Marketing Blog

Much has been written about the fun and adventure of writing your own standalone blog. But mostly we are involved in adding blogs to existing websites. In that case, we make the blog appear to be integrated into the site so that the posts appear as pages on that site (as you see now, if you are reading this entry on our site, DynamicsUS.com). Some of the advantages of an integrated blog are:

• It allows a non-technical person to add fresh content to an otherwise static website.
   
• It gives website visitors the impression that the site is timely and well maintained.
   
• Blog posts get indexed in search engines and show up in search results. That brings visitors to your site.
   
• It further conveys your visual branding.
   
• Allowing comments gives you a chance to collect feedback on your content. You can choose to publish or not publish these comments. Comments also become searchable content.
   
• Blog posts can be positioned in other social networking outlets, such as on your LinkedIn profile (see mine, very easy to add, but you must be connected to me in order to see it), your Twitter account (see ours), or on other pages of your site (see our home page).

Our recent implementations of integrated blogs have used WordPress, a very powerful tool for blogging and content management. See a recent installation here. Please contact us if you are interested in having a blog added to your existing site.

Recap of Top 5 Tips:
1. Optimize Images
2. Optimize Videos
3. Optimize Press Releases
4. Optimize your Blog
5. Optimize your Social Media

6. Submit Your Site to Local Business Listings – These are the group of links that appear next to the image of a map when you do a search for a local business or service. Some typical searches that bring up local business listings are “Lawyers in Cleveland” or “Cleveland Cosmetic Dentist.” If your site is not well optimized, a local listing can quickly get your site ranked in the top ten search engine results. Creating a local business listing is an excellent example of using blended search results to get higher rankings.

7. Create a Wikipedia Entry – Wiki entries are almost always in the top five search engine results because they offer a enormous amount of searchable content on almost every subject. While the information may, or may not be 100% accurate, search engines still recognize wikis as a valuable resource for information. Creating a wiki is free and can provide exponential benefits for your website.

8. Submit Products to Google Shopping (formerly Froogle) – Google shopping provides a quick and easy way to get all of your products listed in Google with minimal effort. The only thing you need to do is upload a spreadsheet with all of your product images, descriptions and prices. The only downside is that you must resubmit your database every thirty days. This is a small price to pay to get your products found. Now if you have an e-commerce website, you can set up a data feed from your site that automatically feeds products into Google Shopping.

Here is an example of a Google Shopping listing for the keyword “Discount Office Chairs”

Office Chairs from the OfficeChairsExpert.com

9. Optimize Online Presentations – Tools like slideshare allow you to easily post PowerPoint presentations to your website. This not only adds valuable content to your site, but is also extremely convenient for visitors and email recipients (simply send them a link to the PowerPoint presentation). PowerPoint presentations have been showing up more and more in both Google and Yahoo.

10. Optimize for Organic – This is a no-brainer. Make sure your website is optimized. It is best to start with your own website by taking advantage of all on-site optimization elements first. When you have covered all of your bases, start with a few tips that I mentioned here and in my previous post about blended search. One thing to keep in mind when you are trying to optimize for blended search results is that this is a marketing or branding campaign for your business. Try to be consistent with your image and the terminology you use across the board and you will have success.