Inbound Marketing Blog

"Search engines love content." We have made that comment over and over throughout the years. Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing use your content to connect it to people who are searching for you or your service. The more quality content you have on your website, the greater the chance your site will be indexed by the three major search engines. 

Having quality content on your site is only the first step. Your content must always be evolving. 

Why?

People evolve. Their habits evolve. Their needs evolve. 

I consult with clients all day long in matters of website and digital marketing tactics. Often the topic of how, when and even if blogging is really that important comes up. The reactions I get from people range from blank stares, glasses down on nose look, and my favorite, eye rolling.

It's quite easy folks, content is search driven. Ever try to search google without words? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Tribute Media is excited to announce that on April 1st, 2015, original founder Corey Smith will be embarking on a year long excursion to live with Narwhals. This trip comes at a crucial time for the company as we feel we need to form a stronger bond between Tribute Media and Wally, our beloved mascot.

Corey Smith will be traveling to Greenland where he will be spending half of his time in a modest cabin documenting the magnificent beast and half of his time diving in the artic waters with the Narwhals. Corey states,"For  years I have been fascinated by the majestic narwhal. It’s a great privilege to be selected for this opportunity. I hope to be able to come back as a better husband, father, son, friend and leader."

Sometimes, people may think that good writing simply involves proper spelling, grammar, punctuation and so on. Certainly, that's a big part of it; you might have written the Great American Novel, but it probably won't seem that way if your book reads like an I Can Has Cheezburger meme.

However, truly effective writing--indeed, effective communication in general--goes a step further: It takes the person who will read the content (the blog, the webpage, the article, etc.) into consideration. Simply put, a good writer knows his or her audience.

There is a long, long, long list of do’s and don’ts of professional blogging. Writing in a blog is not very complex, but there are a few guidelines which should be respected as much as possible.

Interactivity

Create events to bring interactivity to your blog. You could for instance organize contests asking your readers to write posts and submit them to you so that you would give them an ability to be published on your blog. You could also ask your readers to vote for some of your articles. Contests like this would generate visits an increase reader loyalty.  

If you’re a small fish in a big pond, getting noticed (ranked) by search engines is never easy. Common businesses such as car dealerships, real estate agents, lawyers, restaurants or doctors have a hard time showing up in search engine rankings. This is because you’re not only competing with hundreds of other businesses just like yours, but when it comes to link building, each business is trying to optimize for the same keywords.

Unique, well-written content will attract natural links that can help balance out low quality directory links, blog comments, and spammy article marketing. But where do you start and how do you make your business stand out?

The world only needs so many mortgage or car payment calculators. I'd like to offer a few tactics to get you moving (and thinking) in the right direction.

If you have done any research on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) then you have heard over and over again that fresh, relevant content is the way to go. But most business owners are not writers nor proficient in blogging, and the thought of asking those business owners to write a weekly blog is like asking them to cut off their own pinky toe.  However, writing a blog is not at all complex. Below are a few guidelines that should be respected as much as possible.

Whether you're writing for print or the web, Strunk and White's The Elements of Style has plenty of good rules and principles you should follow. Point 17, "Omit needless words," is one of the best--you might not have a word limit on your blog or webpage, but no one will want to read 1,000 words when 300 words could get the message across as well or better. Point 2--which advocates the use of the "serial comma" or "Oxford comma"--is more flexible, but you'll appease the grammar Nazis if you follow it. (If you don't know what a serial comma is, consult your local grammar Nazi--they'll probably be more than happy to tell you.)

Understanding that consistently blogging is a valuable SEO asset can put you leaps and bounds over your competition. Search engine algorithms are so focused on giving searchers the most relevant and up-to date information that companies need to focus on giving the end user what they are looking for, not what the company may necessarily want to tell them. Here are 7 ways that blogging can be used as a tool to improve your SEO Rankings.

If you’re ready to enter the world of blogging, you may still be a little confused on how to execute a proper plan. Blogging for those who aren’t familiar with the practice can be a little daunting and making sure you’re covering the right topics can certainly be overwhelming. Finding your voice in the blogosphere definitely takes a little bit of time, however, once you’ve found it, you will know how to run with it.