Blog for Ranking

Some really great support for the Compendium philosophy

Friday, March 19, 2010 by Brian Millis

Often times I think it is important to educate around the power of blogs in search engine ranking. It all comes back to 3 of the most important pillars of any search algorithm (google, bing, yahoo, etc.) which are:

1.    Relevancy (how well does the content address the search query)
2.    Frequency of content update (what is more frequently and easily updated than a blog)
3.    Recent update of new content (recency, again blogs dominate)

Blogs are THE BEST vehicle on the web to address these, which is why no search engine that wants to keep market share would stop valuing and ranking blogs. Google knows this more than anyone, which is why they own the majority of the search market because of their “Blended Search” algorithm. Here is collateral to support this Compendium philosophy:

Google’s Own Press Release from this week: 3/16/10:
“Google's vision for universal search is to ultimately search across all its content sources, compare and rank all the information in real time, and deliver a single, integrated set of search results that offers users precisely what they are looking for. Beginning today, the company will incorporate information from a variety of previously separate sources – including videos, images, news, maps, books, and websites – into a single set of results. At first, universal search results may be subtle. Over time users will recognize additional types of content integrated into their search results as the company advances toward delivering a truly comprehensive search experience.” Doesn’t sound like they are moving towards removing blogs, but rather increasing importance of other mediums (including blogs) http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/universalsearch_20070516.html

From PracticalEcommerce.com just this week:
Gone are the days when a search is performed and only a list of pertinent websites appears in the search engine results page. Instead, what can be found now is a blend of websites, videos, images, social media profiles, blogs, news stories, press releases, podcasts and maps. With blended search, all findings— official company websites and YouTube videos alike— are joined together on the search engine results page. By integrating this blend of media into your company’s site and marketing plan you can obtain search success and improve customer satisfaction, ultimately boosting your company’s overall sales. Below are four ways that your company can get started to ensure successful search marketing results.   SEE WAY #1 at this link: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1104-Blended-Search-Four-Ways-to-Optimize-Content-for-Better-Search-Rankings

From the most recent issue of Wired Magazine: Pages 97 – 116 (Cover Article): “Inside the Box: Inside Google Search”
See Key Advances, #6: Universal (or blended) Search: This is the way the algorithm is moving. To include more video, new mediums, pictures, etc. which is all much more prolific and easy to find and organize on blogs.

Fortune Magazine: March issue; page 64 about the changes in the entire publishing world:
Quote: “The only new media life form that has managed to live off those junk-ad rates (PPC) is the blog, a medium that tends to favor breadth over depth and cheap opinion over expensive original reporting.” Further proof that more satisfied searchers come from blog results, which is why search engines are only moving toward better blog ranking, not removing blog ranking.

Our CEO, Chris Baggott (Co-Founder of Exacttarget.com and 21st 2009 Most Influential Marketer) addressing this very question:
Google isn't ranking us because we are a blog.   It's ranking us because our pages are designed specifically for the algorithm.

Google likes specific titles, right? Google is moving towards more specific pages and content frequency and recency.

Google makes about 12 changes to it's algorithm every month.   Who better to stay on top of them than a large SaaS. We have a strategic sprint every week and a team dedicated to nothing but keeping our software up with the best practices as Google dictates. Recent changes include the canonical tag, the 301 redirect, (all changes we were able to respond to immediately) Google doesn't try to hide it's changes. it's pretty transparent about what it wants you to do. The biggest recent changes include real time search and personalization.   Both things that make us even more attractive right?    Google is responding to Twitter and Bing and realizing that fresh content is a very serious consideration in search.

Personalization is even more important.   Retailers are now REQUIRED to have a ton more content.   You have the challenge of building content that is relevant to everyone.   What used to be a mass marketing business. (homepage and massive linking) is now a highly fragmented targeted marketing game.

I hope this helps understand why companies are turning to services and platforms like Compendium to see more ROI on their search marketing strategies.

