A friend of mine (who I will call Bob to protect the innocent) is a great copywriter. He asked me to help him with an SEO article. Now, I’m all about helping people, especially friends that have a curiosity about SEO. I asked if the client had pulled a KEI on their words.

Bob: What’s a KEI?

Me: KEI – Keyword Effectiveness Index. Dead silence on the other end of the phone. Are you still there, Bob?

Bob: Err, yeah, but what the heck does that mean and why do I need it for this client?

Me: You mean to tell me you’re writing a SEO article for a client and you don’t know if he’s done any keyword research?

Bob: Yeah…

Me: Bob, before you even start writing this SEO article, look up the words… you know what? Better yet, I’ll write an article about it for you.

Bob: I realize I’m not that smart about some things, but why is that something I need to know?

Me: Well, Bob, if you want your client to compete online, you really need to know what a KEI is.

Bob: Oh, so it’s that important. I thought that as long as we wrote fresh content we would get new customers.

Silence from my end of the phone.

Me: Well, yeah, fresh content is fine, but whom are you writing for? Do you know? How many people are actually searching for those keywords? Bob, listen, bud, I love you man, but do me a favor. Wait a few days and let me post this article; I’ll send you the link. Read it and then give me a call if there’s something you don’t understand.

KEI stands for “Keyword Effectiveness Index”. The KEI essentially helps point out which keywords are the most effective and valuable. Below, I’ll explain why the KEI is important, and exactly what it can do for your website when it comes to writing great SEO content.

The KEI of a keyword is actually a formula. It compares the number of searches for the word or terms with the number of competitive pages. What does this mean? Basically, the KEI points out which keywords have a higher search vs. lower ranking competition i.e. the most effective for your campaign.

Let’s take a hypothetical number of 500 searches a month for your specific keyword. Google shows 215, 400 results based on that keyword. In order to understand the ratio of competitive pages vs. popularity, take the 500 and divide it by 215,400. The result is 0.0023, a low KEI for a keyword that, most likely, isn’t a good one to use.

To put it simply, the ultimate keyword is one with a high KEI (1.0 and above). The higher the KEI, the more chance your site has for ranking for that word.

Does a High KEI Automatically Mean Traffic and Conversion Success?

Absolutely not. A KEI can’t tell you the quality of the competition, for instance. You might think you have a great keyword, very popular, with a KEI of 4.9. You think, “Wow! The keywords I want to rank for have very few competitors. I can get on page one easy!”

Slow your roll and hold your horses. The top ten competing pages may very well have SEO companies behind them, building back links, adding great content and optimizing the heck out of their website.

Tip: The more active a website is in SEO; the more fresh content they put out; the more strong, authoritative links they have pointing to them, the harder they’ll be to beat.

Remember that, for most terms, it’s easier to move from placement 100 to 50 than it is to move from 50 to 10, or 3 or 1. –And, as we may have mentioned before, you’re not competing with the 3.5 million search results; you’re competing with the top ten results.

As well, a high KEI doesn’t tell you if it’s relative to your website. As an example, “Google Analytics” has a KEI of 104.068, which is incredibly high. The competition is 30.7 million pages, while the search is 1.7 per month. Seems like anyone offering Google Analytics services has it made, right?

Not so much. You don’t know why those people are searching for Google Analytics. I’m willing to bet that most are just typing in “Google Analytics” to get to the analytics page and sign in. It is, after all, the quickest way to get there.

Tip: Try to figure out why people are searching for a term with a high KEI. The “why” is even more important than the KEI. If they’re not searching for your chosen keyword because they want to buy your product or service, you won’t get the conversions you hope for (although you might get a lot of traffic, most won’t stick around).

Use KEI for Useful Keywords

What a KEI actually does is give you an idea whether a term is worth using. However, the KEI factor is not a “set-in-stone” formula. The numbers are subject to change depending on the words you’re looking for. For instance, some terms might be combined, while others might not. As well, search results can change because an extra word in the term turns on a filter. Example: Why use an SEO company vs. SEO company will bring different results.

