You’ve got a Facebook profile, claimed your business on Google Maps and Foursquare, and you may even have a Twitter account. So far, your businesses is well situated to use the internet and social platforms to generate business and raise awareness of your brand.

But there is one other platform where your business is absent: Blogs.

The natural inclination of businesses is that blogs are time-consuming and labor-intensive. I won’t dispute that — blog posts require time and effort to write and publish.

But the benefits to maintaining a company blog are considerable. Consider the following:

1. Distribute content. Having presences on social media platforms is great. In addition to communication platforms, social media are also distribution platforms. Post your blogs to Facebook, Twitter and anywhere else you are active.
2. Improve SEO. The more of your content that search engines have to crawl, the better your search engine results will be when someone searches for your company
3. Advertise products. Blogs offer businesses a place to advertise and discuss their products.
4. Build reputation. Use a company blog to cement your company’s and your own status as an expert in a field, via informative posts.
5. Create community. Use your company blog as a gathering place for customers. Stick to a content schedule so that customers are waiting for your next post.

There are more reasons to do it than just the five above, but that’s a good start.

In the rush for businesses to get on Facebook and Twitter, some are forgetting about the value of blogs to their business. When developing an online and social media strategy, don’t forget to include a company blog in the planning.

When used correctly, company blogs can become an asset to the company’s presence online.

Ben has been a guest blogger for such prestigious online communities as Media140.org, Econsultancy.com and FreshNetworks.com. His areas of expertise include developing and implementing unique strategies in Social Media Marketing; Multimedia Content Creation, Distribution and Aggregation; Blogging; Online Community Development (internal and external); Customer Relationship Management (CRM); and Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM). Ben has worked in industries ranging from non-profits, to farming, IT, luxury marketing, academia, news media, textiles and destination resorts.

I met Ben through a brief Twitter exchange one evening (surprise) while we were both up late working on marketing plans. He quickly showed himself to be a very creative, intelligent and knowledgeable online marketer and journalist, the kind of professional that’s hard to find, that you can’t have too many of these days.

While Ben is the kind of person who may operate his own full-time consultancy one day, our plans are to slowly, get him addicted to the high-octane, double-caffeinated coffee we brew around here, then “convince” him its best not to leave. At any rate, as long as he’s working on his thesis, Ben will be ours! Look for Ben to be contributing to “Make Belief”, the official blog of Renaissance Creative with a focus on new and social media; web marketing trends; branding and community building.

He’ll also be taking a look at the online presences of businesses throughout North Florida, so don’t be surprised if you get a phone call from him one day, or if walks in and introduces himself and offers to show you how we might be able to help your business in this challenging and ever-changing new economy.

Welcome Ben!

1. Provide Valuable Content – For successful search engine optimization (SEO), content is king. Provide information on your site that your target audience will appreciate. Make yourself a resource. COST: FREE

2. Write Effective Meta Tags – The three most important are your Title, Description and Keyword tags. Titles are the text seen at the top of browser windows on all pages. These are the most important to search engines. They indicate what each individual page is about. They should be succinct (not exceeding 75 characters), include high traffic keywords and for most businesses, be geographically specific.
Description tags are the descriptive copy web-surfers see when organic search results pop up. This information helps people determine if they want to visit your site, so make them strategic (use keywords), informative and compelling (250 characters or so).
Keywords are a list of words and phrases relevant to the content of your site. They are not as important as Titles and Descriptions, but still help. COST: Once written, an hour or two of coding time

3. Secure Inbound Links – Incoming links into your website increase traffic. Also, when Google and other search engines see multiple incoming links into your site, they assume it’s important and rank it higher. Encourage as many relevant links into your site as you can. This can include strategic “partners”; satellite offices; Chambers; subs, etc. One-way links are considered the most natural and desirable, though “reciprocal links” are fine, if they are logical. COST: FREE

4. Submit Your Website to Directories – Submit your site to key directories, providing as much information as possible. Then scouting the numerous other business and specialized industry directories. The important ones include: Google Local Listings (aka Google Maps); Yahoo Local; MSN Live Search; and the Open Directory Project (dmoz.com). COST: FREE

