Many SEO and Internet Marketing companies recommend their clients get a blog installed and that they begin to blog.  On Target also recommends this, BUT, here’s the typical disconnect….. Many clients start to blog and then give up after a few weeks.

Like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it.  If you write three blogs and walk away for three months, guess what happens? NOTHING. The more that you contribute RELEVANT and INTERESTING content that is SINCERE and GENUINE, the more that you will thrive.  Here are some blogging mistakes that are commonly made:

1.) Blogging about your pet goldfish Jake.  No one cares.
2.) Blogging about your recipe for creamed spinach.  Unless you sell creamed spinach, POINTLESS.
3.) Blogging once a quarter.  Nope, not enough.  We recommend three blogs a week.
4.) Don’t try to sell something every time you blog!  A call to action is important, but DON’T push your products down people’s throats.
5.) Don’t just write blogs for search engines.  The goal here is to get live, breathing, actual human beings to read your stuff.

The internet is all about contributing.  Use your blog to contribute to the Internet and the search engine karma will follow.

One particular element that helps SEO or at least aids the search engines in finding your web site is an XML sitemap.  Many people have doubted the value of submitting a sitemap to Google, but Google verifies that it does indeed help Google understand your web site better and helps it crawl your links better.  IMPORTANT: Google does not guarantee inclusion to it’s directory by submitting a sitemap.

Check out the article from Google on their  webmaster blog and make certain that your web site has a site map uploaded. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/06/update-on-sitemaps-at-google.html

With online video and you tube, it’s easy for any company to crank out a video about their company and get it found in Google or Youtube.  People, being curious, love to watch videos.  One caution before you site down with all of your office and marketing staff to brainstorm about your promotional video: It’s NOT About You.  The video needs to be about what your company can do for your prospects, so, here are some things to avoid:

1.) No one cares about your beautiful new facility in upstate New York.
2.) No one really cares about what the CFO has to say about Q3 earnings and how it impacts the global economy.
3.) No one really cares about the ‘message from the CEO’. Snooze Fest.
4.) No One is that concerned about Jennie your secretary and her views on the production process.

Create your video for your prospects and customers, not you.  Get them to laugh, get them to see the value in what you do, get them to understand, you are different.