Don’t Let Your Blog Get Lost In The Aisle

Popular science magazine NewScientist poses this question:

Two people lose each other while wandering through the aisles of a large supermarket.  The height of the shelves precludes aisle-to-aisle visibility.  One person wishes to find the other.  Should that person stop moving and remain in a single visible site while the other person continues to move through the aisles, or would they meet up sooner if both were moving through the aisles?

For some, this supermarket story may be just an amusing mental exercise. For me, though, this is serious stuff.  The whole point of my work as a professional ghost blogger is to help my clients’ businesses get found, and get found as quickly as possible. When business blogging works, in fact, they call it “winning search”.

In blogging, we’re not talking about just two people trying to find each other – we’re talking millions and millions of people.  Could some of them be trying to find you?  No doubt about it, the people you want to reach for your business are out there, looking. (Statistics from the Pew Internet Project tell us that search for information on the Internet is outstripping search for news and weather information and even surpassing email!) 

Posting content on the Web is the best form of marketing there is, says David Scott in his book Cashing In With Content. With blogging, Scott explains, content is not forced on people – they access it because they want to.  Search engines organize the content, and direct people to it.Your business blog is targeting this “organic” search.

Only problem is, the people in the other aisles not only don’t know where you are, they don’t know even know your name!  They don’t know that you have exactly the information, the products, and the services they’re looking for, and they won’t know that until they’re "introduced" to you by the search engine through your blog.

NewScientist‘s advice to the lost supermarket shopper is, “Walk along the edge of the supermarket where the cash registers are, looking down the aisles for the person you seek.” David Scott tells bloggers to put content out there.  Search engines, he explains, organize that content and direct people to it. The more content – and the more relevant content – you can provide, the quicker the “find time” is likely to be. 

One thing I know for sure:  whether at the supermarket or the blogosphere, you can’t just stand in place and hope to get found!