If you are into online marketing, then you will have a sound knowledge of search engine optimisation. Basically, this is the art of (as the name suggests) optimising your site in order for it to rank high in the search engines, particularly Google. Blog marketing is a great way to build valuable content for your website and help optimise your site for Google.

You see Google LOVES content, in fact, with the recent Penguin and Panda updates Google loves content more than ever, and in their view, if you are a master in what you are promoting, then you should be able to provide valuable content that people would want to search for.

Many would be forgiven for thinking that all they would have to do is write the blog and then publish it on their website, but in actual fact, there is so much more to blog marketing than meets the eye.

Compelling Keyword Rich Content
First of all, and this should go without saying, but you need to produce compelling content that your target market would want to read, and that includes the keyword you want to rank high for in the Google search. There is a strategy to blog marketing – read our tips in our blog “Blogging for Business”.

Promoting your Business’ Blog
Just because you have written a blog and posted it on your website, does not mean it will automatically come up high in a Google search. How will Google even know it is there if there are no links pointing to it?

Blog Site Map
Make sure you have a site map for your blogs, and make sure Google has access to this. You can upload your blog’s sitemap directly to Google through the Google Webmaster Tools.

Social Media
Promote your blog on social media platforms – Facebook, Reddit, Twitter and Stumble Upon, just to name a few. Not only will this get in the faces of your customers and draw traffic to your blog, but it will also help Google's "Spiders" find links pointing to your site; directing them to crawl your site … hence your blog will be indexed.

Links in your Email
If you are providing valuable content in your business’ blog then make sure you promote the blog to all your customers, and include a link to your blog in your email signature. If Google can see your blog gets a decent amount of traffic, it will do wonders for your site overall.

Online marketing is really an art in itself, and in this day and age it is fundamental for most businesses to have an online presence of some kind. If you can offer your customers valuable advice that is relevant to what your business is all about, then build the content on your website by sharing your knowledge and wisdom with your customers.

Media Messages has been adding valuable business, audio and marketing blogs to our website for a number of years. We also feature many of our customers’ telephone on hold messages so that potential customers can also see the quality of our professional audio productions.