If there is one fact that is hard to dispute, it is that blogs are easier to optimize for search result placement. Done effectively, search engine optimization can take a blog to the top of the search results fairly quickly which results in increases in traffic.
One argument I hear is that this traffic is going to the blog, not to the website and it is through the website that sales are made. This can actually be an error in thinking. Blogs can actually make the sale and the website becomes the portal to complete that sale.
If you can approach blogs as being a part of your sales team and not just an advertising vehicle, your sales will increase and with it your customer loyalty. The interactive nature of blogs helps a website to build relationships with customers and potential customers. If your product or service is of an acceptable standard then you find those customers returning time after time.
Undertaking a good search engine optimization program on a blog is not difficult. Using software such as WordPress, together with plugins desinged to make SEO easier, your blog can start to climb the search rankings fairly quickly. The more pages of good content you provide, the easier it can become. Gaining a ranking does lead to increases in traffic, traffic that is free.
Do blogs help to deliver more traffic to your website? Blogs will only deliver more traffic to your website if your content draws them to it. Having good content with a professional page, a suitable placed call to action and a product/service that is related to your blogs pages will increase your traffic.
What should be looked at is not the increase in traffic. It is the increase in sales that is the most important metric. The extra traffic to your website may only increase marginally compared to the amount of traffic your blog receives. However, that traffic going to your website is often there to close the deal. You can achieve conversions well over 50% from blog traffic. Compare this to the 5-10% conversion from direct search traffic to your website, and your blog is paying for itself very quickly.
Make your blog a part of your sales team and let it do the selling for you – after all, your blog is receiving the extra traffic – make it count.
Responding To Comments Can Help Your Blog SEO
Some bloggers are quite precise in the way they handle their blogs. They perform very tight blog SEO strategies to ensure their blogs rank as highly as possible in the search engines. Sometimes you can go to extremes and find you are harming you blog or your blogs reputation.
One tactic I have seen used is to turn comments off on certain posts. The reason? They have crafted their post with carefully placed keywords and they feel that comments will dilute the keyword ratio.
Let’s be clear about one myth about keywords, there is no specific keyword ratio that works better than another. Obviously your keywords do need to appear regularly. However, to say 10%, or 5% or 7.5% is not accurate. Keywords should appear naturally within the content. Effective blog SEO places keywords in the title, in any headings and then throughout the post.
Will comments dilute this keyword ratio? Probably not. If you feel that comments may dilute your keyword ratio, rather than turning comments off, you can respond to comments using keywords within your response. This can help to maintain your keyword ratio if you insist on using one.
Comments are a valuable component of any blog. It is throught he comment interaction that you can develop relationships with other bloggers. This invariably leads to increases in links, one of the most important aspects of blog SEO.
Don’t switch off your comments, use them to help your blog SEO program and ultimately boost your rankings.
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