This article is contributed by Madoline Hatter. Madoline is a freelance writer and blog junkie from ChangeOfAddressForm.com.
When it comes to getting exposure for your site it all starts with creating a blog. A blog is a great way to use organic SEO or search engine optimization to bring attention to your website. A blog works well because of several reasons. One reason a blog works well with SEO is that you can use keywords to raise your ranking on search engines without artificially filling your site with junk. There is nothing I hate to visit more than a website for a company that is filled with keywords in random places. Instead incorporate a blog into your website to make the most of keywords and other organic SEO tactics while still giving readers what they want: quality content.
1. Make sure your blog and website are connected
The first step to using a blog to get organic traffic to your website is to make sure your blog is actually connected to your website. I have seen many companies that use a different web address for their blog or even a whole different site. This is just foolish. The whole point of the blog is to bring people into your main site. The best way to connect your blog is to use a simple method of creating another page on your site for it. This means when someone goes to your site “www.123rent.com”, they can easily see your blog page and click on it to go to “www.123rent.com/blog” or vice versa. By using your main website as the base for your blog you raise your website’s rankings in search engines like Google and you make it easy for readers to visit your site when they encounter your blog.
2. Know who your target market is
After you get your blog properly set up your next step is to figure out who your target market is. I am sure you have a general location in mind, let’s say within twenty miles of your physical location, but you should also know who you are renting to. Do you have low income property? Luxury living? Do you cater to busy executives or large families? Do you have amenities for children or teens, or you more oriented towards the elderly? By determining who your target market is you can more effectively make use of your SEO to gain their attention. After all, if you are catering to seniors there is little point to writing articles about day care centers in your area.
3. Do your research for keywords
Once you have determined who your target market is the next step is to find out what they are looking for. There are many sites online that can help you to find out what people search for in regards to your website’s topic. For senior living, for example, they might search for “transportation”, “group activities”, “meal plans” and the like. By determining what the keywords and phrases are you can target your blog posts to reflect these issues they are concerned with. That will not only give your readers something valuable but it will also help to get you more traffic to your site by raising your search engine rankings for those specific terms.
4. Connect to social media
Regardless of your target market you should always have your blog and website connected to social media. Today social media is the backbone of searches. Everyone is looking for that personal touch and sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are some of the ways you can connect with people in a personal way. By connecting your site with social media you can increase your audience and get more exposure to your blog and your website.
5. Update a lot
One important thing you need to remember about having a blog is the fact that you must keep it updated. A dead blog is worse than no blog at all. That does not mean you have to make a new blog post every day, but going more than a week or two between posts is really pushing it. Blogs are very time sensitive. The more recent your posts are the higher the amount of traffic you will get. Unless you keep your blog active you will not see the results you are looking for. That does not mean you have to create huge, long blog posts. Five hundred to two thousand words per post is fine. Anything longer than that and you get boring, but if you go much shorter than you do not have enough content for the search engine to pick up on. Updating your blog should become part of your routine and can help to keep traffic coming into your site on a regular basis.
6. Make your site and blog style match
Another thing that website owners often forget is to make sure the style of your blog and your website match. There is nothing more disconcerting than reading a blog and then visiting a website with a whole other vibe to it. Let’s say you have luxury living. Then your site probably has a luxury feel to it with calm colors and maybe even a tropical theme. But if your blog is in neon pink and orange it just does not seem to fit the idea of what you are selling. Make sure you treat your blog as carefully as you do your website. It will often be the first thing that visitors see and we all know how important first impressions are.
7. Use images and multimedia
Speaking of first impressions you do not want your blog to be boring. Having an all text blog is effective in some aspects of organic SEO, but to really get an audience interested in reading you need to add images to your blog posts. These images can be found for free at sites like FreeDigitalPhotos.net or you can use your own images if you would like. Other things like videos and infographics also add to the appeal of your blog. Even a simple infographic can tell readers a lot and be picked up by social media very easily. Making a video is not hard to do nowadays, or you can share one from sites like YouTube. There are many ways to use multimedia to make your blog exciting to readers.
8. Get your site’s name out there
Another aspect to organic SEO is getting your site out in public view. Like I said earlier, social media is one way to do that. Connecting your blog to Facebook, for example, allows you to post blog updates and important info to your Facebook page where it will pop up in follower’s newsfeeds. Another way to get exposure is to connect with other bloggers. Large blogs often allow guest posts where you can write content for them and they will allow you to add a link back to your site. That way you get exposure to all their traffic and the possibility of some of it coming over to check out your website. You can also get links and exposure by being generous. Giving time, money or goods to non-profit organizations or things like disaster relief often means a link back to you on their site. This can mean access to their huge amount of traffic. Finally, you can also use comments to get your name out there. Responding to discussions related to your site’s topic can get you exposure in new ways. For example let’s say you ran across a blog post on a large site that talked about how dumb pet deposits were. You could respond by telling them the reasons behind it in a cool and logical manner. That response could spur people that read it to visit your site and find out more about what you offer.
These are just a few of the ways that you can use organic SEO to get more exposure for your site. There are many people that charge an arm and a leg to do these simple things for you but there is no reason to pay. Just invest a little time and effort and it will pay off in the long run. Keep in mind that organic SEO takes a little longer, so keep it up and eventually you will get results.
This article is contributed by Madoline Hatter. Madoline is a freelance writer and blog junkie from ChangeOfAddressForm.com.