What Does This Mean To Your Web Site?

The bottom line is this: if you’re serious about your website’s success, you have to be serious about your keywords. Many clients want to use our copywriting services, but give me a blank look when I mention keywords.

While you can be found without using keywords, the chances of being found by visitors actually interested in your website, your content and your products/services are much lower. It’s that simple. The KEI can help you choose the right keywords, as well as help you organize your strategy of how to use them. For example, you might use a keyword with a lower KEI but wider focus for your main site term, then tighten the focus with higher KEI words on interior pages.

Example: “SEO” has a higher KEI than “SEO Services”. SEO is the main site term, SEO services might belong on an interior services page.

The key to any keyword research is to build a list of your most-used terms. Answer questions like, “What are my customers looking for?” and “How do they search?” Most people don’t just use a single word, not anymore. Most are looking for specifics, whether it’s location, a certain color of product or pricing.

Finding the right keywords is an important step – perhaps the most important – in any SEO campaign. Don’t rush it. Take your time because, at the end of the day, if those who find you don’t care what you have to sell, it does no good to be found. As well, if those who care can’t find you, you’ve ultimately spent a lot of time and energy writing wonderful copy that goes nowhere.

5. Raven Tools

At Vertical Measures we use Raven Tools for every one of our clients to organize our work. Although the tool itself is very powerful and includes elements of backlink analysis, keyword rankings and Google analytics, I have included it in this list for its link management capabilities. By installing the Raven toolbar in Firefox you can organize your links as you work, easily adding URLs of pages you find, webmasters you contacted, and links you are actually able to acquire.

Not only does it then save and organize these pages by website type, but it can also periodically go back to these pages and check if the link disappeared, and notify you when nice webmasters add your link, but don’t email you to let you know!

4. Search Operators

Believe it or not, one of my favorite link building tools is developed by the search engines themselves, and uses their entire index! This is because one of the best ways to find great link opportunities is just by knowing what to search for in the first place.

I was once told that if you know how to use search well you can find anything you want, and knowing search operators is certainly a large part of this. I don’t want to give away my favorites, for fear of them being abused, but there are plenty of great resources (http://searchengineland.com/21-link-builders-share-advanced-link-building-queries-29848) and tools (http://www.seomoz.org/labs/link-finder/index.php) out there to get you started, and then get creative.

3. Competitive Link Finder

My third favorite link building tool is SeoMoz’s Competitive Link Finder tool in their Labs section. This tool will tell identify all of the websites where multiple competitors are being linked to and identify whether or not your website is being linked to also, clearly identifying which websites to reach out to. The reasons why I love this tool so much is because not only are these sites also likely to be relevant to an industry, but they also have a much greater chance of being willing to add additional links to other relevant pages, i.e. your client.

There are a lot of tools out there that do this exact same thing, but the reason why I choose SeoMoz’s tool is because I like their web index, which they continually grow, and also because it means buying only one subscription!

2. Open Site Explorer

My second favorite link building tool, is another SeoMoz creation, their Open Site Explorer, which I have made a full switch to from Yahoo Site Explorer since it came out. I find myself using this tool every day, particularly for researching a new client’s current backlinks, as well as investigating competitor’s backlinks for ideas and suitable websites to add links.

Not only can you break down this information by internal or external links, nofollow, 301s etc., but it also displays the authority of the page, and the anchor text, used to save you from even having to load each individual page and see for yourself. I feel like I can save hours scanning down this list to get a quick idea of how various competitors are ranking for certain keywords. I can then check out those sites that seem to offer the best quality links, in more detail and directly contact each webmaster to recommend my client’s websites for inclusion.

1. For my favorite link building tool, I’m going to slightly contradict what I said earlier in that there is nothing more important than a link builder’s toolkit, and say the number one most important tool is a link builder’s brain. While this may seem like a bit of a cop out, I believe that this is becoming more and more important every day, as the old tactics of link building become less effective. Whereas a few directories or article submissions was once enough, link building has grown and it requires more creative thought to get the high quality links that will make a difference.