Why Blogging is Your #1 Search Marketing Tool

Thursday, March 18, 2010 by Heather Benfield

The Pew Internet and American Life Project

The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that as much as 80% of all web activity begins with online search.Also, compared to Audio/video instant messaging, text messaging and social networking, email and search continue to dominate online web interactions.

So what does this mean for business marketers?

Basically, in order to get in front of those prospects using email and search, you need to find the most effective, reliable and ROI producing tool out there. In today's world that tool is corporate blogging!

In order to educate marketers about the importance of blogging for search, Compendium Blogware has recently created a new Whitepaper titled: Why Blogging is Your #1 Search Marketing Tool.

In this Whitepaper you'll learn:

> Commong blogging myths that hinder marketers from valuable search engine results.
> Why blogging works for SEO
> How an enterprise level platform helps organizations acquire new business

To read this new Whitepaper, download it for free now: Why Blogging is your #1 Search Marketing Tool.

Universities should all be blogging

Tuesday, March 16, 2010 by Brian Millis

Below you will find a recent email I sent following a great conversation with a private university in New York. As a former Admissions Officer, I have a certain soft spot for helping schools realize the power of strategic blogging to better establish a school brand, culture, and communication with prospective students. Hopefully others will find this helpful as well.

Email:

Hi Current Prospect,

Thank you so much for your time yesterday as I certainly enjoyed the conversation. I wanted to provide you a few take-aways and example links for your internal conversations.

Here are a few examples of current higher education clients who are doing a great job!:

http://blog.granite.edu/blog/granite-state-college

http://blog.uindy.edu/blog/university-of-indianapolis

http://blogging.depauw.edu/blog/top-50-liberal-arts-colleges

Key Take-Aways Regarding Compendium:

Who we are: Compendium is an on demand, enterprise level search and social media platform. We provide a secure and scalable solution that leverages blogging for SEO, human engagement, and online customer acquisition.

Automation: We automate the organization of blog content to deliver the highest search engine ranking/traffic results possible.
Security: We use NO open source plug-ins developed by third parties, which require maintenance and update.
Scalable: Can have unlimited bloggers and can scale the number of strategically targeted online marketing search phrases.
Administration/Control: Admissions can easily manage the messages going out in blog posts and incoming comments from searchers.

Please let me know how I can continue to be a resource for you as you make decisions on the future of your blog program.

Best,

Brian Millis 317-777-6254

Using website analytics to measure blogging program success

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Heather Benfield

Often times when trying to explain Compendium Blogware and our software-as-a-service to others, I get a reaction that tells me I've completely lost the person I'm talking to...yep, you guess it...the smile and nod. I know you've seen it a million times and have probably done it yourself a few times here and there.

I've discoverd the easiest (and most effective) way to educate others about Compendium Blogware and the benefits we provide companies is to tell a story about one of our client's that has seen great success with our enterprise level blogging platform. This helps people relate to the client's situation and visualize how their company would use blogging for search.

With that being said, I'd love to share this latest success story about one of our newer clients, Raxco Software:

For over 30 years, B2B Company Raxco Software has developed award-winning defragmentation solutions and performance utilities that improve hard drive and server performance. But in 2009, the company was looking to improve some of their own levels of performance regarding their freeware blogging program.

Raxco noticed they were able to win a few keyword search phrases throughout the two years of their free blogging program, but were unable to maintain their ranking for long periods of time. They were looking for a solution that not only helps them win more keyword searches, but also provides automatic content distribution and blog scalability. Raxco found these features in Compendium Blogware’s enterprise level software, along with its ability to provide real-time knowledge of key phrase density.

After only four short months with Compendium, Raxco’s primary goal – to generate enough business from the blogs to cover the product’s expense – was well on its way.

By producing an avg. 4 posts/week distributed to 100 targeted keyword blogs, 36% rank in the top 10 Google search results and 70% in the top 50 – driving a total 23,555 visits from blogs to website.

