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The Best Blog SEO Survey Ever

Lee Odden
Lee Odden
Blog Marketing, Blog Optimization, Blogging Strategy, Online Marketing, SEO

The Best Pint of Abbot Ale, Ever

Blogs have been touted as effective tools for companies to publish content and demonstrate the conversational side of their corporate personality. Blogs have also long been promoted as a SEO tool. Despite plenty of optimism about blogging, there’s still a lot of mis-information, mis-perceptions and lack of awareness about effective, productive blogging for business.

Take This Blog SEO Survey: If you or your company publishes a blog, please take this quick poll looking into the perceived SEO benefits of blogging. Results will be published on Online Marketing Blog in the next week.  Like a fine pint of Abbot, this survey is smooth, to the point and might just put a smile on your face.

While researching questions for the above poll, I ran an informal #blogseo poll on Twitter yesterday which had 190+ responses within 45 minutes. Here’s a list of everyone that participated. There was an overwhelming interest in direct or indirect SEO benefits from blogging.

And why not? Search engines thrive on and reward web sites that publish content. Blogs are content management systems that make it easy for companies (or anyone) to publish that content. Publishing blog posts creates new web pages that can be linked to and therefore, discovered and ranked by search engines. The more blog posts and links from other sites, the greater the presence in the search results.

Whether blogs were started specifically for SEO or some other purpose, our #blogseo poll showed significant interest in SEO benefits.  Poll participants rated the importance of blogs as part of a SEO strategy between 1=low & 5=high. The average rating was a 4, but some rated blogs as SEO assets as low as 1.5. Here are a few (not all) of the comments Tweeted:

  • @seowolf – It really depends on the campaign, the content availability etc. But, as a generalization, I’d say 3.
  • @sjachille – 3 to 5 depends on the quality of content
  • @SEOAware – it offers much more than seo benefits, so 4-5
  • @mjdigital 3 – blogs are good because they are easy and quick to setup and use – but are only as good as their content
  • @nathaneide – Depends upon your baseline. If you’re starting from scratch, it’s a 1.5. if you have your ducks in a row, it’s higher.
  • @janetdmiller – if you can get one up and running AND keep it current. If not, don’t go down the blog path just for SEO. #blogseo

So it seems that blogs as SEO assets are only as good as their content and if you know what you’re doing. Personally, I agree with that and think that those that do not rate them higher in value for SEO may not be as familiar with the benefits they bring.

That leads to the next question: What SEO functions do blog(s) serve? Some of the most common blog SEO benefits include: Content creation, External and cross links, RSS syndication, Social bookmarking, Community building and Promotion.  Here ‘s what our poll respondents had to say about how blogs help search engine rankings:

  • @dericloh – community insights (content topics), content research / testing, conversation monitoring (voice of customer keywords)
  • @Psychobel – relationship building from which SEO benefits accrue
  • @seowolf – support for offline campaigns
  • @mhillaert – drive people back to site with information sharing
  • @janetdmiller – Crosslinking, new content for SEO, Twitter fodder, increase bot visits
  • @mjdigital – quick turnover of content, community, auto sitemap/pings etc, quick indexing into Google Blogsearch

Obviously, the tactics used with a blog marketing effort should be based on some kind of goal. Some blogs are established to communicate with customers, some for prospective customers, some for the media and industry analysts and some for new hire candidates. No matter what the objective for a public, commercial blog, there’s almost always a need to “get the word out”.

Here are some of the blog SEO tactics and tips that were shared:

  • @jachille – use custom fields to create custom META TAGS for optimal remote blogging with desktop apps http://bit.ly/8LwTW8
  • @mjdigital – make your titles catchy so they stand out on SM sites, Twitter and bookmark lists
  • @LexiConn_Inc – Using 301 redirects for SEO and Ecommerce http://bit.ly/SnG4L
  • @goodseo – Urls should reflect the post’s title
  • @seowolf – Keep in mind that your blogs are meant to be read by actual people, not the Search Engines, first and foremost
  • @silvioporcellan – write periodically about other sites/tools in your industry and let the authors know about it
  • @adamsherk – don’t let category and tag pages and the duplication that can come with them get out of control
  • @SEOAware – (for beginner) crossmarket services pages with blog posts, optimizing for service location and location service
  • @beebow – don’t shoot yourself in the foot by writing a kick ass post with a clever but totally irrelevant title
  • @dericloh – Define goal > Insights > Learn > Test > Measure > Repeat
  • @janetdmiller – Use SEO plugins in WordPress. They help streamline content editing for SEO, ex: title tag, metas, etc
  • @lisabuyer – Frequency and be first to report
  • @aimclear – MAKE A BIG ASS LIST~!