5. Blog – Want links? Become a resource; encourage inbound traffic; publicize new content; and encourage others to pick up your stories, all in one step! The secret to blogging: Don’t worry about being a journalist; keep it short, conversational and dedicate a set period of time to it (an hour or two a week). COST: FREE

6. Pinging Services – If you’re going to put in the time to blog, make sure people know. Each time you make a new entry, visit Google Blog Search Ping Utility at http://blogsearch.google.com/ping and type in your blog address. Pingomatic.com is another good one. COST: FREE

7. Write & Submit Articles – See #5 Above. Submit content to article directories for abundant backlinks. Go to www.ezinearticles.com to begin. COST: FREE

8. Write and Distribute Press Releases – Yes, you can do it yourself for only the cost of your time. Distribution is free at PRlog.com COST: FREE

9. Leverage Social Networks – Linkedin for professionals; Facebook for friends and family. Both provide invaluable exposure for your website and your content and there are many more. COST: FREE

10. Promote Yourself In Online Forums & Blogs – Participate in online groups. Get started by investigating Google Groups (groups.google.com) COST: FREE

Well over half (57%) of American households have broadband and they spend more than 30% of their media time, online. According to a 2008 NAR survey of Home Buyers and Sellers, 87% of homebuyers said they used the internet as a resource when researching residential real estate. That’s 2% more than those who said they consulted a real estate agent! Does this mean that Realtors are no longer relevant and/or that traditional advertising is dead? Not by a long shot!

The survey also reported that a healthy 47% of searchers looked at newspapers or other print ads (5th place, behind Internet- 87%, real estate agents-85%, yard signs-62% and open houses-48%). And that of the 87% percent of home buyers who used the Internet to search for a home—well, 87% of those folks eventually purchased through a real estate agent! These statistics tell us that real estate marketing (still) relies on strategic, integrated marketing utilizing both on- and offline media to deliver targeted messages to various audiences; and on the expertise of trained professionals to help homebuyers navigate the market and assist them with these large, life-changing transactions.

But, what about those third graders?

I suppose the critical point is that they’re in third grade– and still growing and evolving. And unless you are in denial about the Internet’s importance to marketing, you should be continuing to evolve, as well! Your media mix —whatever it includes—will ultimately run through or revolve around your website. It is, or at least it should be– the hub of your marketing wheel. And while it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the seemingly unlimited creative possibilities of Web 2.0 with its streaming media (web video), mobile media, blogs, widgets, podcasts and syndication technologies like RSS (really simple syndication), there’s no excuse not to understand the basics of online marketing. If you are not getting the desired results from your website, here are some helpful hints and best practices to consider before investing in a potentially under-performing site.

1. Avoid 100% Flash websites. My creative brain loves the slick, dynamic look and seamless experience all-flash sites can provide, but search engine traffic is an important part of our clients’ business models and search engines can parse little content from Flash-based sites relative to HTML and CSS. In addition, if you have a lot of site content, or think it will need to be updated more than 3-4 times a year, then it makes sense to stay away from 100% Flash for budget reasons. I prefer balancing usability with creativity by combining HTML and CSS with some Flash, as a little Flash can go a long way to enhance user experience when used creatively and intelligently.
2. Mission Critical: Content – For successful search engine optimization (SEO), content is king. Your site should provide valuable information that references specific terms and concepts unique to your site with text on as many pages as possible, weaving keywords into compelling copy. Often, it’s not the broad keywords you might have imagined people are using to find you, but very specific ones. Search engines typically index the first 500 words of copy on each page. Site maps (outlines of your site) help search engines, as well.
3. Always use title tags, or page titles, that are relevant to the content of specific pages. Title tags define page titles, which are seen at the top of the browser window. Search engines place significant emphasis on this text when conducting searches and returning results. In most cases, your titles should describe what you sell and where your business is located. They should be succinct (usually not exceeding 75 characters), strategic and compelling since this is the link text in search engine results. Besides a good title tag, you should have a good description tag, which is hidden text that search engines use for page summaries. These should also be concise (1-2 sentences), informative (tell me what I can do here) and clear (what is the content of the page).
4. Avoid title tags with too much competition. A Google search for “Jacksonville real estate” puts you in competition with a universe of 3,050,000 other pages with the same links. “St. Johns County real estate” reduces it to 411,000. “Ponte Vedra Beach real estate” drops it 244,000. Try to be specific and localize.
5. Remember that conversion is your ultimate goal. Top placement may be a by-product of successful online marketing, but conversion is king. SEO is just one part of the process. To be effective, your online marketing should convert visitors into customers. This means considering such factors as your own unique selling points, calls to action, site navigation, conversion and conversion path.