No tool can replace these thoughts and creativity that are absolutely essential for any link builder. While the 4 previous tools will help you to discover and organize your links, it is this tool that will separate the best link builders from the rest.

This can range anywhere from thinking creatively to find websites that your competitors haven’t gotten links on, which by definition won’t appear in any other tools, to reaching out to webmasters in ways that will get you what you want. My best links have come from trying to do something extraordinary to befriend webmasters by writing honest emails that show that I have read their blog, and am trying to connect with them on a personal level.

My advice to any link builder out there would be to develop this tool as much as possible through trial and error and experience. It’s tough, but any link builder has to learn by contacting webmasters, learning what works and what doesn’t, and by getting a feel for which pages will add the most value for a client. Unfortunately, there’s no tool that can automate this.

What do you think? Did I leave out any tools? Let me know in the comments section below.

Now, affiliate marketers say that the money is all in the list you use. Do yourself and your business a favor, however. Don’t think of your community of people as a “list”. A list is just there to enhance your ability to communicate with like-minded individuals. We’ve said it before; we’ll say it again – create relationships. Talk, spend time on their blogs, connecting with them on FaceBook, Twitter, Tweet-ups and conventions. Ultimately, people connect with you because of trust, not because you’re spamming them with links.

This is a quick reference to social marketing, creating a community that you can turn into a powerful resource for business growth. Once you get your website tightened and optimized, your social network then becomes a true network. How does this blend with search engines, though?

When someone searches for your product or service through search engines, many are already motivated in some way: to buy, to learn more, to get updates. If anyone in your social networking community searches for a product or service, you’ve already made a connection. The chances of conversion are much higher due to your pre-created relationship. They know you, they trust you, and that trust transfers to your product or service.

Here are a few more tips to help along your road to online success:

Tip #1: Promote your business on social networks

Not all social networks are created equal and, depending on your community and business, some may not give you good results. However, for us, FaceBook, Twitter and guest blogs have given us the best return. Our traffic has jumped 58% since we started using social media.

Pay attention to your baseline information – what your site stats are before starting your promotions – and compare them to your stats after your promotions. What do visitors read? How long do they stay on your site? This information will help you figure out what your visitors like.

Tip #2: Build your web visibility

Manage your reputation within the social network community. Build partnerships and links; submit your site, articles and sitemaps wherever and whenever you can.

Tip #3: Target your niche, not everyone

It’s hard not to try and reach as wide an audience as possible, but restrain yourself. Keep in mind that you actually have a niche, a target audience, and writing for everyone can lose your target audience – who are actually the people that convert.

Tip #4: Use SEO keywords that best suit your services and audience

Your audience uses key terms, but do you know what they are? Do you know what they’re looking for when they come to your website? Learn your audience inside and out; use your analytics program to “read” their minds and find what keywords they use. Then, expand on those keywords.

Tip #5: Optimize your descriptions

Your descriptions are the most important part of search engine real estate. Don’t shove your keywords in the descriptions; give potential visitors a reason to click. Make those words pop out at with action words like “download”, “test” or “buy”.

By implementing even a few of the above tips, your website will be more search engine and visitor friendly. As well, your audience becomes more targeted, giving you greater chances of conversion. Lastly, you will be building loyalty and trust in your customers and/or clients that last for a lifetime.

Ecommerce web hosting is the modern day equivalent of building a better mousetrap. A
well-run, well-maintained, secure ecommerce web presence is part of the key to a
company’s success. The other part of the equation is attracting customers to your site.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a proven, effective tool to help build that
mousetrap. SEO tools make your site more visible to the various search engines used by
customers to look for products like yours. The following checklist will increase the
power of your ecommerce web site:

• Keywords – These are words that appear in the content of your site. Brainstorm a list
of words that you would search if looking for your product. Use the keywords
often in the text of your site, but do not obviously overuse them, or the search
engine will ignore them as spam.

