how to promote your business blog
TRANSCRIPT
How To Promote Your Business Blog
Maureen StoreyVirtuoso - Digital Marketing Services
Why have a blog for your business?
• Who you are• What you do• How you do it• Why you do it
Your blog is about You
• Promote products• Increase brand
awareness• Highlight new services• Show the person/people
behind the company• Enhance your SEO
strategy
Why have a blog for your business?
Communicate with your
customers
Provide interesting
and high quality
content
Show that you are the specialist and inform about & discuss your industry
Use Your Blog to Socialise
Engage with your customers, let
them vote or comment
Build trust by sharing useful information
Use a human voice and show your personality
Use Your Blog to Gain Visibility
Blogging enhances your online
presence
• Clients• Potential Clients• Business Partners• Search Engines
Before You StartWhat are you passionate about?
What information or
expertise could you share?
How much time can you spare?Who is your
target audience?
Plan your content / posts
(strategy!)
Then setup your Blog!
External Blogging Software• Top blogging platforms
– WordPress – www.wordpress.com– Google Blogger – www.blogger.com
• Free & user friendly content management system• Free and customisable designs/themes• Downloadable Widgets to enhance features e.g.
social media, optimisation, galleries• Free domain and hosting
– e.g. http://yourstyletrends.wordpress.com
Internal Blogginge.g. www.virtuoso.uk.com/blog
• WordPress www.wordpress.org
• Requires Hosting:– blog software installed by your web hosting
company
• Similar features to the free wordpress.com but with more Plugins - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
Internal or External Blog?• WordPress.com vs WordPress.org
– Pros & Cons http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/
– SEO Benefits – internal vs externalhttp://www.virtuoso.uk.com/blog
Posting on your BlogWho is your
audience?
Content is King write for them
Enable user interaction & comments.
How often can you blog?
Break up text – don’t write reams!
Plan your editorial calendar
Arrange your content & keep it up to date
Post on a regular basis
Ideas for Content• Share Hints & Tips• Blog about your industry –
trends, news etc.• Link to other relevant blogs• Start a conversation, seek
comments• Create “round-ups” of products• Make it visual – use images /
video
Magnetic Titles Include Trigger Words7 Amazing Tips To
Immediately Increase Your Confidence
10 Tips for a Killer Presentation
Stunning Designs to Create a
Contemporary
Dining Room
Free Kids Activities for Summer
Holidays in the North East
Who Else Wants a Great Blog
Template Design?
How to develop an amazing brand for your business?
Optimise Your Blog Posts• Use the best keywords
– What do users search for? Use Google Keyword Tool• Keep the keywords narrow
e.g. dining chairs, optimise for:leather dining chairsoak dining chairscontemporary dining chairs
• Create one/two keyword rich links back to your website– Use targeted keywords in your Anchor Text e.g.
dining chairs– Link to a relevant landing page
• Create categories and tags
Structure Your Permalinks• The first thing to change is your permalink
structure.
• In WordPress 3, you'll find this feature under Settings -> Permalinks.
• The default permalink is?p=<postid>, but we prefer to use either /post-name/ or /category/post-name/
• For the first option, you change the "custom" setting into /%postname%/
Optimise Your Post Title• Search engines put more weight on the
early words – use your keywords near the start of the page title and you are more likely to rank well.
• People scanning result pages see the early words first. If your keywords are at the start of your listing your page is more likely to get clicked on.
• Make your title attention grabbing & interesting
Shout About Your BlogLet Them Know How Good You Are
Tweet about your
postShare on Facebook
Bookmark on Social Bookmarking sites e.g.: delicious.com, digg.com, stumbleupon.com
Make your content easy to share – use Social Media plugins
Encourage users to subscribe – RSS or Email
Shout About Your BlogLet Them Know How Good You Are
Submit your blog to Google Blogs
Submit your blog to blog directories• portal.eatonweb.com• blogged.com• blogcatalog.com
Submit your post to article directories
• EzineArticles.com• GoArticles.com• ArticleDashboard.com
Hope you enjoyed the presentation
Maureen StoreyVirtuoso Digital Marketing Services