With website analytics, Raxco is able to report a 10% conversion rate on blog Calls-to-Action (CTA’s). Although the company chooses not to disclose profit numbers, they are just getting started with their program and the blogs are already their 3rd highest lead source.

For more information about Compendium Blogware and how we can help your company, schedule a free, live demo today!

Outgoing Email on Overdrive

Monday, March 15, 2010 by Tyler Bender

After taking a quick look at my "sent" folder last week, I could swear that my out-of-office reply was turned on. Every outgoing email looked like a carbon copy of the one sent before it. It seemed like I found about 100 different ways to say "that's an approvable post" to both writers and customers.

As a writer, I can understand aiming for perfection. I can also understand taking feedback too personally. So when a writer submits a post to one of our clients that gets declined with feedback attached and they feel like the world is caving in on them, it's sometimes interesting to me how we're determining the middle ground between "this is a blogging masterpiece" and "this is a blogging trainwreck."

We're not launching rockets here, we're blogging for search.

If you're an admin in a Compendium account, consider these things when you're reviewing your submitted posts.

does the post hit your keywords? - obviously the easiest way to determine this is whether or not your keyword strength bar is green. But analyze how the keywords are used. Are they injected seamlessly into the writer's content? Or are they just kind of tossed into some sentences that may or may not make sense?
does the post have a point? - we often preach here that blog posts can be about anything. If a writer can talk about what they did today, they can write a post. As long as the post addresses something that can be tied back into your business, it's approvable. If the post tries to solve the problems of the world, you might want to consider breaking that up and spreading the love in multiple posts.
does the post mis-represent your brand? - obviously if your writers are talking about things that contradict your best practices or business identity in their post, then it should be declined. But if the post mixes with your brand and can connect with your audience, then it's approvable.

This is a good place to start. There are plenty more items to check off when you're going through your blog posts to decline or approve them (spelling, photos, links, etc), but even if a post doesn't have some/all of those things, it's still probably approvable.

Save yourself some time and save your writers some anxiety. Approving posts that, at the bare minimum, follow these three guidelines will still positively impact your blogging strategy.

SEO is a matter of opinion

Thursday, March 11, 2010 by Julie Murphy

Who do you listen to when it comes to leveraging SEO tools? In today's world everyone is speaking about blogging for search. Blog for business with the most effective easy to use blog software that allows you to concentrate on a content management system built to populate landing pages that in turn create keyword rich pages.

Leverage the very words that searchers are using to find you, get found and get results. Everyone wins! You are served a top result and the searcher finds what they are looking for.

Blogs are fantastic SEO tools, just make certain you are using the best blogging solution!

Don't Bug...Blog!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010 by Brittan Bright

For every sales and marketing professional out there who has even been reduced to a stalker, spammer or pain-in-the... you know what I am talking about, this post is dedicated to you.

The longer I work for Compendium, the more fun returns to sales for me. Being a rockstar salesperson in this economy, particularly in new business, has been anything but fun for most of us. Budgets have gotten tighter, targets have become unreachable and departments are shrinking. Some of my former colleagues have gone back to school, started new businesses or prayed for a lay-off with a decent severance package rather than endure one more day of feeling like a desperate and unsuccessful stalker. Most of our egos have been annihilated, our bank accounts are smaller and our spirits are broken.

And then there are those that cling to their unsuccessful tactics, shamelessly begging for business, reduced to the dreaded status of the Bug-a-Boo.

Why do sales people press on? Because we live for the thrill, for the new and exciting product/service/idea. We are by nature, competitive and wired to win. Good sales reps are always on the quest for the perfect client, the success story, for the satisfied customer, and of course, that lucrative paycheck. Somewhere in the DNA of a great sales professional is the love of solutions, the desire to solve problems, to fill a void. We love to connect, to tell a great story. This is why blogging for search marketing and ultimately, as a new client acquisition strategy, is so powerful from a sales aspect of an organization.

