Understanding the value of a corporate blogging strategy starts with a solid understanding of organic (or natural) search engine optimization (SEO). Sure, there are thousands of articles and books that will tell you everything about organic search and then some, but learning these simple fundamentals will take you a long ways.

WHY IS RANKING WELL IN THE ORGANIC SEARCH RESULTS SO IMPORTANT?

In the simplest terms, it’s important because it’s a way for prospects to find you. Every day, your prospects are going online and searching for products and services related to your business. If you aren’t present in the organic search results, then you’re missing out on a huge audience that is asking for your product or solution!

JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING FOR THINGS THAT RELATE TO MY ORGANIZATION?

According a recent Piper Jaffery study, “44% of all web visits begin with a search as opposed to a specific URL or destination.” That could be thousands or millions of searches depending on your industry. And search will continue to grow as the most significant channel in new customer awareness and acquisition.

I SHOW UP FOR PAID KEYWORDS. WHY ISN’T THAT SUFFICIENT?

Because PPC ads get a fraction of the clicks that organic results get. According to MarketingSherpa’s Search Engine 2008 Guide, “To say that 99 people out of 100 click on the natural search results is probably an underestimate.” Being present only on the PPC side means a lot of missed opportunity.

Also, paid ads tend to lead to a lower conversion rates. This may be due to the wariness individuals feel when they know they are being “marketed to.” Because organizations can’t buy their way into the organic search results, the trust factor goes up.

WHAT DO SEARCH ENGINES TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION WHEN RANKING RESULTS?

There are a few key factors here:

• Page Titles
  Search engines consider your page title to be very indicative of what can be found on the page.”The best title is one that matches the phrase that someone has just searched on. Keyword-rich Content Search engines also love finding keywords within your content. The challenge is maintaining a “healthy range,” which simply means that the page is dense enough with keywords that it’s easy to identify as relevant to the search at hand, but not so dense with keywords that it hinders readability.
  
  
• Specificity
  The focus of your webpage is rewarded by the search engines. Keeping content on topic can help build authority in specific areas.
  
  
• Links
  Inbound links are important, both in terms of quantity and quality. Search engines look at the credibility of the sites linking to your webpage, the number of sites linking to your webpage, and the age of the links pointing to your webpage. It makes sense that a link from a site that has been around for a few years is perceived as more valuable than a site that went up yesterday.
  
  
• Age
  Spam sites come and go, but trust is built by the search engines over time. When it comes to ranking well in the search engines, older content helps demonstrate credibility.
  
  
• Recency & Frequency
  Building content takes time, and that commitment reflects an interest to the search engine that is rewarded. Recency is a term that relates to how recently the site has been updated. All things being equal, the more recently updated site gets the advantage. Frequency is simply how often the site is updated.
  
  

WHY DO BLOGS PERFORM SO WELL IN THE ORGANIC RESULTS?

By nature, blogs play up all of the factors that search engines take into consideration when determining how to rank results. Recency, frequency, links, and keyword-rich content are inherent to a blog. Add in the conversational tone, human-driven content, and ability to organize content into several narrow topics, and it’s easy to see why a blogging program is more search-engine friendly. And most importantly, usability and scalability constraints don’t enter the picture.

WHAT KINDS OF PRACTICES DO SEARCH ENGINES DISLIKE?

The search engines are trying to keep Spam out. Their goal is to deliver real, relevant, meaningful content. Stuffing an unreasonable amount of keywords into your content (this includes “invisible text”), paying for links, and putting up fake pages (also known as doorway pages) are all frowned upon. These are known as “black hat” techniques. Basically, anything that will give the visitor a poor experience is a bad idea.

A comparison to email marketing can help drive this point home. In 2001, AOL was the gatekeeper for the majority of commercial email. In attempt to deliver relevant content to subscribers, and keep Spam out, AOL put certain guidelines in place. Companies that were producing real, valuable content prevailed. The same thing is happening in the search engines. Those who are producing “junk” will suffer, and those who are producing valuable content will prevail.

I’VE HEARD SEARCH ENGINES DISLIKE DUPLICATE CONTENT. IS THIS TRUE?

If you think about the search engines’ goal of delivering real, relevant, meaningful content, then it is easy to understand “what kind” of duplicate content the search engines dislike. Sharing some similar content among web pages is not an issue as long as the intent is to keep the content on that page focused on the topic at hand. Having several pages that are exactly alike and do not have focused content can create issues, especially if leads to an unfulfilling visitor experience. Using the same content on two different domains, in attempt to “lock up” a few results on the search page is another poor practice. Google and other search engines understand that most duplicate content is not deceptive in origin. As a result, they do their best to determine which version of the content should appear in the search results for a particular search phrase.

WHAT HAPPENS IF THE SEARCH ENGINES CHANGE THE FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO HIGH RANKINGS?

As long as your organization’s intention is to deliver meaningful content, the tweaks or modifications that the search engines make should have a minimal impact on you. Organizations that spend a lot of time fretting about search engine changes are likely to be doing something that isn’t in the best interest of searchers and webpage visitors.

CONCLUSION

The Yellow Pages are out, and search is in. Search engines will continue to grow as the most significant channel in new customer awareness and acquisition, and it’s in your best interest to embrace the trend. Blogging is naturally conducive to great search engine optimization. There are no tricks or games: the search engines set the guidelines. With a solid foundation on search engine optimization, the value of corporate blogging should be more apparent than ever.

© 2007 COMPENDIUM BLOGWARE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. | 002202008

Compendium Blogware is a software as a service (SAaS) company that simplifies blogging with user-friendly tools geared specifically towards organizations. Its unique blogging software helps companies improve their organic search engine rankings and convert blog visitors into customers with human interaction and relevant content. To learn more visit www.compendiumblogware.com.