Blogging and your SEO: Helping people with free information

The Internet is the great all-knowing; it puts libraries to shame in its speed, efficiency, full-color graphics, and ability to fit in your pocket. But how did it become so smart and so cool? Because people like you, me and that guy with the long beard who hasn't come out of his home office in two weeks are the ones sharing all the information. Everyone has an opinion that counts on the web!

Google favors websites that help people by sharing good information, tools and resources--for free. Google indexes information by reading text (for now). It confirms the information by peeking in to see who is reading the information, how long they're reading it, and if they clicked off in frustration or delved deeper into the data.

Google looks for the sales person (website) who really helps people vs. the sales person (website) who just wants to make a commission. Waking Girl websites focus on helping people! We believe that finding ways to help more and more people with less and less effort is the key to success! Blogs should be written with this focus in mind.

How to help people by blogging, and in turn, improve a website's SEO (Search Engine Optimization):

• Give industry-specific knowledge (how to clean a stain from the carpet, how to set up a complicated website task, how to save money on your taxes, how to easily pass Mr. Frederick's algebra class without cheating, etc.)
• Make it fun and easy to read (have compassion on the reader who is desperately trying to find answers and has to sift through all sorts of boring blogs!)
  
• Make it easy to go from the blog to the professional (well-placed links or buttons and a clear call to action, without any pressure!)
• Use key phrases so that Google knows you've got the answers (key phrases are just the words people type into Google to find something; you can start typing and see the suggestions Google offers to get a current search phrase list)
• Make it meaty so Google knows you're legit (a one-sentence blog isn't going to grab anyone's attention; flesh it out to 300-600 words)
• Use a search-friendly title with a catch (fit at least one search phrase into your Blog Title, and then feel free to spice it up from there!)
• Optional: Include a photo that says 1000 words (if referencing company events, try to use a few real photos; otherwise go for one professional paid-for stock photo)

Writing is one of the most challenging tasks for business owners. If you love to write, you're in demand! Writing every day will quickly improve your skills; start now!

Let me show you the power of blogging and your SEO:

The carpet cleaning industry is vast and competitive. It takes quite the budget and a lot of time to do well in a search. We'll take a look at a new client: BEST Services.

If we do a search for "carpet cleaning reno" BEST Services is nowhere to be found:

It's a new site, so this is not a surprise. If we do a search for something more specific that we have blogged about, we'll find this:

Here is the respective blog attached to that search.

You can search for almost any key phrase on the blog and it comes up on the first page of Google.

As the site performs better and better on these niche services, Google will recognize it as a more and more authoritative site and it will perform better and better for the really important searches.

That is the power of blogging!

See if you can find the power of blogging in another website. Or see if a website could use some blogging assistance!

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