Most companies are realizing that Social Media is here to stay. Compendium offers a way to be more strategic, measurable and effective with that strategy so that your sales department can return to the glory days. Instead of bugging people and making it easy to ignore you, why not blog just make it easy to find you?

To Sell or Not to Sell...How Blatant Should Your Blogs Be?

Friday, March 5, 2010 by Ali Sales Roach

If you haven't seen it yet, Jason Falls has a blog post about blogging as your social media hub that's getting a lot of comments and feedback.

Well, essentially everything Jason writes gets a lot of involvement and comments because he's a super sharp guy talking about interesting things! For this post in particular though, I liked this comment from markwilliamschaefer:

Let's just be honest and put the purist stuff aside. Ultimately you want your readers to take an action like register for something, make a call, or buy something. Is that going to happen on your blog? Probably not, unless you are doing out-right selling there and that's a no-no.

The part about people not taking action on your blogs....WHAT? The best way for me to debunk this is with data of course. A couple examples:

1. Compendium generates a few hundred leads each week from its blogging program. People find our blogs through search, click our CTAs (whether it be a webinar sign up, demo sign up, etc) and enter our system to learn more about us. Many times our blogs actually outperform our website from a CTR perspective!

2. FairyTale Brownies, who was featured in Jason's blog post, has a 13% conversion rate from their blogs.

3. Many of our clients, including Raxco and Airflow Technologies, have over 10% click rates on their CTA's from their blogs.

The list goes on and on...based on that, you can draw your own opinions as to whether it's appropriate for your business blogs to try to drive someone to action (and if they are effective tools at doing so). My personal belief is that the biggest mistake a marketer can make is to have a prospect try to engage (i.e. visit one of their blogs) only to find that there is no way for them to take the next step. That's like having a prospect show up at your office, try to walk in the front door to talk to you...only to find out that there is no front door.

Enough with the analogies -- find out how Compendium makes it easy for 500+ organizations to drive business from their blogs by taking a demo today.

This 'Blogging Stuff' Really Works!

Friday, March 5, 2010 by Allison Bowen

Late yesterday afternoon I had yet another experience that made me stop and think "Wow! Compendium's blog software really IS amazing!" Now don't get me wrong, every day as I learn more and more about our system I realize how extraordinary it really is. But at the same time, it's easy to tell others that we have the most powerful blogging software on the market. It's another matter entirely to actually see our product in action.

As the official client training host here at Compendium, I am continually looking for ways to improve our training webinars. Recently, I have begun to create a survey that will be sent to each attendee after the session.

Yesterday, while researching, I simply Googled the words "Training Survey Questions." Like most normal searchers, I clicked on the first option that was returned. As I arrived on the page, I was surprised at how familiar it looked. Not really putting two and two together, I read the content, which answered my questions perfectly and then took a deeper look at the page. All of the sudden it clicked -- this page was a Compendium blog! Cvent, a Compendium client, happens to specialize in just what I was searching for. I clicked through on many of their calls-to-actions and was very excited to find the results I was looking for so easily.

This experience proved to me once again that blogging for search works. Why not reach out to Compendium today and learn more about our software?

The jury is in, blogging is the ideal tool

Friday, March 5, 2010 by Julie Murphy

Businesses are buzzing about SEO tools, social media, and blogging for search. Where are you going to focus your efforts?

Had a conversation with a prospective client today who is frustrated that they do not have more followers on Facebook. Why? What about facebook followers are going to drive you more busiiness?

When you peel back the layers, what do the search engines reward, relevant content! A content managment system is key in winning search. Blog for business and blog for search with simple blogging software.

No worries about tagging, catagorizing, or keywords. Learn more about compendium blogware: www.compendium.com

Blog content is meant to be shared.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Isaac Pellerin

The World Wide Web is a funny place. There are endless methods of communication available to us through this medium. One of the questions this leads me to ask is what the best way to leverage all of these methods so that it's central and easy to manage.