• Research – Though not a tool in and of itself, research will tell you if you are on
the correct path. Once you determine your keywords, run a search for each word
or phrase to see if the content of the pages generated matches the content of your
page. If not, try new keywords until you are confident that consumers searching
for your product will find your ecommerce website.

• Code to Text Ratio – Search engines calculate the percentage of text that appears
on a page in order to determine whether or not that page is relevant to the
requested search. A higher text ratio places a page higher in rank. Search engines
prefer text to images, and prefer HTML to other formats.

• Titles – Title each page descriptively as this title will appear as the link when the
search engine returns its results to the consumer. Keep your title interesting, keep
it to the point of your site, and keep it brief – no more than five to eight words.
Do not use words such as “Title” or “Introduction” or “Main Page” as titles. Title
each document on the site appropriately so that they will be searchable by
keywords pertaining to the content of the site.

• Document Properties (Meta Tags) – Most programs automatically complete
some of the information listed in the document’s properties. Manual completion
of the fields results in greater document searchability. Fields may include subject
matter, category, and keyphrases. While some search engines now ignore
keyword meta tags, many use the description meta tag to elaborate on the title.

• Image Tags – Use “ALT IMAGE” tags to specify an alternate text for an image.
This tag will be read as text (increasing your code to text ratio), and should
contain your keywords.

• Linking – Link the pages within your site using keywords and phrases. Such
links will increase the natural usage of the keywords on your site, and generate
more interest in your site.

• Site Maps – Site maps were originally used to enable customers to navigate a site
with ease. Now they also increase the crawability of a site. The site map should
be simple, in text format, use keywords, and link to every page within the site.

• Frames – This tool is actually a “don’t”. Do not use frames on your site. The
search engine may see the frame only and ignore any of the text contained within
the frame.

While no list can completely guarantee a perfect mousetrap, using these simple SEOs will
increase a site’s ranking, generating interest, and guiding consumers. The most important
tool of all, though, is “repeat”. Constantly test and re-test the site and don’t be afraid to
make changes as needed to keep up with consumer trends and increased technology.

I work with a wide variety of clients in different local industries that all share one thing in common: they want the top position in Google maps in Google search results. This is smart thinking.

Here’s are some tips to start working your way towards the top. (Reach for the sky baby.)

Claim Your Google Local Listing

The first thing you need to do is go to Google Local Business Center and claim your existing listing or create a new one if you don’t see your business listed already. Google collects data from sources like the Yellow Pages, so there is a good chance it’s already there.

Now make sure you fill out everything. The more information you include the better it is for your business. This includes adding as many photos as you’re allowed and adding yourself to as many relevant categories as possible (up to 5). Also make sure the address you use for your Google Local listing is the same address you have listed on your website.

Note (added April 21, 2010): Google Local Business Center has changed its name to Google Places.

Optimize Your Site with Local Terms

You don’t need to go overboard with this one. Having the name of your city in some page titles and headers will certainly help though. The most important task is to make sure that you have your address listed on your website. Also include any relevant areas of town if you’re a location specific destination. (Like a clothing store or a restaurant.)

Get Listed in Local Directories

Directory listings from websites specific to your city are a great way to help you achieve some local pull in Google maps. A quick and easy way to find some local directories is to search for {name of city} + directory.

Encourage Reviews

All Google Maps listings have an option to leave a review, so encourage some of your favorite customers or clients to leave a review for you. If you happen to be in the travel and tourism industry, gently persuade happy customers to leave reviews on popular review sites like TripAdvisor. When you take a look at the top Google maps results you’ll notice that the top listings will have a good amount of reviews.

Build Up Your Citations

Citation building is different than link building because a citation may not always include an actual link. As long as the full address matches the address on your website, it’s counted as a citation and helps boost your position in Google Local search results.

Check out Google maps results in a competitive industry (such as the Seattle hotel industry) and you notice top listings have more citations than lower listings – in most cases. Citations are not the sole deciding factor, but they definitely help. When you view a Google Map listing in its entirety there is a section called “More about this place”. This is a great place to find citations from people competing in the same local industry as you.

