As the Internet becomes our window to the world, search prominence is rising in importance.  This is not news to anyone.  But it is amazing how many companies still do not optimize their presences on the Web for search.  The two main areas to consider are the main company/brand site and a companion blog, which may or may not be resident within the main site domain.  Regardless of your implementation, a frequently updated blog is a powerful tool in creating relevance for your company, product, brand and spokespeople to search engines.  They crave fresh content.

As traditional media decline, blogging enables you to take your message directly to your customers and prospects.  It’s another form of public relations that didn’t exist just a few years ago, but has made media superstars out of more than a handful of people.  Being involved with blogging also means “putting yourself out there,” literally, by commenting on other blogs, using your real name – entering into the online conversations that have become so important to raising individual and company profiles in the Web.

Company blogs are the 21st Century newsletter, but without the big production costs and with the ability to be much more current and frequently updated. Our clients use blogs set up by us to establish and maintain their status as experts in their fields.  Jordan Haberfield of Excel Partner uses his Agile Elephant blog (blog and Web design by us) to grow his and his company’s reputation as experts in the elite IT skills job market.  “Blogging has helped us to rapidly grow our reputation and accelerate the success of a recent change in our strategy,” says Haberfield.  “It takes concerted effort to keep the blog going, but I feel compelled to write because I can see evidence every day of the traffic we generate, leads that come in and the support it provides when we speak with customers, prospects and candidates.” 

And to drive traffic, you can do some very simple things to make yourself more visible and visited.

• Make sure your company's standard email signature promotes your blog - every outbound email from your team becomes an advertisement and source of traffic.
• Register your blog with Technorati and tag your posts!
• Use keywords that you want to become known for - so, for example, if you are writing about analog audio, be sure to include frequent mentions of relevant terms like "vinyl" and "LPs."  This will make your blog more relevant for searches on these terms.
• Build a list of subscribers to send important updates to.  We use a form provided by Vertical Response, an email service bureau, on Web sites and blogs to capture email addresses of people who want to learn more -- and advise clients to import their customer and prospect lists to start the process (you can add to this, too, from sources like trade shows).

In addition to blog design and implementation, Austin Lawrence Group can provide promotional and editorial services to complete your online presence and persona.