While we're being told so much about the benefits of social media and the power of social circles sharing information, I feel that it's easy to overlook the fact that somewhere along the line someone had to search for something.

This could be why blogging should the the hub of your social media strategy. Blogging for search allows you to be found by, what Malcom Gladwell calls, connectors (who will spread your message through their social circles).

Tomorrow Compendium is hosting a webinar with Jay Baer and Chris Baggott who will explore this topic in further detail. Sign up today!

Choosing the right keywords

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Clayton Stobbs

I read an interesting article this morning in the WSJ about PPC vs. organic SEO and how to

best utilize both types of campaigns. Although the article was primarily focused on PPC and I disagree the with the value of PPC and conversion rates, the overall keyword selection piece was useful. The article notes,

Picking the keywords that will attract shoppers to your site can be tricky. While you'll want to select your company's name, as well as the name of your competitors, the key in determining other keywords is to keep an open mind, says Keser. "Talk to customers; see what words they use when they search for your products," he says. Note that the broader the search phrases, the pricier those keywords will be. To reduce your costs, consider opting for focused, relevant keywords.

In 2001, Ian MacDonald launched a pay-per-click campaign for Century Novelty, a Detroit party supplies company that had just gone entirely online. Although MacDonald started out bidding on broad keywords such as "party supplies," over time, he started to get more specific in his keyword selections -- choosing phrases such as "luau party supplies" or "Hawaiian party leis," for example.

Naturally, this is the exact strategy one can take with a blogging strategy focused on organic SEO and driving organic search traffic. Targeting longer-tail and less competitive search phrases can get you in front of more qualified and "ready-to-buy" audiences. Blogging for search can also tie directly into this strategy given the nature of human content.

Check out Compendium's enterprise level blogging solution for more information...

Blogging for Customer Acquisition Part 1

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Frank Dale

The problem with most blogging programs is that they “bury the lead.” In other words, they make it difficult for the reader to find the content that is most relevant to them. You may have great content, but if the reader can’t easily find it…it doesn’t matter. If they can’t find it, it effectively doesn’t exist. Simple but true.

The Invisible Blog

A typical corporate blog presents information in reverse chronological order. If you get a lot of repeat visitors, this is completely acceptable. For the overwhelming majority of blogs repeat visitors are in the minority. A quick glance at your blog’s analytics report will tell you that most of your traffic is made up of first-time visitors. The majority of first time visitors are referred by search engines. In fact, if you are reading this right now you most likely found my blog through search. If you didn’t find this blog through search…“hi mom.”

So what does this mean for corporate blogging programs? Well, if you are blogging to be a thought-leader it is time to reorient your worldview. Thought leadership makes sense in a world that has lots of loyal readers. Unfortunately, that world has a pretty tiny population. Your company as great as it may be does not live in that world. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a corporate blog. A blog is one of the easiest ways to get lots of fresh, relevant content onto the internet. You simply need to understand what a blog should do for your business.

Why the First Time is the Best Time

A successful corporate blog has lots of first-time readers. This contrasts with many blogs that have zero readers. First-time readers are actually ideal because they almost surely arrived at your door from a search engine. This means they came to your blog looking for the answer to a specific problem. A problem you can solve. This makes the first-time reader a potential new customer. Your job is to make your blog easy to find.

Unless you are blogging with Compendium, the average person is unlikely to find your blog. This happens because the majority of blogs are not optimized for search engines, which is like having an unlisted number and wondering why no one calls. In part two, we will look at search engine marketing’s ability to target micro-segments. If you would like to learn more about our enterprise blogging platform for search engine optimization, check out this whitepaper or sign-up for a free demonstration.

Lead nirvana.....Blogging

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Scott Bleczinski

In all the previous jobs that I've had, the vast majority of my time with the sales or marketing team has been around answering the following question......how do we find more enterprise leads? Certainly all sales and marketing teams wrestle with this question, with many unaware that the answer is totally within their control.

