If you know a llittle SEO, then you are familiar with the idea that Google looks on links between sites as votes. The more links you have from external sites, the more votes you receive. As you build up more links to your corporate blog you will inevitably attract more traffic from the big G and other search engines. Fine, sounds easy?
Getting other site owners to link back to your site can easily become a mammoth task with little payback. However, Buildify point you in the direction of some little tips and tricks that can be helpful. Whether it's getting onto meme sites like Techmeme or answering questions on Yahoo Answers, Buildify's post on Corporate Blogging Link Building Strategies will help you get started.
And once the momentum gets going, that is when the results start coming through.
In a review of the Starwoods Hotel Blog, John Cass picks up on the point that it can be worth writing less and spending more time building relationships.
This side of corporate blogging definitely shouldn't be underestimated. Definitely leverage your blog as a way to build relationships with others in the community.
SEOMoz does a great job of looking at corporate blogs from an SEO angle. Anyone involved in corporate blogging is probably aware that Google and the other engines really can breathe life into your blog. Even if your blog is prominently displayed on your website, it's still common to see the big G take pole position in your referrer list.
So what exactly does the even-popular Whiteboard Friday bring to the table? Tips include optimizing your navigation to help draw your blog traffic into your core website. Why not use the same top navigation you use across your site?
Getting into more in-depth SEO strategy, Scott Willoughby suggests that you shouldn't use your blog to go after the same keywords you have optimized your main site for. The logic here is that your main (commercial) site will do a much better job of converting your users. Your blog can often outrank this site and so can pull in traffic from your key terms. Here's the rub: what if you have much better potential for drawing higher rankings from your blog? Can it not be legitimate to effectively use a corporate blog to garner these rankings which might otherwise allude you? We've chosen this approach and so far it's been working. For whatever reason, it is much easier for us to generate regular content on the blog, the blog attracts more links and in many cases has cleaner themes than our corporate site. Why shouldn't we use this medium to target our top commercial terms?
It has been a while since we have heard from Technorati on just how many blogs are out there. I recently found myself peddling figures from early 2007. Which is like measuring the motor industry on the number of Ford Model T's out there.
Apparently an update is in sight. According to the latest study, something you may have noticed is that blogs are here to stay. To date, Technorati has indexed around 113 million posts. For me a startling find is that more than half of all bloggers are professional - that is they blog about their industry or profession (not necessarily as the main part of their job). Maybe I spend too much time tracking the corporate blogging industry and the surrounding hype, but it appears like this trend will not abate as time goes on.
TechWeb Media pull together some pithy aphorisms on what makes a blog successful. For instance, Jeff Quip of Search Engine People says it is all about network: that's the only way good posts get read. Ain't that the truth.
More and more CEOs are turning to Twitter as a way to effectively communicate to employees, customers and the outside world in general.
Is this a big surprise? On the one hand, no... the medium is well suited to handling short, sharp communication from those with little time on their hands. On the other hand, the CEO community are not necessarily well known for being early adopters. And while you could say you are hardly an early adopter for joining Twitter now, the platform has still to make major dents into the mainstream.
Jason Fried from 37signals shows how they managed to generate substantial revenue through their blog content: on-site advertising, creation of an e-book and a conference on the back of this.
I would suggest that upfront it helps if you have a successful blog!
Apparently Jason Calacanis, one of the early originators of the blogging medium, is jumping ship. He is done with the catty comments and slew of linkbait.
Still, according to this post in the courrier-journal, there are gleaming success stories. The Marriott group can trace how many reservations have been made through their blog (odd scenario).
If you are looking for examples of where corporate blogging can work, definitely check out this post on marketing in the blogosphere.
