SEO in The Desert

By Nick Lewis

Blogs are often maligned as websites’ younger cousins. However, they can actually be very effective in getting your message out. The crown jewel of social media is to become an authority in your particular market and blogs are a great way to do that. Guest blogging allows your reach to extend even further.

A good blog can be the centre of an effective social media marketing strategy, and, particularly if it’s hosted on the website you want to promote; can be an excellent way of driving traffic. Websites are fantastic for pushing your message out there, but blogs allow greater flexibility in staying up to date and demonstrating your specialist knowledge in your particular niche.

Not only that, but a well loved blog can become a platform for guest blogging, which will allow you to spread your genius even further into cyberspace. If you contribute a knowledgeable post to a well-respected blog, traffic will follow you back to yours, which will have earned extra kudos as a destination for decent information by virtue of your guest post.

On the flipside, if you can attract guest bloggers to write on your blog, you not only get the benefit of having fresh content to appease the Google gods, but you are further entrenching your blog’s authoritative reputation. This can be spread throughout other social media channels to drive even more traffic to your blog, which will translate to traffic for your website (if it has been designed effectively).

The potential benefits to be reaped from keeping a good blog, guest blogging and attracting guest bloggers are obvious, and that is why a blog should be a key part of your web design. An orphaned blog will serve no purpose; you may attract readers but the end-goal is for them to click-through to your actual website. As such it is a good idea to host it on your website so that people are already there, and need merely follow header links to discover your services. Making blog integration a key feature of your web design will allow you to drive traffic to your products or services much more effectively than tacking one on at the end.

The marketing strategy of blogging and guest blogging is simple: become an expert and establish yourself as an authority. As every blog thrives on fresh content, most well reputed blogs will be open to the suggestion, and it is an easy way of showing off your knowledge.

Nick Lewis is resident social media guru and copywriter for web design Brighton company BozBoz, who offer a full digital service, from web development to Brighton SEO, and everything in between..

This article is an original post from The Web Optimist – SEO in The Desert.

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Tags: bloggers, blogging, google, guest blogging, media marketing, SEO, specialist knowledge

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 24th, 2010 at 6:33 am and is filed under SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.