Start Building Citations Now

Why not start now? Here are some citations to start you off on the right path.

Yelp
City Search
Bing Local
BOTW Local
Brownbook.net
infoUSA
Superpages
Insider Pages
Hot Frog
Local.com
iBegin
Yahoo! Local

Feel free to contribute any citation or local directory sources you’ve found to be useful. Sharing is always encouraged!

Stephanie Woods is a freelance internet marketer living in beautiful Kelowna, BC. She has been working in advertising and marketing for 10 years now. If you are interested in getting in touch with Steph you can reach her here. Or, you can find her on Twitter as @steph_woods.

I stumbled across a recent post that talked about the implications of social media gone awry in Britain. On March 22, the Conservative Party in the U.K. launched an agressive Twitter campaign against Prime Minister Gordon Brown, using the hashtag “#cashgordon.” Below is a graph compiled by Meg Pickard that shows the trend of the hashtag.

As it turns out, the idea was jacked from a U.S. website run by an anti-healthcare lobbyist. Just as the campaign began to peak, it was discovered by the U.K.’s Liberal Party supporters, who in-turn used the same hashtag to the effect that the website was taken offline.

A shining example of social media implementation was during Barack Obama’s run for the U.S. Presidency. His team helped developed a grassroots strategy; they were very successful in spreading their message across the web using Twitter and other social channels. The result: an Obama victory. This grassroots movement helped create a massive following, which further aided with fundraising and as a barrier against opponent mudslinging.

Another recent example of successful political messaging through social media would be the election of Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who was victorious in the special election to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. This Brown campaign utilized YouTube, Facebook, iPhone apps, Twitter, and strategic hashtags to deliver a “homegrown” message to the people. Video was the key driver for Brown. Thus, YouTube became a major platform for his plans to become Senator. The result of that campaign was half a million hits in the weeks leading up to the vote, while his opponent mustered a mere 51,000 hits. Needless to say, Brown won in a landslide victory for the seat previously “owned” by the Kennedys.

What is the true potential of political use of social media channels? With the almost real-time transfer of information, the use of polls, and other measurement tools, one might think that voters could take control of lawmaking decisions, rather than decisions being made based on special interests. The revolutionary possibility of social media leading to better constituent representation is very real and not that difficult to conceive.

If lawmakers honestly care about the interests of their constituents they would use social channels to realize the true concerns of the people they represent. Unfortunately, I don’t believe most politicians would ever want such transparency. But I’ll continue to hope for the best.

Politicians take note: Do not approach social media lightly. Be prepared with a sound strategy, which should include a clear idea of your target audience and the message to be shared. Otherwise, expect to see yourselves associated with the hashtag “#fail.”

Bio:

Brad Barker is a seasoned interactive marketing professional, specializing in SEO and social media. He currently serves as SEO and Social Media Editor at AREA203 Marketing.

Follow Brad on Twitter

Why Partnering Works

Being an SEO, you know there are rapid changing events happening all the time. That’s the nature of the internet right now. What you do for a client right now is not going to help them in the long haul. It requires constant attention. The model of consulting does not fit with the model of the internet. Consultants are usually brought in for a quick fix. But being an equity partner, you determine how much you make, and this may prove to be an appealing situation with a small business owner. You should stop thinking of how much to charge per month put rather what percent of an 8x increase in revenue you can share with the right partner for you.

Who Shouldn’t Do This

But this relationship may not be of advantage to if you are an SEO that does minimal work. If you’re incentive is to add a few links each month that you use for every site that you work with and then compile a fancy looking report from Google analytics that shows basic things a middle school kid could figure out on their own, obviously you don’t have the invested effort to participate in such a relationship. These are the snake oil SEO firms that rip off companies because of the business owner’s lack of knowledge in the SEO sphere.

