Blogs Bring The Genie Out Of The Bottle

Remember the story of "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp"? I can’t think of a better example for demonstrating how web searches work.  SEO expert William Flaiz says in Search Engine Watch, "People don’t go to websites any more; websites come to them."

Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware interprets that statement: "People aren’t concerned about remembering your business web address or even your name or brand.  Search engines like Google have opened up a wonderful new world for consumers where they simply have to enter their wants, needs, or problems into a little box and magically, several solutions immediately appear and give them what they are looking for." Doesn’t that remind you of the genie rising out of the bottle, saying "Your wish is my command."?

An increasing number of dollars is being redirected from traditional forms of "push marketing" such as TV, radio, yellow pages, and directories to the Internet.  The power of business blogs to drive traffic to websites through "pull marketing" is one of the major reasons for that change.

Your wish may be the "genie"’s command, but while he was inside the bottle, he couldn’t possibly have kept up with developments in your business. Make sure your blog site’s calls to action lead in a clear path to your main website. One way to accomplish that is to include in your company title what you do. Sanders and Forster Co. doesn’t help your genie do magic nearly as much as Sanders and Forster Tools in Indianapolis or Sanders and Forster Indianapolis Dry Cleaning or Sanders and Forster Indianapolis Family Restaurant.

Remember, you’re trawling for customers who may never have heard your company name and who are searching the web based on categories of what they need.

For that very reason, the key words and phrases that relate to your business should, wherever possible, be the first words in your blog and then reappear in the first few lines of the text.

Your blog posts can release a lot of business magic, but you might need to rub the lamp a bit first!