Despite clear goals, there are often objectives to adding blogs as part of a digital marketing or PR strategy. Time and resources are the most common issues described by our #blogseo poll respondents. In fact, of all the questions asked, this was the most popular and received the most responses. Here are a few of the obstacles to implementing blogs:

  • @mhillaert – Taking the time to write an article, not knowing how to write good content, not knowing what to write about.
  • @mjdigital – effort required to maintain valuable content + time and cost of creating custom themes – need to be different
  • @TheKenJones – Setting the “right tone” to give promotional marketing benefits (my side) without coming across as bigheaded (theirs)
  • @adamsherk – large publishers are sometimes concerned with using various helpful WP plugins for fear of security, reliablility
  • @dericloh – Legal issues, regulation, commitment, spam filter / moderation, ownership
  • @PRBristolblog – Time & resource are a big barrier to implementing blogs. Need to show the benefits regarding online PR / customer service etc.
  • @ericfransen – Client doesn’t have time to provide proper content. I can write all day… but I want client to give me a good start
  • @mikemyatt – clients seem to struggle most with content development. Everyone wants a blog – nobody wants to own content creation
  • @matt_mcgowan – editorial control
  • @beebow – when a client’s industry is either way too niche or way too broad to consistently publish relevant blog posts
  • @jfernandez – Fear that blogs are not “professional” and “appropriate for business”
  • @seowolf – Waste of time and effort, “we’re a serious company, not some bloggers”, “our customers don’t read blogs”

As an experienced blogger of 6+ years, time management is an issue for everyone, so I don’t think it’s a unique problem to blogging. It’s more a matter of value and expertise. Without a focus and plan, it’s easy for “writer’s block”, a lack of confidence or impatience to kill a blog. On the flip side, developing a process for content creation, feedback to motivate contributors, editorial guidelines, promotion off the blog and measurement can make a blog become and stay successful with a very reasonable amount of effort.

Like any other organized marketing effort, once you identify objectives and develop a content strategy, the task of measuring success keeps the investment in time and resources accountable. A blog started as part of an online public relations effort might focus on how many citations of the blog there are by other blogs and mainstream media web sites. A blog for customers might emphasize comment counts, RSS subscribers and product inquiries. Measurement should tied to goals and you can’t “score” a goal if you don’t know how or what to measure.

Here are some of the most important blog metrics cited in the #blogseo poll:

  • @seowolf – The metrics really depend on the campaign. Generally, awareness indicators, the main site’s TrustRank.
  • @silvioporcellan – on-site blog: position of articles for good keywords / off-site: links counted in WMT
  • @dericloh – It depends on the business goal & objective for utilizing the blog (i.e. reduce customer support cost, voc, etc)
  • @beebow – conversions, unique views, rank in SERPs #blogseo
  • @mhillaert – number and quality of comments, statistics, ranking as leader in industry, retweets #blogseo
  • @matt_mcgowan – conversions/engagement (time on site, subscriptions, comments, purchases, repeat visits), referrals, new visitors
  • @ty_walker – When what you tell people to do actually works for them. Readers won’t be readers long if your material isn’t practical.
  • @adamsherk – search referral traffic, inbound links, comments, engagement, social media sharing, RSS subscriptions
  • @Mel66 – Subscribers, visits, comments, rankings, engagement (quality of comments)
  • @ericfransen – Conversions, Engagements, Becoming your Industries Authoritative website #blogseo
  • @mjdigital – community – subscriptions, comments, uptake, retweets etc A blog is nothing if no-one reads it + shares/acts on it
  • @admrebak – obviously traffic to web page, bottom line, awareness, community growth, company image #blogseo

Companies that have started a blog often fall into comfortable schedules, since that’s the easiest way to manage tasks. Make checklists and processes and get people into predictable routines. However, staying competitive means staying current.

One way to stay current with blog SEO and blogging is to check out TopRank’s BIGLIST of search marketing blogs. What you read on other blogs should certainly be confirmed through your own testing and observations of social and web analytics.