Final Takeaways

By partnering with a company and investing your skills into their future growth, both you and the company can come on top. The company will see that you are truly interested in helping them grow and can be an appealing factor in deciding who to go to with their SEO.
You’ll want to make sure that the company you are going to invest your time and skills in will have the chance to grow immensely. And making sure that limitations that will be put on you by company officials are spelled out before making the deal will help make sure that the growth you can achieve isn’t limited as well.

Bottom line: You have to decide which structure works for you. If you’re a flat-fee consultant that won’t deliver flat-fee results, then maybe that’s the way you should work it. But if you want to invest in a company and be a part of its growth, being an equity partner may be your best shot.

The real SEO community needs to keep these in mind and educate potential and current clients. You will receive both trust and client retention. A win-win for you.

1). “The Keywords in Your Analytics Are the Only Keywords to Focus On”- I have heard this from 5 large companies this year already. They believe that the only keywords they should focus on are the words that are in their analytics.

Clients often send us their list of keywords (the ones they feel are crucial) and when we ask where they got them they often say their analytics. We have also heard that they have based their PPC campaigns off of these words. When we explain that perhaps there are other word/phrases that they could also focus on that are not in their analytics we see a combination of shock, anger and then the “light bulb” over their head.

Seems simple to you and me, but not them.

2.) “Social Media Marketing is Having a Fan Page on Facebook” – Well, no.

Any reputable SEO, Internet Marketing or Social Media firm knows that this is not true, but it doesn’t matter what we know. What matters is what potential clients have been sold and how we undo that damage.

I believe educating them is the key. My company makes sure they understand what is happening and why we are doing what we are doing. We retain long-term clients this way and so can you. Tracking and measuring Social Media success and failure is important. They need to understand why.

3). “Our Website Looks Fancy and That is All We Need” – I am surprised that this belief still holds true, but it does.

People are told that their Flash or huge jpg instead of text sites are fantastic and they believe it. Just because we know doesn’t mean the general public knows. Again education as well as patience and understanding are important. People hate to pay twice.

4). “Search Results Are the Same for Everyone” – We start off all new client conversations with the different kinds of search results. We bring it up in every class we teach. We try to get the word out there because, sadly, these personalized results are making business owners believe they are #1 for everything.

When we show them how to search and get real results they are typically not happy. Often the SEO reports they receive saying they are #1 for “X” amount of keywords could be a flat our lie or ignorance on their SEO’s part. If you are trying to land SEO jobs and people tell you they are doing great in the search engines, keep this in mind.

5). “There Are SEO/Social Media/Internet Marketing Experts Everywhere!”  – Hey, I know how you feel after reading that. We all hear it and we all know it is false, but reputable companies have to find a way to overcome this . I have to admit that it makes me feel quite irritated when a new site pops up in my area with “SEO Expert” all over and they are offering search engine submissions for $40 a month.

So, how do we, as a REAL SEO community, overcome this?

I think we all know who knows and who doesn’t know, but I feel that often many SEO related blogs forget to target their own markets. They are writing for people like you and me, but forgetting potential clients. It is great to have a national reputation, but it is also important to be known locally or statewide (there is a lot of money there). You need to let your potential clients know that you are the best choice.

I am a big believer in educating my local market because they need it and I like to help them avoid hiring the wrong people. It is still a rough economy and for many businesses there web advertising budget is precious. Educating creates trust (and they may not be able to afford you, but their best friend might). I truly appreciate all the educating I get from the SEO community, but I need to pay it forward.  More importantly, many business owners don’t really deserve the bull they are fed by “SEO Experts”.

Melissa Fach owns SEOAware.com, based in Sarasota, FL

You can get backlinks using  Link Collector sites.

What’s a Link Collector site?

It’s a site that gathers in content from various sources and posts links TO them. The easiest way to visualize this is to think of them as niche-specific mini-Twitters posting snippets and links to certain topically relevant articles.

Another way to think of this is having a Search Engine News Site posting SEO articles aggregated from myriad sources.

So what the purpose of a Link Collector site?

1. To create something of value to add to the Internet.
2. To create a mechanism that acts as an index driver for your content and others’ content.
3. To pave the way for future link exchange requests with the sites whose articles you’re already linking to (repeatedly if their content is good….)

