SEO, Social Media & eCommerce Talk @RTMLWise

I know I am letting the cat among the pigeons. SEO guys out there must be hollering murder. Some SEO guys even talk in keywords. As I have said earlier some like talking to search engines rather than human beings. Geeks love machines, SEO guys love engines. Coming back to the topic of today, does a Blog really need SEO? Let me put it another way, isn’t SEO a hindrance for blogs?  I am in the mood for experimentation. So let me do a little search for keyword “dog” . What do I observe? Sorry, no blogs here. I will alter my search to “Dog blogs”. Now I seem to get some results. But I have a feeling that the blogs are listed not on the strength of SEO alone. There seem to be more powerful ways to get listed on search engines. And remember, search engine is not the only way visitors can arrive at your site – and stay there.

Listing your blog on other blogs

This according to me is the best way to get noticed. People are looking for blogs which give them insight into a particular subject. For example, if I want to get published, I would like to seek guidance from established literary agents. I will obviously have blogs from these folks on my internet radar. Guess what? Many literary agents provide links to other interesting blogs – blogs that are related to writing. How nice it will be if I were among the links! This is what I call the pull effect. By writing relevant, informative, interesting stuff, I can demand links from established blogs. Remember that, the visitors will get hooked to your blog only if you provide good content.

Let me examine the situation from the SEO angle. I assiduously work towards creating blogs which are flirting with keyword density. I mess up the content thinking of keywords and finally do make it to the top of the ranking. Great. But who is going to click on me? As I said there is no incentive for anyone to visit your blog. A blog is not only a personal thing for the writer but it is also a personal thing for the reader. Just dig into your own past experience. Have you ever reached a blog through search engines? If you haven’t why are you wasting your time trying to top the search engine chart?

YouTube and video sites

This is something worth exploring. I have seen some very nifty videos on YouTube which lead you to some nice, interesting and funny blogs.  Of course, it all depends on what your blog is all about. If it some quirky, Guinness book type of blog, you can always depend on YouTube to do the trick for you. I have seen even some serious blogs being promoted through these video sites. I will say it is worth a try. The icing on the cake is that search engines tend to pick up blogs from video sites. Use some effective keywords and you might find your ranking shoot up as a bonus.

Forums and social sites

These are great hunting grounds for prospective visitors. There are many thousands of forums waiting to be exploited. Make sure that you participate on forums which are active. According to my estimate only one in a hundred forums are active. Rest ninety nine are just one entry wonders. But participating in good forums can do wonders to your blog statistics. It is another matter that once someone bites the bait, your content should be able to keep him there. Other than snaring visitors, forums give us an opportunity to participate in some really great conversations. Keeping in touch with your profession and following the masters in your chosen trade is the most effective learning tool ever. By reading other blogs you tend to learn the art of blogging. This I consider very important. It gives us a sense of what a successful blog is all about. If we concentrate on blogs which are primarily focused on how to get a great search engine ranking, we may eventually get to be number one ,still not reach anywhere.

Patting each others back is another trait which I have noticed among bloggers. A blog on psychology is bound to relate and bond with other psychologists. This leads to a faithful tribe of followers and leaders. The best way to a successful blog is to become successful in your profession. Imagine President Obama with a blog. I am sure he doesn’t require SEO to burst the charts. By the way he is on LinkedIn – check out.