SEO Blog

The Parliamentary upheaval caused by the MP’s expenses scandal shows no sign of abating. Using the latest statistics provided by Blogpulse, it’s clear that our elected officials are still getting a pretty rough ride online as well as in Westminster and their constituencies.

If nothing else, this indicates the power that bloggers and professional news sources have. The blanket coverage, with the news represented from all angles and viewpoints, has been merciless. Major stories don’t simply appear and disappear like they may have done previously. Buzz can grow and continue to snowball through the ever-growing online blogging community as illustrated below.

This chart highlights the popularity of the term 'MPs Expenses'

Blogpulse gives a fantastic insight into what is popular at any one moment in time. It shows the peaks and troughs that all topics go through with clear charts and statistics. Anybody can simply search for a specific term or even a selection of different stories to find out exactly what is hot and identify those trends early.

The graphic below shows the relative popularity of three events that may well have people talking in the days to come. This compares the popularity of the terms ‘FA Cup’, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ (both of which reach their final stage on Saturday) and ‘MP’s expenses’, just for a marker. From this we can see that Britain’s Got Talent is head and shoulders above the rest in terms of blog mentions and I think it would be a big surprise if that trend didn’t continue over the weekend too.

Comparative popularity of Britain’s Got Talent, FA Cup & MP’s Expenses

Whilst the results shown above may not be particularly useful to many businesses, it does give a clear indication of what the rest of the world is talking about. Plus you have the opportunity to shape the words searched for to suit your particular sector, there’s no boundaries to who or what can be analysed.

Whilst it can be a passing dalliance of interest and a bit of mischievous fun (see below for the comparisons of Barack Obama, Gordon Brown and talent show finalist Susan Boyle for clarification), understanding where the buzz is before anyone else can give you some real leverage, particularly in the competitive world of blogging.

Gordon Brown lags a long way behind both Boyle & Obama online

To become an authority in your niche means that you must exhibit credibility. On the Internet, credibility means demonstrating a reassuring presence, projecting yourself as a trusted authority that people can place their confidence in when looking for answers.

Most people use Search Engines to find answers to questions they have, or solutions to problems they’ve encountered. By becoming an authority in your particular niche, you can be the first person that people turn to, on and offline for help and advice. This can massively increase traffic to your website and make you the most trusted authority for your niche on the Internet.

So how do you become an authority?

Blogging
More than 12 million people in the UK read a blog each day. It’s a quick, simple way of disseminating your knowledge on the Internet with little or no cost. You can host your blog at one of the good free blogging websites such as Blogger or WordPress. Or you can add a WordPress blog to your own website and blog from there. Pick a daily topic and air your views, remember to naturally sprinkle in some powerful keywords and add keyword inspired content tags to your blog posts. Soon, others will link to your blog, disseminating your knowledge (crediting you) and spreading your authority for you without any effort on your part. See our blog marketing services page if you can see this fitting your business.

Guest Blogging
If your blogging is successful, you can ask, or be asked to guest blog on higher profile websites, this adds further credibility.

Optimised Forums
Contributing to forums that are Search Engine optimised is a great way to disseminate your niche expertise. People ask questions and look for solutions all the time on forums, you’ll quickly become known for the excellent, reliable solutions that you can provide and on the occasion that they need to buy a product or service, they’re much more likely to come to you.

Expert Articles
A tried and tested way to gain total authority in your niche is publishing free articles online. By becoming an expert article author on your own website and Google-friendly submission sites, you can help people across the world benefit from your expertise and grow your authority globally. At Impact Media, we have a range of article marketing services that provide an effective solution for anyone looking to use this strategy as part of their online marketing efforts.

Publish a Book or eBook
Authorship always creates authority in a subject area. If you’ve published a book on the subject of your niche, then people will place a huge amount of trust in you. A good second-best option is to release an eBook. eBooks are the perfect way to demonstrate your authority in your niche, and what’s more people can buy it directly from you website, so you can earn money from it.

Publish Press Releases about your Achievements
There are hundreds of free and paid press release-publishing services online. When you release a product, add a service or do anything newsworthy, release a Press Release about it.

Podcasts/Vidcasts
Whether it’s from your website or from iTunes, you can disseminate your expert knowledge through audio podcasts. Giving away knowledge is one of the best ways to gain trust and it’s even better accompanied by the sound of your own voice. Video Casts work similarly but increase the credibility because people get a chance to ‘meet’ you.

Combine all this with being top on Google, and you’ve got a powerful way to boost your business. Whilst you can use an SEO company such as Impact Media to help you with many of these activities, your results will be greatly improved if you actively contribute to your niche and develop authority.

On the 8th Day of Christmas, Impact Media share 8 blogging resources:

1. Wordpress. Open-source blogging software. A multitude of uses
2. Free WordPress Video Theme, courtesy of Impact Media
3. BlogPulse. Find out what’s hot in the blogosphere
4. Backtype. Find, follow and share comments
5. BloggerDesign. Great tips on blog design and usability
6. Performancing Metrics. Blog stats, in real time
7. ProBlogger. Darren Rouse provides ‘sledgeloads‘ of tips and advice
8. BlogCatalog. A ’social blogger community’, i.e. blog directory with interaction between bloggers

Blogs are normally used to share opinions and allow people to add comments and ask questions.

Properly maintained and used blogs can provide a host of valuable and free information for surfers and are very rich in unique content. As such they are very popular with the search engines.

Blogs are now being adopted more and more by business’ but why? That’s easy, because not only can they communicate to your clients and potentials clients but they can also be a great source of traffic for you. If you have a business and you are knowledgeable on your niche then the chance are you have a lot to offer people in the way of information.

Information you can blog about are:

• Tips
• How to Guides
• Articles on different subjects
• Latest products
• Discounts and offers
• New Clients
• Latest Company News
• Jobs and Recruitment

There are many benefits to blogging within your business but the main 4 are:

1. Increase your online visibility for the blogged about subjects
2. Become an industry authority on your niche subject
3. Create a rapport with potential clients and show you are a real company not just a pretty site
4. Keep existing clients informed

Blogging does take effort and discipline to ensure it is kept up to date and current but it is well worth it when you start seeing the results.

The only warning I would give is if you are not prepared to keep your blog up to date you are better off not having one as nothing puts potential clients off like an out of date blog.