I just got back from a radio interview where they asked for my Top 5 Blogging Tips. Since I’m a strong supporter of business blogs, and our own web marketing blog generates so much search engine traffic, I figured I’d share those tips here on the Maine SEO Blog.

Own Your Own Domain Name

Make sure that you own your own domain name for your blog. That means you want to blog at mycompany.com/blog or mycompanyblog.com, but not mycompany.typepad.com or mycompany.wordpress.com. Two reasons for this:

1. When you blog on a domain owned by someone else (i.e., wordpress.com or blogspot.com) you’re building up trust for that domain, not for your own. Why would you want to blog for the man when you can blog for yourself?
2. If you ever need to change platforms (we did a couple of years back, moving from TypePad to WordPress) you will lose all of your inbound links if you didn’t first establish your own domain name. All those links to mycompany.typepad.com/whatever? They don’t get to come with you.

Blog so That the Search Engines Can Find You

That means starting with a keyword analysis to determine what keyword phrases your audience is using at the search engines. Then using those keywords in your blog post title, headers, in the first sentence or two, and sprinkled throughout your post. Also drop them in your meta-description, meta-keywords, tags, categories and alt-tags.

Create Keyword-Rich Links Back to Your Website

For many of us, a blog is the place where we establish our credibility and engage with our audience, while our website is where we do our sales. If this is the case for you, you should link your keywords in your blog post to appropriate pages on your website. For example, if you wanted to promote your web design skills you might blog about the top 10 web design mistakes and then link the words website design to the page on your website where you talk about your mad design skills.

Engage Your Audience On and Off Your Blog

If someone takes the time to comment on one of your posts (unless their “name” is SEO India, Whiter Teeth, or Natural Cialis) then you should respond to their comments. Likewise, you should be active in social networking on sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as applicable for your business, and engage your network; ask questions, answer queries, and promote their stuff as well. They will be more receptive and interested when you post a link to your most recent post.

Be Patient and Persistant

Blogging is not like PPC ads on Google; you don’t get page one results from day one. Instead, it takes time to succeed. I’d recommend 2 – 3 posts a week for six months before you start to get the results you’re looking for. Although that may seem daunting, those posts continue to drive new qualified leads to your site for as long as you have your blog. I have posts from 2006 that still bring in hundreds of new visitors every month. Now that’s return on investment.

Rich Brooks
Top 5 Lists Are Easier Than Top 10 Lists

Photo credit: WoodleyWonderWorks

Dear Maine SEO,

We’re trying to decide whether we should set up a business blog or do pay-per-click advertising. Which will provide a better return on investment?

–Marketing in Maine

Dear Marketing,

We’ve never recommended putting all your eggs in one basket, be they proverbial or free range. Both blogs–which help with your organic search rankings–and pay-per-click (PPC) ads–which appear on page one–can help deliver qualified traffic to your website.

One way to look at this is the difference between cooking in an aluminum pan vs. a cast-iron pan. The aluminum pan heats up quicker, but it also cools off quicker.

PPC advertising is a lot like that aluminum pan. If you need to get page one results on Google or Bing, you just need to pay them and your ads will start running immediately. Same day results. That’s fantastic for sites that may not otherwise do well in the organic results, such as new sites or sites that rely heavily on Flash.

However, the moment you stop paying them–whether because you hit your daily budget or you’ve decided that PPC is no longer for you–that traffic stops just as quickly. You’ll get no more benefit out of the money and time you’ve invested.

Compare this to blogging: you may not enjoy much search engine visibility for the first few months of your blogging and you’ll be putting in a lot of work…we’d recommend 2 – 3 keyword-rich posts a week of 300 words or more. However, once you’ve established your blog and built up trust and inbound links, your blog stays hot like a cast-iron pan.

In reviewing the top ten traffic generating posts this month at our web marketing blog, five of the posts are at least a year or two old, the oldest one was written in 2006! Five years later and it’s still pulling in hundreds of new visitors each month…that’s a much better payoff than most PPC campaigns in our opinion.

So, if your budget allows it, we might recommend setting up a small budget for PPC, but develop develop a business blog for your long term success.

Rich Brooks
Now You’re Cooking with Gas

Photo credit: Jeremy Noble

Last month, flyte relaunched a website for Levey & Wagley: a Maine law office specializing in Elder Law.

Like an Ecommerce website would optimize for products, we optimized for speciality services for Levey & Wagley. And while their speciality lies in elder law, Levey & Wagley also practice in:

• Estate Planning & Probate
• Special Needs Trusts
• Divorce & Family Law
• Real Estate
• Mediation & Alternative Dispute Resolution

Since WordPress was originally a blogging platform, Levey & Wagley (already a content-rich organization) has set out to the blogosphere. You’ll find a ton of great information about elder law, probate, and even tips for helping out your elderly parents!

So if you need an elder law, probate, divorce, or real estate attorney, be sure to give Levey & Wagley a call. If you need a blog or would like to easily update your website, give flyte a call.

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

Last month, flyte relaunched a website for Albin, Randall, & Bennett – a Certified Public Accountants firm right here in Portland, Maine.

The CPA firm took advantage of both a complete redesign as well as SEO. In order to enhance their search visibility as much as possible, Albin, Randall & Bennett (or ARB) decided to create specific service pages for their main areas of expertise, including:

• Automotive
• Construction
• Credit Union & Financial Institution
• Employee Benefit Plan
• Manufacturing
• Not-for-Profit

Like many websites that incorporate tools, ARB uses iFrames on certain pages of the website (like for their Financial Tools page). Search engines cannot usually read iFrames, but there are certain ways of making them work. Coupled with the same design elements as the website, iFrames can actually live quite harmoniously within a host.

With tax season nearly upon us, you might need a CPA in the area; and if you’re looking for a brand new design or SEO you might need flyte.

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO

A few weeks ago, flyte relaunched a WordPress website for SelectDwelling: a site that lists long-term home rentals in the Southwest Florida area.

The premise is simple: there’s a space for renters and a space for owners. Through some pretty extensive programming, the owners are able to create their own account, upload photos, add information – the whole nine yards.

Then, when a renter looks in a specific town, that property comes up in the search results. [There are more fantastic programming morsels that my marketing mind cannot grasp, you'll simply need to try it out for yourself.]

From a search standpoint, there’s an issue (as there often is with dynamically created content): how can we help individual listing pages rank better? Why, with a blog of course!

So if you’re planning on heading to South West Florida for an extended stay, be sure to check out SelectDwelling for the perfect long term rental and great things to do while there!

Nicki Hicks
Maine SEO