But placing too much emphasis on SEO at the expense of quality content is a risky move. Don't believe me? Check out this Forbes post from last year in which contributor Ken Krogue discusses the decline of SEO at the hand of Google's Penguin algorithm. It hit SEO hard by decreasing the search engine rankings of companies that used schemes to increase their rankings artificially.
As Krogue put it, Google wants...
... relevant, real content on the internet that people want to read and tell other people about. If Google doesn't bring you the most relevant content when you search they aren't doing their job.
That doesn't mean you should abandon SEO altogether. Instead, you need to utilize it to support your content, not the other way around. Selecting the right keywords - those that identify your topic - and using them in a natural way has always made for better content than postings over-stuffed with the same worn-out phrase needlessly repeated again and again.
Unfortunately, the tough part for many small business operators is the ability to:
1. Choose the right topic,
2. Select the best keywords.
3. Use those keywords in the right spots.
4. Put appropriate alt-tags on links, and most of all:
5. Write the post.
I work for a Kansas City web design company. We have dozens of SEO clients. Each and every company knows the importance of regular blog posting for SEO. Despite good intentions, many of our clients do not have the time or internal resources to create blog posts on a regular basis.
Gary Hassler owns a Kansas City car detailing company. He couldn't agree more: "We had great SEO rankings for a long time and still do quite well, yet we have seen our rankings slip a little in recent months. Not surprisingly, the other car detailers that have gained ground all have active blogs. Yet, I simply do not have time to write blog posts on a regular basis."
There is a killer app out there for everything under the sun. If only there was an app for writing posts.
It turns out there is!
It's not actually an app, but it's as easy as using an app. What is it? It's a business writing service that can take the pain out of coming up with new blog posts week after week.
I've looked around a lot, and the writing service I've found to be the best is BlogMutt. They have a funny tagline: "We work like a dog to fill up your blog!"
I've been using them now for a while, and they make it so easy. I just signed up with some keywords and within a day I had three high-quality posts written just for my business. All of them were ready for me to just copy, paste and post.
Blogmutt relies on the skills of expert bloggers who know how to balance subject matter with SEO. That means one less thing keeping me awake at night.
In 2011, Slingshot SEO conducted a survey and found that when it comes to search engine rankings, being #1 does matter.
For Google, the study showed that the #1 position netted 18.2% of the Click-Through Rates, 10.0% went to #2, and 7.2% went to position #3. For Bing, the numbers were 9.7%, 5.5%, and 2.7%, respectively.
Why is this important? As the survey points out:
An organic Click-Through Rate (CTR) on search engines is one of the best metrics to measure user engagement on the internet.
Previously I mentioned that SEO is a useful tool to rank higher in search engines like Google and Bing. This proves my point. However, knowing how to use SEO may require the assistance of a blog writing service.
If you're a small business owner who's feeling uncertain about how to drive visitors to your website, understand that SEO is an important part of your business arsenal. If you're still not convinced, here are some more statistics:
o 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search engine rankings
o Search is the number one source of external traffic for content sites and drives 41% of external traffic
o 92% of adults use search engines to find information
o SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate
For nearly all small, niche or local businesses, regular blogging is a critical component of an overall SEO strategy. But great content doesn't happen by chance. It takes time, energy, and talent; something a good business writing service, like Blogmutt, can offer.