By simply keeping these few principles in mind, you should at least be on equal footing in the competitive online marketplace. More likely, you’ll find yourself ahead of many and might even be able to teach your third grader a thing or two!

Some people assume that the best paths to visibility are through such methods as listing your information in online business directories; using paid advertising strategies such as pay-per-click (PPC) and/or banner advertising on niche portals; or leveraging social media, by doing things like blogging and/or creating pages within sites like Facebook, MySpace or Linkedin.

It is my experience that while each of these elements has the potential to contribute to a well-rounded online marketing campaign, none, alone or in tandem are as important as focusing on the intrinsic content, structure and overall quality of your own website to achieve high page rank in “organic” (non-paid) search results.

Paying for visibility on niche portals (think, Realtor.com, for Realtors), offer the value of targeted marketing, but nowhere near the power of simply being found via organic search on major search engines like Google, MSN, Yahoo or AOL. And while I hesitate to confer even more importance on these internet moguls- the fact is that most consumers today conduct searches by going straight to their homepages and using their browser bars to look for, well… everything!

Understanding this, one might mistakenly assume that utilizing PPC programs offered by the major Search Engines themselves (such as Google Adwords), might well be the Holy Grail for search visibility. But, not so fast– there are other factors to consider: 1) Once again, you’re paying for search results. When you quit paying, you quit getting results. 2) Despite the fact that you’re paying to appear on the first page of results, you are also clearly identified as an advertiser, separated physically (via position on the page), from organic search results. Organic results are universally perceived as more credible, thus making them more likely to be clicked on. 3) Paid results through one search engine won’t necessarily help you with another, whereas a well-built, optimized site will provide increased visibility across all search engines; and oh, by the way—cost you less in the long run.

Finally, social networking is terrific if you’ve got all day to blog and upload videos, but most do not. And while blogging can be a powerful tool to increase search visibility, beware: If you start a blog and let it go stagnant, it can hurt your search rankings, as search engines will ultimately treat your site the way you treat your blog— by ignoring it, based on the assumption that it just isn’t as relevant as it once was. And advertising on social sites? Hey, you might as well interrupt my neighborhood pool party to show me your ad and risk getting pelted with onion dip. Get out of my social space, already! (Think Facebook’s recent revolt).

So, what’s a website to do, to get a look? Focus on “organics”!

1. The most important elements to consider when building a site are that it be well-organized, easy-to-absorb and simple-to-navigate. You want to establish a unique selling point, call to action and focused conversion path. A visitor landing on your home page should know within 3-5 seconds where to go next to purchase your product, register for information, or perform a desired action. Last year, Google announced that their Page Rank system was beginning to factor in landing pages’ load times. People want information quickly and Google was responding to this. So should you. If your conversion path has multiple steps, such as adding products to a shopping cart then checking out, make sure each step is clear and intuitive.
2. Focus on quality content! Provide valuable information relevant to your business that references specific terms and concepts unique to your site with text on as many pages as possible, weaving keywords into compelling copy. Often, it’s not the broad keywords you might have imagined that people are using to find you, but very specific ones. Search engines typically index the first 500 words of copy on each page.
3. Pay CLOSE attention to title tags! Nothing is more important than these single lines of code that define page titles, seen at the top of your browser window. These are the link text for search engine results. Ideally, they succinctly describe what your business sells and where you are located.
4. Avoid tags with too much competition and be geographically specific (i.e. instead of “Doctors”, “Florida Doctors” or “Jacksonville Doctors”, think, “Jacksonville Beach Pediatricians”).
5. Keep content fresh and updated. New content to existing sites is automatically indexed when added. If new information is added frequently, it indicates that your site is current and relevant!
6. Avoid 100% Flash websites. While search engines are getting better at it, they can still parse very little content from Flash-based sites. Balance usability with creativity by combining HTML and CSS with some Flash in contained areas, or transitions.
7. Try to cultivate as many relevant incoming links into your site as possible. These is a powerful strategy for achieving great search results, but manipulation can lead to penalization. For more on this topic, refer to the, “Link Your Way to Better Search Results…” entry in this blog.
8. Add a “site index” (an “outline” of your site). This can help search engines, as well.
9. Make sure your web address is present and highly visible on all other marketing materials.
10. Understand that search optimization is a process. Search algorithms and methodologies are constantly being refined by Search Engines to suit public demand. If you don’t have time to deal with it, find someone who does. Think of your website as one of your most valuable employees and dedicate the same time, effort and resources to keeping them “happy”.

