Fast Readers Count On Key Words In Your Blog

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Count the F’s are in this sentence:

      “Finished files are the result of years
       of scientific study combined with the
       experience of years."

The New Scientist explains that most people can see three F’s, forgetting the three times the word “of” appears in the sentence.  As we learn to read faster, we select the most important words, permitting our brain to fill in the gaps in meaning.  Speed readers focus on the most important words, which are nouns and verbs.

There’s a lesson here for bloggers:  Blog readers are scanners, by and large, not readers, and they came online to search for information.  Like the speed readers in the New Scientist experiment, searchers will select the most important words, the ones relating most directly to what they came online to find in the first place. 

Those are your “key words”.  Just as those words were key to searchers finding your blog in the first place, key to whether those searchers “bounce” away from your blog or keep reading, key to whether they click through to your website, and key to converting searchers to customers and clients. Just as in the sample above, the little connecting words like “the” and “of” won’t make much of a difference to the results of your blog-based marketing efforts.

Key words, as Shel Holtz and Ted Demopoulos explain in their book Blogging For Business, are just what the term suggests – words that important to your materials and which searchers use to find your blog. Choosing the right key words, then using them naturally but in very determined fashion, is very important to the success of your blog.

Just a couple of Do’s and Don’ts for key words:

Do:

* Use key words in the titles of blog posts.  “Search engines assume that if text is in a heading, it must be important”, says Demopoulos.

* Use key words in the first or second sentence of each post.

* Use key words in links.  Say you’re referring people to a related article or book.  Rather than link using the name of the book or article, use your key words.

Don’t:

* “Stuff” key words into a blog so that the content sounds awkward and “sales-y”.

* Make blog posts so short they won’t “matter” to search engines and there won’t be room for much use of key words. (250-400 words is just about right, is my advice.)

* Make blog posts overly long (remember, these are scanners, not readers).  If you have a lot to say, spread it across two or three blog posts.

Experienced readers and online searchers select the most important words.  With business blogs, if those are well-chosen, appropriate key words, searchers might just come on in to your website to fill in the gaps!
 

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Bozos Miss “Bang” From Professional Ghost Blogger’s Work

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Indianapolis business consultant Robby Slaughter uses medical doctor Scott Haig as an example of how entrepreneurs and professional practitioners can make best use of consultants. Since, as a professional ghost blogger, I’m a consultant for each of my business owner clients, I found Dr. Haig’s remarks very relevant, particularly the things the good doctor had to say about what he calls "Googlers" and "Bozos".

At one end of the spectrum, Dr. Haig found, were patients who were annoying know-it-alls.  These patients had gathered a mountain of medical information on Google, and came into the office rattling off theories about their own condition.  Lacking the medical training and experience to properly interpret all this information, these patients think they know more than the doctor.

In the field of marketing through business blogging, I encounter plenty of do-it-yourselfers who, rather than finding out what I have to share with them, are eager to show off their own misinformation.  Typically, their blog and website are going in two different directions, with different styles, different key words, and different target markets.  Even though "Googlers" are using search engines themselves, they don’t use analytics to find what searchers want, and are not using their key words in their blog titles and links. In my earlier blog, "Would You Find You?", I described the challenge I pose to potential blogging clients – "Assume you don’t know the name of your own business, go ahead and type into Google (or Yahoo or MSN) what you as a customer need.  Does your website come up?  On what page?"

Dr. Haig describes the other extreme in patients – "Bozos".  "Some patients are non-compliant Bozos who won’t read anything longer than a headline.  They don’t know what’s wrong with them, or what medicines they’re taking….’Just get me better, doc’ is all they say."

The term "Bozo" is rather blunt, but, I believe what Dr. Haig’s getting at is that, for a medical strategy to be effective, it takes active participation from both patient and doctor. Ghost blogging isn’t a matter of "just get me better business", either.  Effective blogging for business takes a blend of ideas and talents, and a professional ghost blogger becomes part of your marketing team..  As the owner of the business, you may well lack the time to compose and post regular blogs, but the blog is still your message for your business to your customers. As I remarked in one of my earliest blogs, "My clients and I – we may not be making history together, but, by golly, with great blogging (and great cooperation), we can sure make business!
 

 

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Give Your Blog A More Natural Smile!

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Not only does Dr. Ron Wines have a nice smile, he knows how to keep customers smiling back, according to John Gifford, publisher of IndySmallBiz. Several of this entrepreneurial dental practitioner’s business practices are worth emulating in your business blog.

