I love what I do. I have a passion for helping industrial marketers leverage the web for lead generation. But I must admit, with Google making algorithm changes fasting than you can say, “panda sucks” it is difficult to keep up.
But let’s quit bitching for a moment and stick to the basics when it comes to your most effective content marketing effort…your industrial blog.
The evidence is clear. No matter what changes Google makes in the future you need quality content that your customers love & find helpful. But first you need to have a basic understanding of search engine optimization to make sure your Hemingway-like classic gets found first.
Before you develop your blog strategy and write your first blog post, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. How would they search for your product or service?
Industrial buyers are now using full sentences and long phrases to search for the answers they need?
For example, take a company that manufactures “dies” for commercial engraving. Instead of searching for “dies”, “engraving dies” or “branding dies”, your prospect lurking in the weeds will now use a longer more descriptive search such as, “custom IPPC heat treat dies” or “dies for automatic branders”.
As industrial buyers use more complex language with more specific intent Google has adjusted their algorithm to better fit the more conversational approach your buyers are taking.
Once you have identified your industrial buyers’ specific intent and the questions they ask, then it is easier to identify the topics you need to blog about.
Your prospects ask…you answer with a blog post.
Optimization of Blog Headlines & the Blog URL
Once you have a list of topics and blog posts, you want to optimize your headlines. Your products’ keywords do best when they are at the beginning of your post’s headline. For example, using the example above, “Dies for Automatic Branders: Which is Best, Brass or Stainless?” Note important keywords are at the beginning. But there is a human element as well. The title is posed as a question and makes it likely to get clicked when published via social media and draws the interested reader back to your web site. Google records that link and your website gets the “credit”.
Once on a roll with your blogging discipline, try different title structures for your headlines and see which structures work best for your audience. I have found each industrial market responds differently to the same stimulus.
SEO-Friendly Links & Anchor Text
Also make sure your keywords are in the URL of your blog post. For example, the URL address for this post is: http://www.thereppgroup.com/blog/is-your-industrial-blog-just-blowing-in-the-wind-seo-optimization-is-the-answer Note that the critical keyword, “industrial blog”, is closer to the front of the URL. This URL is a nice backup for the headline of this post, “Is Your Industrial Blog Just Blowing in the Wind? SEO Optimization is the Answer”
Search engine spiders will eventually crawl your blog post. They can’t always digest every word but they do index certain parts of your industrial blog post; headline, subheader, alt-text of images, and anchor text. The anchor text is the keyword phrase you highlight when you insert a hyperlink. For example, the call-to-action and hyperlink at the end of this post includes keywords “industrial blogging” in the anchor text. Keep in mind that Google will index the first instant of an anchor text on your blog page. So if you have multiple anchor texts on your blog page make sure that your most critical keywords are in the first anchor text on the page.
How About Tags? Do They Work for SEO?
Most blog modules will allow you to “tag” your post. Some SEO experts tell us that having too many similar tags can be detrimental to your search engine ranking. In this particular post I had originally used the following tags; “industrial internet marketing”, “B2B lead generation”, “content marketing”, “inbound marketing”, “blogging”. I eliminated “B2B lead generation” because it was not closely related to this post and I also eliminated “content marketing” and “inbound marketing” because they both had “marketing” in the tag along with “industrial internet marketing”. One tag with the keyword “marketing” is enough for this one post.
Social Media & Your Industrial Blog
Typically industrial marketers will “po-po” social media. The problem with that attitude is search engines say “yahoo” to social media. Search engines now track your company’s social media activity and use that activity in their weighting.
You will notice on the left side of this post the social media “plug-ins”. Once I finish this post I will publish this post on Google +, our company’s Facebook page, Tweeter at #industriamarketing and most importantly on Linkedin.
For industrial marketers, Linkedin is where the action is.
If you look at my Linkedin page I am a member of approximately 38 groups on Linkedin. Some are for personal interests such as Harley Owners Group or Adrian College Alumni…but 14 of those groups have members that are interested in industrial marketing such as Industrial Marketing Mavens started by GlobalSpec. Industrial Marketing Mavens has 2,400 members. There are many others such as Industrial Supply Association, Fasteners Industry, Digital Marketing for Engineers, etc. One the 14 groups is my own group which I started called, Industrial Internet Marketer. Once I “publish” my post via these 14 groups my blog post with the enticing and SEO-friendly title reaches approximately 250,000 interested marketing professionals.
As an interested recipient reads my brilliantly conceived title and clicks back to my blog post, Google is lurking to measure the responses. The more my title and subject matter resonate with recipients the more “Google juice” (links back to my blog post) I get.
Many industrial bloggers make the mistake starting a blog that is independent of their company’s primary domain and receive no credit from Google in terms of search engine placement….which was the primary reason they started the blog in the first place.
Mobile?
15% of search traffic is now driven by mobile. I suspect that percentage is growing rapidly.
So…your blog site must be built using responsive design. Responsive design is a way of building a web site for optimal viewing on any device, whether desktop, tablet or smartphone.
Currently, at Market Pipeline we are developing all our web sites in responsive design including our blog modules. The blog post you are currently reading is not built on a responsive design and content management system. Just call us the “shoe cobbler’s daughter”.
The cobbler’s daughter will a get a new set of shoes in the coming months. Thanks for your patience.
Technology will change often. It has been said that Google changes its algorithm at least once a day…constantly striving to return the perfect answers for its customers.
Don’t worry about.
Simply create content and blog posts that create value for your customers. Start by answering questions your industrial buyers are asking.
Oh…by the way. Did I tell you that this blog is in response to a question from an industrial marketer just last week? Thanks Katie for your interest & question.
GET STARTED BY DOWNLOADING: An Introduction to Industrial Blogging. FROM OUR FRIENDS FROM HUBSPOT
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