That said, the bloggers from or poll shared a few of their favorite methods of staying current with blog SEO best practices:

  • @mjdigital – reading seo blogs, following key SEO’s, analysing Google Analytics, seomoz
  • @seowolf – RSS reader, using StumbleUpon topically, newsletters, Twitter and, occasionally, Facebook.
  • @matt_mcgowan – events and keeping up on my reading #blogseo
  • @michelleberdeal – Constantly listening to webinars & podcasts on this topic, reading blogs, researching, testing, measuring results
  • @SEOAware – TONS of reading daily, research, experimenting, monitoring results, watching google, constant education
  • @lisabuyer – Constant online reading and conferences
  • @JDEbberly – I stay current with SEO practices by reading your (Online Marketing Blog) authoritative blog 🙂
  • @beebow – read www.toprankblog.com 😉 attend conferences, regularly read posts by respected SEO/SEM/SMO bloggers. #sblogseo
  • @aimclear – we do rigorous Daily Reading & Training to keep current, big 🙂 http://bit.ly/6EOWmI
  • @mhillaert –  authoritative blogs, networking, etc. Mostly blogs. #blogseo
  • @janetdmiller – 1) Read blogs, 2) Attend conferences, 3) Discuss with others (twitter, etc.), 4) Test

Thank you to all the Tweet Poll #blogseo participants who you can easily find and follow on the #BlogSEO chat Twitter list.

About Lee Odden

@LeeOdden is the CEO of TopRank Marketing and editor of TopRank's B2B Marketing Blog. Cited for his expertise by The Economist, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, he's the author of the book Optimize and presents internationally on B2B marketing topics including content, search, social media and influencer marketing. When not at conferences, consulting, or working with his talented team, he's likely running, traveling or cooking up something new.

Comments

  1. Mark McCulloch Success Coach says

    January 6, 2010 at 6:38 am

    I found your blog today via technorati and I wanted to say you have a great blog both in design and layout and the top quality information you provide about seo is the very best quality I have seen.

  2. Mike Hines says

    January 6, 2010 at 7:00 am

    Excellent piece. As a beginning blogger I found this article very useful in helping me to organize my thoughts for http://homepathproducts.blogspot.com/. It's a work in progress and all OTJ training. Also, many thanks to @AndreeaC_T for recommending it via Twitter…a great follow for those so inclined.

    Thanks!

  3. jlbraaten says

    January 6, 2010 at 9:44 am

    I don't understand how folks could rate the SEO importance of blogging any less than a 3. Yes, you're going to have some core pages where inbound links and your primary keyword optimization are going to be critical. But you only have so many of those pages, right?

    I've noticed that I get less visits from my primary keywords than I do from the countless number of long-tail terms I had no idea would drive traffic. All of those terms are straight from blog posts I've written.

    Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to me that a complete SEO strategy would entail optimizing your core pages for your primary keywords, but then also ensuring you have a means to generate N number of visits through long-tail searches. For my site, the blog is the only way to generate that type of content and is therefor critical to my SEO efforts. Good post and good conversation.

    • leeodden says

      January 6, 2010 at 10:55 am

      Thanks Josh. It has to do with knowledge and expertise. Many companies simply don't know HOW to incorporate content marketing such as through a blog in their digital mix. Time and resources are only an issue because the perception of value is so low.

      If companies knew that through blogging they could dramatically increase traffic, press coverage, candidate hires, brand exposure and reduce customer service costs and others key metrics, they'd FIND the time and resources to make it happen.

  4. mj7 says

    January 6, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    Nicely summed up – glad to have taken part (@mjdigital)

  5. azhar5i says

    January 7, 2010 at 12:04 am

    Loved the blog SEO Tips and great survey mate! Thanks

  6. pankajseo1 says

    January 7, 2010 at 1:53 am

    The Custom Blog Service provides personalized blogs, written expressly to fit your firm’s unique personality and the interests of your client base. With our Custom Service LegalGhostBlogger gets to know your firm through communication and research

  7. pankajseo1 says

    January 7, 2010 at 1:53 am

    The Custom Blog Service provides personalized blogs, written expressly to fit your firm’s unique personality and the interests of your client base. With our Custom Service LegalGhostBlogger gets to know your firm through communication and research

  8. MarcusSheridan says

    January 7, 2010 at 12:28 pm

    Great article…loved all the dfferent comments and angles listed by SEO pros.

