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In my last post, I discussed one of the ways you can promote your blog and increase traffic – blog appearance. While the appearance is an important piece to the puzzle, it’s not the only solution to the never-ending need for blog promotion and increasing traffic. Search engine optimization (SEO) and email marketing are two very important aspects in creating a comprehensive blog promotion plan.
Having an effective SEO strategy for your blog can be easier than you think. Once you have your SEO focus (i.e. a list of target keywords), you simply need to integrate that focus into your blog without impairing its effectiveness or usefulness to the reader. Here are some ways you can do this:
- Post Relevant Content: Make sure your posts are relevant to your readers and your blog focus. For example, if your blog is focused on Atlanta Insurance, then you wouldn’t post content regarding auto insurance in Savannah. If your blog focuses on a particular town, then you want to post content relevant to that town or surrounding areas. If your blog focuses on a particular state, then you want to post content relevant to insurance in that state.
- SEO Tools: There are SEO tools available to better optimize your blog posts without stuffing it with keywords. For WordPress users, the All in One SEO Pack is a great add-on feature that allows you to optimize the title tag, meta description, and meta keywords for each particular blog post.
Title tag: It’s a good practice to place the title of your blog post into the title tag portion. This will create consistency between your title tag and your blog page title – this shows the reader they are in the right place. If you can fit it in relevantly, make sure your blog title contains a focus keyword.
Meta Description: For the meta description, you want to make sure that you create a tagline that will draw the user to your blog post. For example, if your post is about home insurance and your keyword is “California home insurance,” you may say: “Purchasing the right California home insurance can be confusing. Our agency can help – visit our blog today to learn more about coverage in your area!”Meta Keywords: Then, make sure the meta keywords portion contains the relevant keywords in categorizing your blog post (i.e. tornadoes, home insurance, etc.)
- Use Focus Keywords Where They Fit: There are plenty of ways to integrate your keywords without appearing spammy or affecting the usefulness to your readers. You can create a post to integrate certain keywords without over-doing it. For example, our friends at Dagley Insurance’s recent blog post regarding the Texas Texting While Driving Ban. One of Dagley’s focus SEO keywords is “Texas Auto Insurance.” Instead of writing a post about auto insurance in which their focus keyword makes up a lot of the content, they created a post about a recent event in their state that relates to it. They use the focus keyword once and link it back to the auto insurance page on their Virtual Insurance Office.
Another, perhaps underutilized, way to promote your blog is through email marketing. While you don’t want to spam strangers with links to your blog, you can promote your blog to your current list of clients and prospects. Building an email campaign around your blog is an easy way to get more readers, engagement, and visitors. The folks at Encharter Insurance are using this practice to full advantage. They have implemented a monthly social media newsletter that blasts out through email. This newsletter not only promotes their seven insurance blogs, but it also promotes their Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts. The newsletter they have created basically serves as an email marketing campaign for their blogs and social media accounts.
As I said in my last post, it is important to engage visitors on your blog, but it is also important to bring them to the blog in a way that is relevant to what they need. Someone might be searching for auto insurance in your area and find your blog – the information you provide them could make or break a new policy. It’s important to make sure you’re posting relevant and useful content.
What are you doing to promote your blog through SEO and email marketing? Tweet me @Astonish_Shawna and shout out your practices and ideas!
June 14, 2011 at 10:59 am
Hi Shawna! Thanks for the shout-out! At Encharter Insurance, we LOVE social media marketing, so we hope our email marketing strategy is helpful! I’ve also mentioned this great blog in a recent post and I would love your feedback. http://www.whaleofablog.com/helpful-tips-for-internet-marketing/ Thanks again for the props and thanks for the help!!