Conference Buddies

Why Blogs are your #1 Search Marketing Tool

Speaker: Chris Baggott, Compendium Blogware
10/15/2009, 11am – 12pm

Notes:

• Blogging is the number one corporate focus. It is the fastest growing corporate initiative
• Blogging is a great way to get out information (to searchers)
• The goal is to get more first time searchers
• comScore: 43% more searches this year than last year
• Search is a way to find a solution to your problems
• Companies that have blogs have 55% more visitors to their website, with 97% more traffic to inbound links
• Blogging is a way to get people to search on your site
• 1st generation blogging: me, me, me. 2nd generation blogging: look at what I know. 3rd generation blogging: getting business through search
• 3rd generation blogging is to target messages around your specific keywords
• Create multiple blogs that target your keyword phrases
• Corporate mistake: content is organized around an individual. Content should be organized around solving the audiences’ problems and what they care about
• Use words that your customers are using, “speak their language”
• Make searchers happy, convert them into customers
• Problems with blogging is that it takes time and effort
• When we look at a page, we are searching for credibility. If they trust you, you will get the click thru
• Similar-situation sale: tell me a story about how you solved a problem like mine, then I’ll trust you to solve my problem, too.
• Bloggers are free, not assigned. People want to blog, tell a story
• Blog content and volume of blog posts directly correlates with traffic
• How do you measure the value of corporate blogging? Compare organic traffic with how much the keyword is worth ($$ wise). That’s one way to measure ROI
• Targeting key words on blogs is comparable to PPC, measure ROI by engagement, conversion. 1.6% conversion on organic searches, 30 to 40% on blogs
• Call to action: fill out a form, click on a button
• Make blogs look like landing pages
• Doesn’t make any difference whether the blog looks like a regular HTML page
• Search Engines are looking for fresh new content, updating the blog regularly will get you crawled more.
• One good blog vs. many different blogs in corporations: established readers vs. first time searchers. Corporations are interested in getting the conversion as opposed to a loyal reader.
• Corporate blogging should be focused with search in mind
• 90% of customers are coming from search
• Have many blogs, all sub-domains, to make it more search engine friendly