An important decision that Dr. Wines made is to select a specialized niche market.  The more targeted and focused your blog can be, as I explained in "With Blogging. A Small Business Can Have A Long Tail", the greater the effect your business can have in that niche market. The way Dr. Wines sees it, niche focus allows him to provide a high-quality product while increasing profitability per customer. What niche focus can do in the case of your blog is increase your chances of "winning search" by providing the most relevant answers to online searchers.

From my vantage point as a professional ghost blogger, I thought the last paragraph of the Indy SmallBiz article about Dr. Wines absolutely spot on for business blogging:

"The marketing copy is written from the standpoint of the user.  You will have a more natural smile…It is pain-free…The dentures are guaranteed for life.. Because of their excellent fit, the patients will maintain healthy bone levels."  

It’s the old WIIFM radio station idea – (Customers want to know, "What’s in it for me?").

Dr. Wines mentioned he’s seen his profits increase and his actual workload decrease.  None of that happened overnight, he was quick to point out – he began planning to differentiate his business three years ago and results have been building gradually since then.

Don’t count on a business blog marketing strategy being an overnight success, either. But, as search engines begin to "notice" your consistent blogging efforts and rewards you with higher online page rankings, and as customers begin to experience the "Aha!" of having come to the right place to get their needs met, you’ll find many reasons to smile – naturally!
 
 

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For Best Blog Results, Take Two Or Three Key Words As Needed

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If you think about it, every really well-executed professional service consists of both science and art.  Consider a dentist, beautician, or even your carpenter.  They each need to know the science of their craft – how tools work, how chemical compounds react with wood, hair, or tooth enamel. But, in addition to their technical skills, we demand they produce aesthetically pleasing results!

Blogging for business, of course, has a creative element to it.  Even though the blog is more informal and conversational than, say, brochures or print advertisements, the writing still needs to be informative and interesting to engage readers’ attention.

There’s a science to blogging, too.  You want targeted traffic flowing your way, and key words are your "traffic magnets".  Before beginning to blog, you should use analytical tools to select the best key words, then use those in your domain name for the blog, in the titles for blog posts, and in links within each post. Links are important for search engine rankings – you use key words to link to former blog posts you’ve written, to other blogs and websites, and to attract links back your way as well.  All these things are part of the "science" of business blogging.

Keep in mind, though, blogs are a form of conversation, so the text needs to flow naturally, just as if the reader were right there with you.  That means the key words must be a natural part of the sentence, not inserted artificially.  If you overdo the key words or use them inappropriately, your blog will sound "spammy" and contrived, according to the blog maven website BlogManiac.

There’s no precise formula, though, to the science/art blend in your blogs.  Don’t get so fixated on the key word idea that you forget to be yourself and allow readers to "meet" the person behind the blog. If, in a 300-400 word blog post, you’ve used your key words three or four times, that’s probably more than enough.

As BlogManiac puts it, "there’s no better food for search engines spiders than fresh content", so the main thing is to keep posting regularly and frequently. If you don’t get the key word thing exactly right today, take two or three key words and call your professional ghost blogger in the morning! 
 

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Blogs, Like PowerPoint Presentations, Can Be Boons Or Banes

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Sometimes I think blogs are nothing more than online, personalized PowerPoint slides. 

Think about it. You’re making a business presentation, and the goal is to get across information in a way that engages the audience, in a format they can easily understand. That’s exactly the standard for presenting information in a blog. As with any tool, if you use Power Point and blogs skillfully, you accomplish what you set out to do.  If you don’t know how to use the tools – well, let’s just say they can become an obstacle.

Last year, PowerPoint celebrated its twenty-first birthday. Technically, blogging’s been around as long, but blogging for business has begun to pick up real steam only in the last three to four years.  Robert Gaskins, co-creator of PowerPoint, defending the technology against its critics, explains that “PowerPoint presentations were never supposed to be the entire proposal – just a quick summary of something longer and better thought-out.”

Each blog post is like one slide in a PowerPoint.  Just as Gaskins said, it’s not supposed to be “the entire proposal”.  The blog should offer just enough information to entice readers (see Blogs, One Click Away From Colossal) to subscribe to the blog, or to come back to visit for the next “slide”. The “call to action” you incorporate in your blog leads readers to your website when they’re ready for more complete information.

In great presentations, the PowerPoint is there to support the speaker, not the other way around. The audience connects with the person, not with the slides.  In "Creating Buzz With Blogs", veteran business technology consultant Ted Demopoulos explains, “Blogs create buzz because people will feel like they know you, and people like to do business with people they know”.  Blogs represent people talking to people!
 

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