maine web development, web design, internet marketing

It’s that time of the day (or week) that you’ve set aside in your busy schedule to compose your next blog post.  After exhausting all possible excuses and finding other things to do, the time to write has come.  You’ve racked your brain.  You’ve been keeping up with other blogs and news articles in your industry.  But alas, you are utterly stumped and don’t know what to write about.

Enter WordTracker’s Keyword Questions tool.

Get Some Ideas for Your Post

I have to say, I love using this tool because it is so easy!  All you have to do is pop in a word (try some different words related to your business) and it gives you a list of questions that have been searched for involving that word.  I used the word “SEO” (I know, go figure!):

Now I have a whole list of questions that people have typed into search engines to find an answer.  My next blog post could be “How Does SEO Work?”, since this is something that people clearly want to know about and I can provide an answer (most likely ad nauseam).

You can apply this same strategy to your own blog, whether your business is crm software, wedding dresses, jewelry, PR…you get the point.  When you know which topics people are looking for related to what you do, you can provide a well-written answer and further position yourself as an expert in your field.

Get Some SEO Benefit

You already know that a blog can help your SEO efforts by consistently adding fresh content to your site (which search engines like), as well as reinforce your website’s keyword targets if you include them in your posts.  Since you’re tapping into questions that were typed into search engines, having a blog post title with that question can boost your ability to be found in a search when that question is typed in.

A search for “What does a search engine see?“, a post I wrote last month, puts me on the first page of Google:

Don’t Forget the Search Engine Suggest Feature

I’ve spoken in the past about getting ideas from what the search engine box suggests to you when typing in a search.  These suggestions are based on queries that have already been typed in, so these can also be valuable content ideas.  I stumbled across this great tool called Soovle, which aggregates all of the search box suggestions from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Wikipedia, YouTube, Amazon, and Answers.com in one place, using one single search box.  I highly recommend using this tool as a topic-generator as well.

Do you have any surefire methods to cure the I-Don’t-Know-What-To-Write-About Blues?  I’d love to hear them!

Your website is your online attempt of explaining to the world what you do, why you are good at it and why people should do business with you. Websites have graduated from boring brochureware to dynamic, living content that gives visitors more information and opportunities to interact with that content. A well designed website might impress visitors but it is the content that determines when and where you are going to be found by search engines, sales prospects and visitors of all types.

Adding content to your website is great for SEO

Search engines love crawling new information on your website. Search engines algorithms are private, but we do know that the number of pages you have indexed on them is a plus. The more pages you have indexed, the more of an expert you appear to search engines. Adding fresh content to your site also keeps search engine spiders interested in your website and they keep coming back. The benefit of keeping the spiders interested is when you do add new content it will show up in a matter of days (or less) and not take weeks.

How many pages do you have indexed in Google? See the figure below to do a quick search to find out.

Create content to be found

You can’t just toss up mumbo jumbo every day, you need to add quality, helpful content to your website. With tools like SEO and Social Media people are finding our websites in more ways than ever. Give them something good so they continue to return. Think of this as a very unique opportunity. We used to prepare our marketing messages as TV/Radio commercials, direct mail pieces, billboards etc. and we were constantly interrupting people during their daily activities so they would pay us some attention, notice our logo or purchase our products. Now we have this amazing and unique opportunity to BE FOUND by people when they are looking for information on products, services and companies!

When you are creating new content for your website, remember to create content for the people who found your site when they were looking for something. Answer the questions they may have, give them places to download more resources, contact you for more information, etc. Create content to be found the exact moment someone is looking for it.

“Either write something worth reading about or do something worth writing about.”
Ben Franklin quote from Inbound Marketing

Generates inbound links

The more content you have on your site, the more opportunity you are giving people to link to your website. Links from other people to your website are called Inbound Links. The more Inbound Links to your website, the more search engines again determine that you are an expert in your industry, giving you higher search rankings.

Content Marketing isn’t a sprint, it is a marathon

Creating more content for your website doesn’t mean sitting down and writing 100 new pages. Create a content strategy or at the least, just an open mind to continue to add pages and content to your website. Below is a Slideshare presentation: TrendsSpotting’s 2010 Social Media Influencers – Trend Predictions in 140 Characters. One of the quotes in it was “content marketing isn’t a sprint, it is a marathon”, and I have to agree. By creating a content strategy and setting goals for when you will add new content and what you are going to add, you will add more value than if you just put 50 new pages on your website next week.

