The on-going problems Ford has been experiencing with the transmissions in their Focus and Fiesta models turns out to be a prime example as to why business owners should use blogging as a way to promote their business.
Case in Point
What if I owned a Ford Focus or the Fiesta and wanted to know if anyone else was having the same problems with their car? When doing a Google search for Ford transmission problems one would expect to find articles about how to troubleshoot and/or repair the problem on page one of search results. However, what came up on page one more often than not were countless consumer complaints, along with a laundry list of Lemon Law attorneys.
California Lemon Law Group, Inc. showed up on page 1 and/or 2 in Google with various keywords and phrases that I entered into the search box, whether using my browser’s search box or when searching directly on Google. The most surprising result was seeing not one but THREE blog articles for the same domain on page 1, in organic (not paid advertising) search results. How’s that for cornering the Google market!
As you can see by the above snapshot, blogging has enormous potential to drive many times more traffic to your site via organic search than paid ads — if done on a consistent basis.
Granted, some businesses need to buy ad space since it takes longer to see the effects of organic SEO. But honestly, how often do you click on the paid ads, especially if something in the organic listings catches your eye? I would argue that having 3 articles on page one would definitely catch the attention of Ford Focus or Fiesta owners!
It’s a safe bet to say that the 3 free listings would trump one paid ad, and result in far more visits to the website.
When Groupon wanted to find out which method brings in more visitors to their site, organic or paid ads, they conducted their own experiment. To “scientifically” find out which was working best for them, Groupon took a very bold step and had Google deindex their entire site. The end result was that they discovered that organic search was responsible for 64% of their web traffic. Also noted was that up to 60% of “direct” traffic is actually organic search.
Keep in mind that these numbers are based on Groupon’s experiment. Search results depend on many factors, including (but not limited to) whether you perform a search at Google’s site directly vs. in a browser’s search box, which version of an operating system you’re running, your browser, and now you can also factor in whether or not you’re searching from a mobile device.
The bottom line is that business blogging is worth including into your overall marketing plans.
4 Simple Tips to Improve Your Organic Search Traffic
- Think of typical questions your clients/customers ask and then write quality content that answers the questions. In the above example, a consumer was having problems with a new car and wanted to know if there were others with the same problem. Consumers often search the Internet for solutions to their problems; Regardless of what the problem may be; health related, product related, or how to do/make something or other.
- Optimize your content. Use appropriate meta titles, descriptions and keywords (and key phrases) in your content.
- Include relevant images and optimize them for the search engines; be sure to include your meta tags. Images are what catches the eye and enhances your blog post. If you’re sharing your blog posts on your social sites (and you should be), make sure your images are sized properly.
- Join in on Google’s SEO games and play by the rules — no matter how many times they change the rules.
None of this is to say that you MUST have a blog on your site. In fact, if you have no intention of posting on a regular basis, then it would be in your best interest to not set one up on your site and then never use it.
Websites without a blog can, and do, rank high in search results, but the business owners are missing out on one of the most powerful ways to get organic search results.
In addition, blogging provides the ability to cover very narrow topics more broadly. As noted above, those four articles were not about her services, nor about the lemon law. They are about a particular problem and a solution to the problem.
Not only can blog posts take over first page ranking (as seen above), but they can also help you build your customer base and social media presence.
NO ONE CAN GUARANTEE A #1 RANKING ON GOOGLE.
From Google’s FAQ page:
No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or advertise a “priority submit” to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
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