By just following these few simple rules, you’ll have your website well on its way to “going green” and visitors flocking to your online environment!

“Link popularity” is a measure of the quantity (and quality) of other web sites that link to a specific site on the World Wide Web. It’s one prominent way that Google and other search engines determine your “page rank” or the position your website appears on search results. As you know, it is the mission of all websites within their respective business categories to come up on that coveted first page of search results- the closer to the top, the better. After providing quality content and utilizing proper engineering including the development of optimized title tags and meta-descriptions, this is considered one of the more reliable ways to the top.

The philosophy behind link popularity is that important sites will attract many links. When search engines see a site with multiple links into it, they assume that the site must be an important, trusted source of relevant content and thus, rank it higher, as those are the kinds of sites they want their users to find when they conduct searches through their portals (so their users will be happy and conduct even more searches- Cha-ching!).

By contrast, content-poor sites will have difficulty attracting any links. So naturally, people hoping to improve their page rank in search results typically want to have as many incoming links to their sites as possible.

But be careful: not all links are considered equal!

While sheer numbers may help, inbound links from reputable directories and other relevant www. sites are weighted more heavily than an inbound link from say, a friend’s personal webpage, or two websites that you own whose content has nothing to do with each other. Obvious attempts to manipulate search results through any variety of questionable link tactics may be considered “BlackHatSEO” and using them can backfire, as search engines will penalize you if they discover you’re using them.

When you create your company’s website, you should indeed encourage as many relevant people as you can to link into your site. This can include strategic “partners” or affilliates; satellite offices or business divisions; customers; chamber-of-commerces; subs/vendors, etc. One-way links are considered to be the most natural, credible and thus, desirable to have. But, if you don’t have these, you may consider utilizing “reciprocal links” or “link exchanges”.

Link exchanges are a strategy wherein you offer to link your website to another, in return for them linking theirs back to yours. There are reciprocal link exchange directories that you can submit your website to, to help facilitate potential connections. You may even consider paying people for links. But in ALL cases, be discerning and make sure incoming links are from quality sites, that are also relevant to the content of your site. You may say, “You already said that”. We’ll, you’re right and I’m doing it again (purposefully), because it cannot be overstated! And remember, the latest search algorithms for Google and Yahoo have evolved to maintain higher favor towards one-way (non-reciprocated) links.

Beware of tactics like “link farming”. This is the practice of trying to create excessive reciprocal link exchanges for a site. A “link farm” is a page set up to do nothing more than to secure outside links into your website. This is definitely a “no-no”, and search engines see right through it.

An effective way to build good one-way linking is by distributing articles through content sites or article directories. These types of articles usually contain one-way links back to the author’s website. Every time a new person uses one of the articles for content in their own site, they are providing the author a new incoming link and subsequently, increased page rank.

Link campaigns, in all of their forms (and there are many different strategies, limited almost only by creativity), require careful consideration. Professional guidance as part of a comprehensive SEO strategy is recommended, but if you don’t have the budget for professional help or are a committed “do-it-yourselfer”, then try to reflect upon whether the tactic you are utilizing “feels right” ethically, and in consideration of the ultimate “real value” such a strategy will provide the end users of your website; for this is what search engines care about and focus on.

