Blogging Basics and SEO Fundamentals (IMU)

June 20, 2009

Inbound Marketing University kicked off with two presentations focusing on the fundamentals: getting started with a blog and SEO basics. Both presentations were excellent introductions to the topic and I know that I’ll be using them as quick reference guides the next time someone asks me “Should I be blogging? How do I get started?” Here’s my summary of these first classes:

How to Blog Effectively for Business (GF101), Professors: Ann Handley and Mack Collier, MarketingProfs

Quick numbers – in 2008, 45% of people in the US read blogs on a monthly basis and 13% create/maintain a blog. Both of these numbers are expected to increase by 50% by 2013. So, even though Twitter and Facebook are currently getting all of the press, blogging is still a significant tool in your marketing arsenal. Blogging provides your company with a way to have a conversation with its customers, to establish expertise in a broader topic (i.e. a hotel company can provide expert advice on travel, not just its hotels), and to address potential crises (see this example from Hulu, also covered here in Mashable.)

Ann and Mack also discussed the general features (create/publish content, encourage dialogue) and components (sidebar, header, post, comments) of a blog as well as some of the significant benefits (Google loves blogs because the content is constantly changing and there’s always fresh info, this means that blogs can often rank higher than a traditional, static page.) Be warned, however, that once you start a blog it’s something you’re going to need to continue so make sure you have passionate (and qualified!) bloggers – nothing’s worse than a half-hearted attempt that ends in an abandoned blog.

Other quick tips:

Content should be relevant to your audience (a blog is a “value creation tool”), not just corporate-speak.
Comments are a way to engage your readers: use first names, listen and respond constructively to negative comments, create a formal comment policy to explain the rules of engagement.
Decide what you want to include on your blog and how it should be organized – once you know that, you can decide on the structure (2-columns, 3-columns, etc.)
There are blog platforms at all price ranges for all levels of technical skill. Pick one that fits your company.

Here’s the presentation:

#1 IMU: How to Blog Effectively for Business (GF101)

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SEO Crash Course to Get Found (GF102), Professor: Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing

n this presentation, Lee walked us through the fundamentals of search engine optimization (SEO), which can generally be defined as “a set of methodologies that make it easier for search engines to find, index, categorize, and rank web content.” If you’re new to SEO, I’d highly recommend watching Lee’s presentation below where he spells out these basics with several examples along the way. Here are a couple of tidbits that really stood out to me:

Media usage: 48 million people receive a daily newspaper, 285 million people watch TV monthly, 14 billion core searches are performed monthly. When you’re looking where to spend your marketing dollars, don’t underestimate the visibility that good SEO can bring you. In fact, SEO is the most effective online marketing tactic for generating conversions. (See Forbes’ 2009 Ad Effectiveness Survey for details.)
- Examples: J&O Fabrics, Smart-Kit.com, Will it Blend? – all used SEO techniques to increase visitors, traffic, and sales while reducing marketing costs. Some are now monetizing that traffic stream and collecting revenue coming and going.
Google uses over 500 different “signals” to analyze and return the most effective search results to its users.
Fun Fact: Google has a “Wonder Wheel” option (it’s on the left nav bar when you select “Show options…”)
SEO Fundamentals: use keywords effectively, create a search-friendly site, build links.
Changing your web design, content management system or website software can destroy your search visibility if you do not plan a migration.
Link building (well, really all SEO stuff, I think ) is something that you should plan on doing forever. You should always be looking in (reviewing stats, performance, etc.) and looking out (are there new keywords? new link sources?).