Proof of the Power of Blogging for SEO


Posted: June 28th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: SEO PR Tactics | No Comments

Many, many times on this blog I’ve stood on my soap box and screamed to anyone who came by that blogging is one of the best things you can do to improve your search rankings. First, fix the basic things on your site so that it’s reasonably optimized. As soon as that’s done, you should run, don’t walk, to begin blogging.

The reason is that blogging creates a keyword-rich portion of your site that can lead all kinds of people to find you. When you’ve been blogging for a little while like I have, you start to notice that visitors find you for all sorts of weird searches. Those weird searches are proof that blogging gets your site noticed by the search engines.

Here’s some proof:

Last night I was looking at the site stats for this blog and noticed that someone found it through a search for “clogged toilet advice”. I reverse engineered the search and found that this blog is ranked #14 on Google for that search. I’ve heard bloggers find odd things like this before when they go off on a tangent. You could say I’m ranked for that search because I spew … well, you know … in my posts. The more logical explanation is that one of my first posts was on how surveys can be great fodder for reporters. The survey I used as an example was one from Scott Tissue that tried to find out the most cloggable toilets in the country.

I hope the person who found me looking for advice on unclogging a toilet actually found the help they needed.

EndGame Public Relations Site Redesigned


Posted: June 27th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: EndGame PR Site News | No Comments

I’ve done a medium-sized redesign of the main page here at EndGame Public Relations.  Basically I replaced the header with one that has a bit of depth, and then revamped a few things around it.  I really like the way it looks compared to the old design.  Check it out!

The Ultimate List of Resources for Bloggers


Posted: June 25th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Social Media Tactics | 2 Comments

I happened upon a post over at Mashable, and I stand in awe. The team over there has put together an incredible list of resources for bloggers, covering nearly everything. If you’re a blogger, I urge you to take a look at it.

Here’s a link: Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers

Appearing Soon on How-To Podcast


Posted: June 24th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: EndGame PR News | No Comments

I was interviewed recently for an upcoming appearance on a podcast called One Minute How-To. It’s hosted by George Smyth. It’s an ingeniously simple podcast. Guests on the show have the challenge of explaining in one minute or less how to do something. People have tackled such unrelated topics as “How to Homeschool” and “How to Pick a Lock”.

I explained in one minute (it actually only took me 54 seconds) how to choose a name for your new business. It was a lot of fun!

Look for my episode to run sometime next month. I’ll update you when it’s live!

Corporate Blogging – How Can It Be Controlled?


Posted: June 20th, 2007 | By: Steve Mullen | Filed under: Social Media Opinion, Social Media Tactics | 1 Comment

I’ve written in this space a number of times about the benefits of businesses starting their own blogs. Those benefits are almost innumerable. An interesting question about institutional blogging came up at the recent conference for Virginia’s Community Colleges, where I participated in a roundtable discussion. A marketing and PR professional at one of the schools asked how to handle a situation. The school was contemplating starting a blog, and was thinking about opening it up to allow students to start their own blogs as well.

At first glance I can see the reason that this would be considered. Positive experiences from current students would surely encourage site visitors to attend the school themselves. The problem with this plan, however, is lack of control over one’s web domain. I recommended against the plan because the school couldn’t guarantee the students would write about positive experiences. At the point when it’s visible, it’s too late to control it. The school couldn’t edit the post or delete it, because that would bring potentially damaging cries of censorship. So, it would just have to live with the situation.

I recommended launching the school’s blog and employing students to populate it through something akin to a newspaper system. The students would write about events or experiences and submit their information to a person in charge of the blog, who would edit it before posting it on the website. Someone else in the room even suggested that credits could be given to the “reporters”.

While this particular question was about an educational institution, it comes down to control of a brand. Like it or not, a website is a gigantic part of any company’s brand these days. It may be the only “print” many people see about you.   Because of that, corporate blogs need to be tightly controlled. Here are some suggestions for anyone considering launching their own:

  • Don’t expect your blog to run on its own. Someone who knows the ins and outs of the blogging software needs to be control of moderating everything, particularly comments. Spam comments will definitely come your way and negative comments might. Remember, just because someone submits a comment doesn’t mean you need to post it.
  • People who write on your blog for the company should be compensated specifically for that job. This seems like a strange suggestion, but … see the example I gave and you’ll see why I included it.
  • With larger companies, every post that goes live on the blog should be reviewed by at least two other people in the firm. This will reduce not only factual and grammatical errors (both just look bad) but also guard against renegade employees who have their own agenda.
  • The manager or owner of the company needs to know what’s going on. They should know how the blog software works, so they can jump in and take control if things go awry with the aforementioned renegade employee.

By taking these steps, hopefully your corporate blogging experience will be a positive one!

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