Youtility is the new bi-word in search marketing. It means telling customers all about YOU through blogging and social media. Creating quality posts on blogs can boost rank and lift your credibility with Google. So what's your beef about blogging?
Is it that you're too busy to take on another marketing task?
Is it that you don't know what you would write about?
Can't write? Grammatically challenged? Well, you're not alone my friend.
This post is for people who desire an easy blogging solution. To create an easy blog solution we have to work 'smarter, not harder', so if you're going to take the task on yourself, make sure you do it right from the get go. The blog needs to be a consistent practice to have maximum effect on your rank and be warned writing something of interest is hard work, the minimum recommendation for blogging is once a week.
#1 mistake to avoid: Don't use your website like a blog.
Your website and the blog are distinctly different vehicles and have distinct purposes. Users of your website come with a different head space than they would to a blog. The website is for the hungry beast searching for answers: Who, What, Where and How to Action needs to be communicating fast on every page. Expect that people come to explore your website only once, if they come back they will target a specific page. The first time they visit your site may in fact be their last, so apart from contacting you, your site's goal should be to have visitors connect with your social network. It's there in the social network and your blog that you get to interact with your Users and explain the values of your industry, your products and services through Youtility posts.
A CMS in the right place
A Content Management System (CMS) or Wordpress site has it's place when prescribed for the right customer, but the constant updates by multiple handlers that these systems allow can shoot your SEO in the foot and wreak havoc on a responsive site built for phones and tablets. Without strict supervision the site quickly gets out of hand with too many pages, heavy photographs too large for most screen sizes, spelling mistakes, plagiarised and duplicated content. Imagine that your website is maintained quarterly or even bi-annually by your SEO consultant or developer who understands your conversion and SEO strategy, they know where to put stuff for maximum effect and which words to use when writing about it. In the meantime, new content, product info and photographs could be handled through Blogs and Social media. The benefits of working this way are numerous and I'll list them now:
- Your content becomes easy to share, like and comment on
- You don't have to learn a new piece of software or pay a web specialist to blog, it's easy
- The main website isn't being tampered with, safeguarding the Conversion and SEO strategy, and the responsive behavior of the site
- In Google's eyes, work on your blog contributes to the main website's activity. That is, Google sees inactivity as a sign of unused space junk, blogging keeps your main site alive
- Consistent blogging effects page rank
- You don't have to be the sole contributor to the blog
- A blog is bullet proof. It's easy to bugger up a website, especially a responsive one, but it's near impossible to bugger up a blog.
To be a hive of activity, the blog needs to be opened up for select writers. Consider your blog like a magazine, a place where thought leaders share articles. By doing so, the blog becomes far more interesting to readers and your reach expands. Don't do a blog because you have to, do it for the betterment of humankind.
What topics you explore will be determined by your industry and can cover areas like standards, quality guidelines you stand by, hot questions most people ask about your industry or product, work related stories or how your product or service has helped people in their lives, your unique selling points. When you run out of ideas the guest post will inspire new directions in your thinking and lead to a more diverse range of writing material generated by your company. Google wants real contribution from you.
Yes, you can charge for a guest post spot on your blog, but you need a pretty high rank to command a price for the pleasure. Charging for guest posts is really not the way to start networking with fellow businesses and will likely leave you doing it on your own. Ask to see examples of the writing. If it's good the readership that the post could bring is of value and by writing for your audience the writer does you a service. Have the post signed off by you before it's published, so content isn't ever a surprise and at the top of each post a delimiter stating : The author's posts are entirely his or her own and may not always reflect the views of our company.
The guest writer will include a link to their site somewhere on the post. In days to come Google will index the link and it will contribute to both your ranks. It will have a direct effect for the writer of the post and an indirect effect on yours, lifting your sites credibility as your sites associations with industry become richer.
So, clasp your hands together and give those rusty old knuckles a crack, we've got some writing to do!
Happy blogging.
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