Adding content to your website is imperative so that your site is current, found by new visitors regularly and to boost your search rankings. Websites can always be added to later or in phases; make sure your site isn’t static for months at a time.

Photo credit: Portland Ballet

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves Kasi and Amanda will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

I recently had a very interesting conversation with my mother-in-law about social networking. She is the creative director for Portland Ballet, who is probably best known locally for their traditional Victorian Nutcracker performance each year. She is feeling the pressure to be more active on social networking sites but she has a major dilemma she is working through – almost all of their ‘content’ is protected under creative content licensing. The music, images, how a ballerina points her toe a certain way is all protected. She cannot run the risk of a guest at one of her shows shooting video with their Flip cam and uploading it to YouTube or photos to Flickr etc. I am fortunate to not have the same legal concerns she does but it got me to thinking about how we decide whether or not to protect our content online.

Protecting Your Content

We in the B2B world love to hide our content, behind long forms to capture data, through opt-in only lists, password protected sites etc. Why do we do that? If your content is hidden behind a form yes, you will get the reader’s information for them to download but you lose a lot of people at that form as well. Would you rather the 3 forms filled out or your content to be free and seen by hundreds of eyes? That is a choice you and your organization have to make.

Spread your information

Seth Godin recently wrote a post How to protect your ideas in the digital age where he talked about this same topic. Seth’s take is to spread your good ideas. Let people know what a resource you are and then they will come to you when they are ready to start a business relationship. What is your take on protecting your online content?

Read the rest of the Internet Marketing Advent Calendar

• Dec. 9 – Don’t Forget the Milk & Cookies (Good Content)
• Dec. 8 – Google Makes it (Even More) Personal
• Dec. 7 – Customer Service and Marketing
• Dec. 6 – Social Media Didn’t Invent Criticism
• Dec. 5 – Email is the frosting to your gingerbread house
• Dec. 4 – Is Google Caffeine on Your Holiday Wish List?
• Dec. 3 – Don’t Forget to Make Your Title Tags and Check ‘Em Twice
• Dec. 2 – Your Mobile Website
• Dec. 1 – Your Holiday Card List (Your Network)

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves Kasi and Amanda will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

You can rank #1 for all your keywords by having a well-optimized site, but what’s the point if the content on your site, well…stinks? It’s not enough just to have a lot of traffic. You need to leave your visitors some milk and cookies (read: good content) in order to encourage them to stick around (and keep coming back).

It’s Not About You

It’s natural to want to go into great detail about your company on your website. If you’re not telling people how your product/service is going solve their problem/fulfill their need, however, you will practically be able to hear your bounce rate go up (boing!). What I’m trying to say is that it’s not all about you. Your content needs to be written in a way that is focused specifically on how you are going to help the person who is visiting your site. Make it all about your target market.

Keep it Up-to-Date

Quality content is key, but if it’s old, it loses its effectiveness. When I visit a site that has information about sales that have expired, sign-ups for trainings that have already passed, or a blog that hasn’t had an entry in 4 months, I figure that the company is not interested in investing time in their site.  So why should I?  Your website, much like my sweet little shar pei, needs constant love and attention.  Be sure to keep current on your offerings, look over and freshen up your web copy every so often, and make regular blog posts a must (if you can’t commit to the blog, you might as well ditch it).

Want more?  Check out this post about how important content is for B2B sites.

Read the rest of the Internet Marketing Advent Calendar

• Dec. 8 – Google Makes it (Even More) Personal
• Dec. 7 – Customer Service and Marketing
• Dec. 6 – Social Media Didn’t Invent Criticism
• Dec. 5 – Email is the frosting to your gingerbread house
• Dec. 4 – Is Google Caffeine on Your Holiday Wish List?
• Dec. 3 – Don’t Forget to Make Your Title Tags and Check ‘Em Twice
• Dec. 2 – Your Mobile Website
• Dec. 1 – Your Holiday Card List (Your Network)