How to Search Engine Optimize (SEO) Your Tech Firm with Blogs

by Gregg Crystal Mar 4, 2015

My SEO guy says I need to blog.  Isn’t that what I pay him for?  What’s the deal?  

Short answer:  Search Engine Optimization is all about optimizing content for search algorithms like Google’s Hummingbird.  Blogs are the content.  Without the content there’s very little to optimize.  

What you need to understand is that you’re wasting your money on SEO if you’re not repeatedly putting out high quality content.  

Why is blogging so important?  Three reasons:  on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and the buyer’s journey.  All of that boils down to one word: results...if you want them you need to blog.  

Is blogging hard to do?  No.  Is it hard to do well?  Yes - that’s where SEO advice and marketing firms come in handy.  The hard part about blogging is developing expertise in a given field.  Talking about it is easy, especially for experts.  I’ve never met an expert who didn’t like to teach.  That’s what blogging is all about!  

Here are three simple tips to improve your digital presence through blogging:

  1. START.

    The best way to eat an elephant sandwich is one bite at a time.  The best way to build a library of digital blog content is to start with a single blog.  Use the 80/20 rule for generating topics:  80% educational, 20% promotional.  People are more likely to follow you if you constantly put out great content instead of pitching yourself.  Those followers are more likely to become leads, customers, or promoters.  Get started now!  

Pro Tip:

Think about what people type into google when they’re trying to solve a problem.  Use that phrase as the title to your blog.  Offer them a solution in the body of the blog.

  1. Blog repeatedly.  Increment gradually.  Don’t burn out.  Start small and grow sustainably.  Here’s a great chart from John McTigue on the relationship between blogging and ROI:

Content Required For Growth.png

  1. Optimize your blog.  Now that you have more than a website to optimize, incorporating SEO best practices is essential.  Optimize your blogs by conducting keyword research and implementing your keywords into page sections that matter.  Start with the page URL, the header, the meta description, and the content.  

Pro Tip:

Use pictures in every blog.  Optimize those pictures for search engines by incorporating Image Alt Text.  This tells the search algorithm what it’s looking at when it browses a picture.  Without Image Alt Text there’s nothing there.  This is a great way to incorporate high value keywords!  

Blogging well is a big part of successful online marketing.  Moreover, it’s at the core of the entire inbound philosophy:  attract strangers, convert visitors, close leads, and delight customers to develop promoters.  SEO isn’t just for websites - it’s a vital part of the blogging process, too.   Get started today!   New Call-to-action