As I noted earlier, we recently had an experience that illustrated the increasing popularity of using link campaigns as an SEO strategy and the types of issues that can arise and need to be considered before implementing them.

Our agency is a partner in another outside venture: Americas Education Guides (www.americaseducationguide.com), founded by Jacksonville publisher, Michael Clements. These comprehensive specialty publications cover accredited public and private schools; colleges and universities; and other educational facilities for several major metropolitan areas in the United States, including Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Palm Beach, Miami and the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Our guides and AEG website provide valuable information to families inquiring about local educational options including test scores; school ratings; private school data; demographics; state requirements and more. They are also endorsed by the district superintendents and state Governors in their respective markets. (Shameless plug: We’ve recently begun selling marketing licenses for nationwide territories, partnering with both independent publishers and major newspapers in a business model where we provide the content/production; our partners provide ad sales and we share revenue. It’s a terriffic opportunity in a “recession-proof” field- education. One sales pro can make significant income very easily in the first year, so if you or someone you know might be interested, just e-mail us. We are already talking to potential partners in Charlotte, Baltimore, Boston and Dallas. But, back to the point…)

To generate income from our AEG website, we are currently utilizing a combination of Ad-sense, a Google program that allows Google to place contextual ads on our site in exchange for a (small) share of the profits; along with banner/text ads that we are selling, ourselves.

A couple of weeks ago, we received and inquiry from a digital ad agency based in the United Kingdom seeking to place advertising on the AEG website. The agency specializes in instigating “bespoke campaigns” for their clients. That is, they actively seek out high-quality specialized, informational websites and place targeted, “well-optimized text links” for their customers on websites that fit the desired targeted demographics of their clients. The agency claims that their research shows that these types of ads have a 17% higher CTR (Click Through Rate) than graphical banners. They also indicated that they had two clients who wanted to place ads on our website, including a telecommunications company and a financial institution.

When I responded to the inquiry to provide rates/terms and get more information about exactly what kind of ads they were looking to place, they explained that they were not seeking to place “text ads” per se, but to imbed text links within articles that are posted on our site dealing with educational issues. (i.e. inserting one- or two-word text-based “adverts”, using words such as “loans”, “savings”, etc., into our existing articles, perhaps adding a short sentence or two of related copy to make it blend well with the nature of the article and theme of our site.

While if not overused or misused, this kind of tactic can potentially be a sound strategy for an advertiser looking to increase their website’s link popularity, as owners of the site they were looking to imbed within, we had to ask ourselves if this was good for our own business and users.

Providing hyperlinks from certain words/phrases within your content to allow users to explore certain subjects further; gain clarification on issues; etc., is not a bad thing. But, to do it gratuitously or alter content to force in language that makes the link seem more “natural” for the sake of paid advertising- well, that begins to negatively impact the quality and integrity of your site.

Finally, the fact that the agency indicated a desire to use words like “loans” and “savings” instead of the advertisers name in the imbedded link was a red flag and a nail in the coffin on our end. Those are what are called “blind links”, which are links created to intentionally hide the ultimate destination of a link until the user has clicked on it.

Blind links are usually used for deceptive or advertising reasons. People assume they’re going to click to find more information on a subject, when instead they are led to an advertiser. Search engines frown on them and more importantly, as owner of a website, I’m really not inclined to use them (even when offered payment), because I know that in the end if I mislead my users and betray their trust, well that will ultimately end up costing me much more than I ever could have hope to make by allowing them in the first place.

In conclusion, to improve your SEO and page rank via link popularity, by all means– get out there and start looking for meaningful inbound links from quality sites. Remember that one-way links are better than reciprocal links. But know that link exchanges and even paid links are fine, as long as they are relevant and you are not engaging in practices that could be considered deceptive, manipulative or otherwise of disservice to your users. If you’re unsure about whether what you’re doing is right or wrong– as with all things in life, always take the high road and you’ll never go wrong.