  9. Walt Goshert says

    January 7, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    One other key thing to keep in mind… with a blog you own the platform. As Brian Clark over at Copyblogger recently posted:

    No matter what business… You are a Media Company.

    Blogs give a business the opportunity to own the conversation and build community around their platform, their brand.

  10. Walt Goshert says

    January 7, 2010 at 3:54 pm

    One other key thing to keep in mind… with a blog you own the platform. As Brian Clark over at Copyblogger recently posted:

    No matter what business… You are a Media Company.

    Blogs give a business the opportunity to own the conversation and build community around their platform, their brand.

  11. Cristian says

    January 9, 2010 at 6:58 am

    Indeed, awesome post!

    Blogs are The place to start implementing and benefiting from SEO with your online business.
    There are 4 main blogging SEO principles that I consider:

    1. Search engine friendly blog structuring – a.k.a making your content available to visitors and SE with minimum click-thru rate. This is easily put into practice by systematically referencing previous posts within current post's body and making sure the “related posts” plugin is installed on your blog. Another tweak that enhances scannability is to structure your blog around prominent, money keywords.

    2. link out to and gain back links from related blogs. For this section, blogs have an indisputable advantage over static websites, due to their genuine social nature.

    3. Avoid duplicate content issues. This problem is more and more taken care of by efficient plugins (referencing those created by the WordPress freelance community – All in One SEO plugin being the best solution). Other way, there is another scenario that involves duplicated content, namely off page dupe fueled by content scrapers. To benefit from content scrapers that steal content, be sure to constantly reference other posts within your body WITH absolute links (vs. relative ones that become irrelevant as content is published on other sites).

    4. Finally, Generate XML Sitemaps. Again, this process is currently simplified to one button click due to plugins available. The reason why is important to have a sitemap installed is to inform search engines when new entries or posts are published on the site. It gets updated automatically so its a one time tweak for your blog.

    This is just about all I wanted to touch with this comment. Hope it helps you guys!

    Cheers,
    Cristian

  12. Weißer Tee says

    January 10, 2010 at 11:30 pm

    The PR industry is in a state of flux with increasing emphasis on the digital and social side of communications. In the context of digital PR, social media and search engine optimization can work together to compound results. As PR efforts continue to emphasize content publishing, digital and social communications, the opportunity to keyword optimize content for search is low hanging fruit.
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  13. goodseo says

    January 11, 2010 at 8:04 am

    This is SUCH a good post that I printed it out and handed it to my team. Fantastic! Thank you Lee! Awesome work!

  14. Julie, SEM Specialist says

    January 12, 2010 at 5:28 pm

    That is an excellent compilation! There has been a lot of great advice and I have started to follow some of the experts who participated. Thanks for sharing!

  15. maya says

    January 14, 2010 at 4:57 am

    is the survay still open?
    thanks!

    • leeodden says

      January 14, 2010 at 8:56 am

      Yes it is! You can take the Biz Blogging & SEO survey here: http://bit.ly/6Lr4Xb

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  18. webdesigncalgary says

    January 19, 2010 at 3:10 am

    Thanks for more information about SEO tools.The process of getting your website to the top of the search engines. Its also good to know about this SEO tool.Thank you.

  19. adamgrossman says

    January 19, 2010 at 3:12 am

    Thanks for more information about SEO tools.The process of getting your website to the top of the search engines. Its also good to know about this SEO tool.Thank you.

  20. seohitsnet says

    January 19, 2010 at 2:11 pm

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  21. indiancro says

    January 21, 2010 at 2:00 am

    Lee ,
    I think you are wondeful and excellent in bothe writing skilld. Youir blogs rea very useful in making me understand the real importance of business blogging. I have also completed your SEO survey. I ma responsible for blogging for Corporate blogging for my organization.
    do give the blog site a look-http://blogs.veedacr.com/default.aspx

  22. theosoft says

    February 8, 2010 at 10:39 pm

    Really A very useful guide! *thumbs up*
    http://www.theosoftindia.com

  23. websys says

    February 18, 2010 at 8:05 am

    this is a great info indeed! thanks for sharing your knowledge and the tools that might come a great help for seo professionals.

  24. saranyafa says

    February 21, 2010 at 11:18 pm

    This is such a excellent stuff

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