Indeed, with the advent of software as a service enterprise platforms, such as Compendium's corporate blogging software - sales and marketing team's are finally able to 'take control' by creating and driving their own leads. This afternoon, I spoke to a client who was interested in leveraging our platform in a 'blogging for search' capacity - in short....... " can I use your blogging solution to increase my organic search results to drive more leads to my website?" ....the answer - yes! "Can I empower my entire enterprise sales team to use your easy to use blog software to uncover more prospects?".....the answer - once again, a resounding yes!!

Low Hanging Fruit, Blogging for Business

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Brian Graham

This past week at the E-Tail conference and OMC conference in California the strategy creating the most buzz was blogging. This was considered by many, including SEO gurus like Rand Fishkin and Stephen Spensor, to be low hanging fruit for companies' SEO strategies. Content, content and more content are going to rule the day.

So what is the best way to collect and use this low hanging fruit? Blogging for search has to be the best was to maximize your content. What does that mean you might ask? Blog about the keywords and topic searchers are useing to find your products and services. Use the language of your potential clients and customers.

80-90% of people that come to a blog are first time visitors. Searchers benefit most from business content. Organize your content around the keywords and phrases your potential clients and customers are using to find the products and services you offer. Use a corporate
blogging software to help you make blogging easier, effective and measurable. If you can't measure the success it will fail. Start blogging and enjoy the fruits of your labor, lead generation and customer acquisition.

Focus and Search Marketing

Wednesday, March 3, 2010 by Brian Graham

Today was a day of focus. I was prioritizing and figuring out what activities matter. What things can I do to make me the most productive and successful? This is what marketers are trying to do. They have to constantly evaluate the strategies they use to increase sales.

What things should make the cut? If you can measure the strategy against some criteria of success that is a good start. Search marketing and business blogging I think would fall into this category. Resources, time and money, are too precious to waste on efforts that cannot be measured. If you can measure a strategy you should then consider strategies that give the best ROI.

Blogging is affordable business SEO. Blogging allows businesses a platform to distribute their content in a way that focuses on SEO and keywords that drive business. Blogging for search can produce a great ROI. 80- 90% of people who visit blogs are first time visitors. Searchers are benefiting from business content. Get focused! Start a blog for business.

Lessons from Seth Godin

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Sarah Sedberry

In a recent blog post I mentioned one of the major players in Search Engine Optimization, Rand Fishkin, but I must always tip my hat to the man himself, Seth Godin. He is the father of permission marketing, and author of 12 books, as well as the man behind the most popular blog in marketing.

Here are some great nuggets from Seth that are worth passing along, taken from an interview with Search Insider :

What is the most resonating lesson from Google that you've learned and why:

SG: "Relevancy rules" combines two key ideas: permission marketing and the long tail. In an endless shelf space world like the Internet, attention is precious and no one will choose to pay attention to things that don't interest them. Anticipated, personal and relevant messages will always outperform spam. And products that are just what I want will defeat those that aren't just what I want.

What makes Google such a unique company? Why has it been so successful?

SG: Google is successful because of three things:

1. They made very smart decisions about the importance of search and interface.
2. They picked the perfect source of revenue to go with that.
3. Senior management has the guts to ignore Wall Street and build what they want.

In 10 years, how will the marketing world be different and what will Google's role be in the ecosystem?

SG: I think the ecosystem is going to be even more always-on and connected, more viral and less spam.

So whats the take-away???

Targeting your audience and being able to interact with them is where search marketing is going. Using a simple blogging software like Compendium, allows you to generate content that targets longer-tail search phrases that your potential customers are searching on. For more information on whether a blog program is right for your online marketing strategy, download our Considering Blogging whitepaper.

Powerful SEO solutions for business

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Julie Murphy

Powerful blogging software exists for businesses, but you will have to look away from the standard publication platforms for a blogging solution. Is your intent blogging for search? You have one choice if the goal is to capture an audience with a multitude of keywords.

