I joined a discussion on LinkedIn recently about Blogging for SEO reasons. A member asked the group for feedback on his blog. He is in the insurance business and blogging to improve his search engine rankings to, hopefully, generate leads.
The discussion was focused mostly on rankings and keyword density with little mention of building authenticity or rapport with blog visitors. I wondered if Blogging for SEO AND Authenticity really mattered.
I asked the blog owner what he was doing to build rapport and trust to connect with his visitors and even shared an article from Problogger discussing doing both building authenticity and SEO rankings. He dismissed the idea of connecting with visitors, and rationalized his business was different. He explained, no one is interested in talking about insurance, at least not until they have a problem, there seemed little point in connecting, so blogging for SEO was his target!
I do agree blogging for SEO can and does increase search engine rankings. To validate my own opinon that authenticy is critical in blogging and in all communications, I decided to get an opinion from my friend, Tony Rubleski, author of the Mind Capture book series, on building authenticity while blogging for SEO. This was his response…
“BS! His business is not different. People have lots of insurance and the business changes daily. He should be talking about changes in the industry, bundled policy options, wills, estate planning, trusts, annuities vs. stocks, etc, with other strategic business partners.”
-Tony Rubleski, President of Mind Capture Group
Then he shared with me his;
Seven Principles of Building Authenticity While Blogging for SEO
Tony pointed out these principles should be put to use in ALL of your marketing messages.
- Lower the BS meter. We all have a BS meter, we don’t like being sold to. We feel duped. Write in your authentic voice and quit pitching.
- Demonstrate why they should use YOU and why they should believe your claims. You should share informative content which solves a problem but you also need to let them know who they should trust you.
- Tell people what you believe in. Give them someone to identify with and relate to as a person. People buy from people, not companies or website. They need to trust you FIRST!
- Use authenticity as a conversion strategy. Position your personality, authority and expert resources to move them through the sales process. One you get a person to your site doesn’t mean you earned the right to capture them as a lead. Your content needs to be credible, solve a problem, as well as be shareable, a definite bonus SEO benefit, to move them through the process.
- Establish yourself as a credible expert. People buy from those they know, like and trust. Don’t leave out your personality, even if you are in insurance or whatever business you are in ;-o)
- Build your reputation to thwart the competition that may discredit your information or make false claims. Your competitors are clamoring for the same attention you are, some are willing to do and say anything to get it! Your trust building efforts and engagement put you in a better light and can make you different and unique.
- Make it relevant and move people off the free line. Connect with blog visitors by sharing a story that is relevant to them and how your product or service solves their problems. With all of the free information available now yours has to be high quality and relevance. Demonstrate your expert advice is worth it!
In conclusion, making your content keyword relevant for the search engines as well as interesting, believable and shareable to users, encourages users to share and link to your content, making it more authentic; as a result, this makes it even more relevant to the search engines, who will reward you for Blogging for SEO AND Authenticity
Related articles
What Has Blog SEO Got to Do With How Your Readers Feel?
How to Become A Social Media Influencer: Ten Small Steps
Suggested reading from the 30 Day Blogging Challenge
The Violent Death Of Article Marketing – Not Really!
How to use the apparent death of article marketing to skyrocket your success with your Internet business.
http://www.earlybirdmarketing.net/the-violent-death-of-article-marketing-not-really
Streams of Traffic — A Must To Insure Success
Kevin Riley, well-known teacher and writer demonstrates how to build steady streams of traffic through Traffic Centers and links back to your offer.
http://www.freecomputerclassroom.com/steady-streams-of-traffic-a-must-to-insure-success/
Your Internet Business: Building Credibility
The success of your Internet business will depend on whether or not your prospects perceive you and your website(s) as being credible. If your prospects think you lack credibility, it will be next to impossible to sell them anything. And of course, if no one purchases what you offer, your business cannot succeed.
http://www.dwwdblog.com/your-internet-business-building-credibility/
Paul,
What the blog owner didn’t say is that when a person has a problem, they want to get their insurance situation resolved quickly. That means they are likely to take their business to the insurance agent who showed he or she cared about them, communicated with them, and had built credibility (related to authenticity) with the potential customer. I wonder how many customers that blog owner has lost over time because of only caring about SEO and not the people who were visiting the website.
Roger, thanks for weighing in. I agree he has probably lost some customers, but in his defense, he is dedicated to learning and will probably discover he needs to pay more attention to ‘credibility’ (aka. Authenticity) as we all do!