12 Reasons Why You Need A Blog

Reason 1.

A blog is a non-branded page of a site. It updates regularly. It publishes new information and it entertains new regular visitors.

For these reasons, major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing love to crawl and index blogs.

Reason 2.

There’s freedom in blogging. You’re in control of what to publish and what not to publish. You can write news. You can publish case studies filled with statistical data.

You can embed your YouTube videos. For more active engagement, you can even attach polls and conduct contest in all your blog posts.

Reason 3.

A blog is your business notebook with a personal touch. New visitors prefer to visit it rather than see and read what’s written in the About Us, FAQ, Rates & Packages and Contact.

Reason 4.

Content marketing starts with a blog. Most of the time, your blog publishes visual contents such as articles, photos and videos.

These are the types of contents that can convert frequent visitors into subscribers if you include a vibrant call-to-action above the fold.

Reason 5.

A blog reveals your online reputation. People can tell who you are based on the following:

• Blog’s appearance
• Update frequency
• Writing tone
• Placement of texts, links and call-to-action

Reason 6.

You don’t have to be a professional writer to be a blogger. You’re a business blogger not only because you can write well but more because your contents can convert:

• readers into frequent visitors
• frequent visitors into subscribers
• subscribers into leads
• leads into buyers
• buyers into repeat customers

Reason 7.

A blog markets your products and services well. Unlike traditional advertising like TV and radio ads that only last for 30 seconds or less, the information you write in your blog are for long-term.

The people can bookmark the link in their browser and reread it over and over again.

Reason 8.

It’s possible to optimize your blog for local search. For example, you opened two branches for ABCD Catering. Your main branch is located in Seattle and the other is in Chicago.

If you only have no budget for a website, it’s best to create two separate blogs with similar brand design but with different contents.

Reason 9.

You can use your blog to generate more leads. Contents that always keep your audience happy, inspired and hopeful will keep your phone busy. It rings and rings for your help and support.

Reason 10.

Content conversion is easier when you start with a blog post. A blog post, a 500-word article with a photo for example, can be converted into a press release, a promo video, an e-book, an infographic, a slide share, a podcast and an e-newsletter.

Reason 11.

Blogging isn’t too technical. All it requires is creativity and imagination. Let your ideas flow freely, write it down and edit it later.

Reason 12.

Blogging is free. It only requires you to have a free email address to create an account in WordPress, Blogger or Tumblr. There are also limited number of free templates you can use to get started.

*****

LEADS AHOY provides services in reputation management, search engine optimization, list building and geo-targeted lead generation. http://leadsahoy.com/

10 Reasons Why Your Local SEO Campaign Needs Geo-Targeting

What is Geo-Targeting?

Geo-Targeting is an on-page technique in local search engine optimization (Local SEO), in which a webpage is directed to a specific location – city, town, zip code, state, country and phone number.

Internet marketing gurus claim people will easily find your page in major search engines when it’s optimized for local search.

Does Your Site Need Geo-Targeting?

Yes. There are 10 reasons why a geo-targeted page works well. Here they are:

Reason 1.

Your homepage becomes more visible in search engines. Every page contains a network of keywords and key phrases relevant to your campaign. All these keywords are stored in the title and meta tags.

Reason 2.

Your contact details may regularly appear in the first page. Google Pigeon loves to reward contact pages that contain the following:

• Business name
• Business logo
• Physical address
• Phone number

Reason 3.

It increases conversions because it provides a tool for translation. Your audience can translate the page from English to Spanish with a click.

This way, the more conversions you produce, there are more people who are willing to buy.

Reason 4.

It becomes your ideal landing page. There are times a geo-targeted page looks like a one long letter of sales talk.

The layout displays the product information, opt-in box, success stories, star ratings and local reviews.

This way, more and more people will feel more curious and will click the link towards your main website.

Reason 5.

Your audience will never get confuse. It’s believed an e-commerce site, that is directed to three countries, can display a wide variety of currencies.

Visitors don’t have to use calculators to convert US dollars to Australian and Canadian dollars.

Reason 6.

It contains customized pages that create a satisfying and delightful experience for visitors.

For example, you create “Tour The City” blogs for NYC and New Haven. Their contents, however, provide a different story angle – concerts for NYC and night life for New Haven.

Reason 7.

For testing and comparison purposes, it’s possible to give a different product offers to different locations.

For example, you give 50% discount to NYC and only 40% to New Haven. This way, you can study and run a data-rich and location-based analysis.

Reason 8.

It’s possible to change the site’s overall appearance. Studies reveal every culture interprets bright colors differently.

For example, the US Politics associates blue as a color for liberalism but in China, it’s associated with pornography.

For these reasons, there’s nothing wrong if you’ll use a blue shade for NYC and a light yellow shade for New Haven.

WARNING: This isn’t a recommended technique if your campaign observes a strict brand consistency.

Reason 9.

The page is expected to be mobile friendly due to special codes inserted in the meta script.

Your audience can immediately find your new blog post with only few clicks on his smart phone and other mobile devices.

Reason 10.

Whatever your business is, geo-targeting yields long-term success. Each page stays healthy, SEO-wise. Each page also provides a natural backlink to your main site.

Can you imagine how much traffic you can get when you have 100 geo-targeted pages?

*****

Leads Ahoy provides services in reputation management, search engine optimization, list building and geo-targeted lead generation. http://leadsahoy.com/