Check out affordable blogging software that has the power to get you found but also provides you with measurability to not only justify your spend but to quickly watch your return on investment.

Compendium is a full service SaaS that allows you to concentrate on marketing your company and leaves the technical side to be done by the powerful blogging software.

Would love to chat about Compendium Blogware, contact me for a free blogging consultation.
Julie @ jmurphy@compendium.com

Am I Search Engine Optimized?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 by Brittan Bright

It occurred to me this evening that I have been writing content about blogging for search, but I hadn't searched for myself lately! Yes, I can admit that, like so many other regular non-celebs I have, on occasion, "Googled" myself out of curiosity.

Having a name like Brittan used to bother me as a child, as you can probably imagine. Good luck trying to find a pencil, sticker, or mass-produced charm bracelet with my name on it! Along with regular taunting I also dealt with, "That's GREAT Brittan" more times than I can count, and a classmate who used to sing "God Save the Queen" at the top of his lungs when passing me in the hall. Those factors combined with the emergence of Britney Spears which basically guaranteed that 97% of people meeting me for the first time call me Brittany, and I officially detested my name.

Like many crises in adolescence however, what once was a dilemma is now an asset. Marrying Mr. Douglas Bright added a little alliteration and sealed my unique moniker's fate. It also helped that getting older makes me care less about blending in and more about standing out, particularly when I recently, and unexpectedly, found myself on the job market in this competitive climate. Like so many others, my own individual brand became not only important, but essential to my professional survival. Adding Bright to my name was like remembering to throw on my signature hoop earrings, it takes a little sass to pull a gaudy accessory like that.

Back to me Googling myself... since I have little competition for my "brand" can I really brag about dominating the first 6 organic results of a Brittan Bright search? Maybe not, but I can brag about my Compendium Blog being included in those search results after only 7 posts!

So I dug a little deeper, excited about seeing actual results of the product I am now selling. When I did a search for my Compendium business blog using the key phrase "Bright Business Blogging"I was the top of the organic results there too! Talk about motivation to blog!

Moral of the story: I am easy to find for anyone looking for me, are you? If there is another Brittan Bright out there, I would hate to be her, she is eating my SEO dust.

Black Magic, Blogging, and SEO...

Monday, February 22, 2010 by Ali Sales Roach

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at my alma mater, DePauw, to a group of Management Fellows students. Most of my presentation focused on how to suck up to your boss, get a promotion, and not get fired (I'm kidding...well, sort of).

After the presentation, I went to lunch with a smaller group of students, and they all were prepared with great questions and all sorts of insightful opinions.

My favorite question came from a student named Mischa who said that he was pretty well versed with SEO and didn't understand why a company would use our blogging software instead of hiring a professional SEO firm.

Here's what I told Mischa: A good amount of negative attention has surrounded the professional services SEO space for a long time. That's because to most people it seems like wizardry and magic, a moving target of sorts that a lot of companies have paid a lot of money to try to master, only to turn up with lackluster results.

The great thing about blogging for search using software instead of human beings is that instead of hoping and praying that a wizard can help them unlock the potential of getting found online, the company itself gets to control what keywords they want to get found for and their content strategy to support these keywords.

Now, I want to make it clear that I'm not saying that all SEO firms rely on black magic and produce undesirable results, I'm saying that the space has unfortunately gotten very cluttered with irresponsible folks who are tainting the picture as a whole.

Take for example this quote from Entrepreneur: "The SEO business is 80 percent scam," says Peter Kent, an Internet marketing strategist and author of Search Engine Optimization for Dummies. "It's very, very difficult to find a good firm."

Aha! This is why companies large and small are turning to software like Compendium. Less guesswork, more control, and more insight into what makes a great search strategy.

So thanks to Mischa for the great question, and to Entrepreneur for backing me up....