwork can make a big impact. Most online news sources enable commenting on their stories- craft your headlines in a similar way to the ones that get the most comments. Capture a really compelling tone.

You can’t say it enough- who, what, when, where, why, and how. You don’t have to adhere to any real ordering on that, but it’s always good to begin with the why- why your product or service helps, why it is needed, why the event your company is attending, hosting, or anything to that effect is needed.

Standard press release template is that the next paragraphs are the “what”, but often times, that’s a little hard to disseminate- if you can blend and flow a bit, it makes it easier on the reader to digest. Short, sweet and to the point with your sentences and paragraphs. Closing it out with where the event, sale or base is tends to be good, because it brings it all to a closing point that is actually a call to action.

When you are writing a press release, do not use promotional language- you’re writing news, you’re not “marketing”. Avoid sounding like a sales pitch. Including quotes and statistics usually works well for “promoting without sounding promotional”.

From an online perspective, when you do include your contact information, always be sure to include a website address. Closing out your press release- here are a couple of practical tips- keep it at one page, end with ### to indicate the close of the release. Be sure that you send it to the correct editor, and always confirm the method they prefer delivery. Not all will accept faxes, so when in doubt, ask. It doesn’t do you much good to create a great press release if the press outlet is not going to accept it, and you’d be surprised at how many good releases are never seen due to it being sent in incorrect format.

I started thinking about how if you look around, you will find that most sites and advisers will tell you that updating your content regularly is very important. It is, that is true, I have said so myself. More than that, though, how often should you be updating your website content? Once a day? Once a week? Once a month? If you really do not have time to add relevant content to your website, you can always look into hiring an outside content writer. This is a really intelligent move and most businesses do end up doing this. Short side note, though, it is sometimes difficult to find a content writer that is reliable and will be in it for the long haul, let alone an inexpensive one that can put together some readable sentences. If you do go with an outside content writer, it is always a really good idea to remember the old maxim and make sure you’re getting samples before you hire on that too good to be true writer at that seemingly low price. If you are dealing with a less than ethical or nonprofessional, chances are good that the rates will match the quality, in most cases and professional writers that will provide great content for low prices are very hard to come by.

As to updating the content, there are a few things to consider about this, but the truth is, you should update the content on your site as often as possible. Be that the blog you keep, or the actual site articles themselves, this is the key to keeping your ranking. Look at it this way- have you ever seen one of those spinning wheels at the carnival? Look at the internet as a spinning wheel. The individual sites, those are the colored sections, the triangles that you’re aiming for with the dart- and the search engine spider is the dart. So, would you want only one little sliver of a red triangle, or do you want to have half or more of that circle covered, so that the dart hits? The more you update your content, the more the search engine spider grabs your site and this is a big part of getting your rankings higher, yes, but also in keeping them there. Many people use blogs and RSS feeds for this, but the best way is to have quality keyword seeded content, articles that have been professionally written in such a way that both the search engine spiders love them, but the users who land on your page can read them as well.

Content, like anything else in marketing, is an investment and it is a vital one. In a more assertive search engine marketing plan, updating content sometimes three times a week is seen to improve search engine rankings, and that is the answer. If you are wanting to see your site move up in the rankings, you have to be assertive and aggressive, and updated content is a big factor in that.

Writing for the web is very different than writing for regular publication. The internet puts a wealth of information at people’s fingertips, so they expect information in an instant. Being able to provide that information in a quick, easy to read way is not always as easy as you may think. Understanding the difference between a blog- that is, something written in a conversational way, and actual web content and articles is important. I’ve gone into that before, but what is the basic structure to good web content? I thought I would go into that a bit in this blog. Understanding how most people use the web is important and as you create content you have to bear in mind a few things. You usually only have about 10 seconds to get their attention and then only 55 seconds to keep it and maintain interest. Bearing that in mind, think about what you’re going to write, before you write it. Sometimes, creating an outline prior can help, especially if you have a lot to write.

First of all- keep it short. Small words, short sentences, and paragraphs. Usually, it is a good idea to stick to only one idea per paragraph, but if you can blend them well, do so. If not, break it up into a few paragraphs. If you have an article or press release you plan to use in print and online- you only want to use about half the word count for the online version. It is also a better idea to open with the main idea, and then, sort of spread your point out, rather than building up to it. Also, using objective language can be a plus, just be sure you don’t sound overly promotional or as though you are trying to pitch a sale. Steering clear of promotional talks, exaggerated claims and really flowery, prosy sort of writing is usually best, and keeping it simple helps.

A few notes about format, you may want to highlight text, perhaps bold key points and definitely use lists and bullet points. Make sure that your headlines and subheadings are all very valid to the point, witty without being cute, and sharp. Think back to that usability survey by Nielson I posted- he did point out that 79 percent of all users on the internet scan rather than read word for word. Headlines and bullet points, as well as eye catching subheaders and lists are the way to get them to stop and read what you have to say.

The best advice that I can give, whether you’re working with a blog or with regular articles and content, is to read it back to yourself. If you find yourself lapsing into monotone and unable to digest what you’re reading, try paring it down a bit more. Especially when it comes to informative articles, keep it clean and concise and you’ll find that people respond to it that much better.