How do you build a link collector, index driver site?

To build these sites,all you need is  a WordPress blog, some RSS aggregation plugins, and Google Alerts.

Using WP O Matic (or other plugins that aggregate content):

On a separate domain install WordPress, then install WP O Matic

Add in some feeds to "scrape", criteria for these "feed-adds" is topically relevant sites with high quality content.

When you scrape these RSS feeds do not auto -publish them (saves as drafts) and don’t publish the full content verbatim, ever!

When the plugin fetches these feeds, go to your Posts section in WordPress and look at the drafts

Write introductory snippets about the article you "scraped", then link to it.  Yes, this means you’re linking to others’ sites, but frequently you get a pingback or a trackback when you link to those URLs, so there’s SOME backlinking occurring here automatically.

NOTE:WP O Matic has certain republishing templates you can use to auto-link to the sources of your gathered-in content.  Use following code to auto-link to the sources in your post drafts.

{content} -This will post the entire content of the URL that was scraped.  It’s a good idea to scrape the whole article so you can read it from within your Admin panel and get the gist of the article and judge its quality and relevancy.

Read the entire content, then delete it and summarize it in your introductory snippet

<a href="{permalink}">Continue Reading {title}</a>

This will post a link to the source URL and {title} will automatically insert the title of the post you’re linking to.

Over time and with consistent effort you can get a lot of posts indexed and added to your link collector site.  and as you get more index posts and ore backlinks, your link collector site become a more valuable addition to your niche community.

NOTE: These aren’t SPLOGS, Spam Blogs stealing content, these are manually run, human-edited sites that act like min-Twitters and DO provide real value to the Internet, which is always the best SEO strategy.

This is a guest author post by Daniel McGonagle who has more link building tips at http://linkvanareviews.com

Advantage 1: Content

When you write a blog on a corporate weblog you add content to the weblog obviously. But this content is also good for your rankings. Sometimes the weirdest search words are being used in Google and these could be in your specific blog. This drives more search rankings on different keywords and thus more visitors. Keep in mind that it also works for the normal search keywords you also want to be found with . Also the content is of great importance for some of the other advantages.

Advantage 2: Outbound links

When you write something in the corporate blog you can increase the usability and reliability by including some outbound links. I know there is a large debate on the internet that some are saying that outbound links are not that good to include too much in your SEO strategy. I believe it can help you, as long as you: do not include too many links, keep these links relevant, use appropriate keywords as anchor text, and only include high ranking sites. Including outbound links is thus more reader friendly and also adds something more to the content than just your own work. It can also increase the chance of getting inbound links, which is advantage number three.

Advantage 3: Inbound links

Assuming that you write good content in your corporate weblog you will receive some great inbound link opportunities from other websites. This can be social media, but also other bloggers that want to take your corporate blog as an example or the content is that good that they want to share it with others in some way. As mentioned in advantage two the likelihood that people want to link to your blog will increase when you add outbound links to your blog.

Advantage 4: Frequently updated content

When you have a corporate weblog you want it to be filled with current topics in your field. Therefore you want to update your weblog frequently and thus have frequently updated content. As we all know, Google is highly in favor for websites that keep adding more content to the web and thus this will also increase your rankings.

Advantage 5: Extra link building possibility

There is no need to do link building for every blog that you write on your corporate weblog (although it is possible). However, having a corporate weblog provides you to add your weblog to some good directories that keep track of weblogs. It is like the same of having the vacancies online, that provides you linking opportunities, so does having a weblog. Furthermore, the RSS-feed can also be submitted to archives and of course linked to twitter. Like I argued in my other blog ‘Twitter your SEO campaign in higher rankings’.

Conclusion

I hope that with my two blog posts on this subject I have provided you with the most important advantages of starting/having a corporate weblog. If you have some other important advantages that I forgot to include in my post, feel free to reply. I’m rather curious how you think about it.

Stijn Driessen is SEO strategic at Easy Internet Marketing