Blogging and Search Engine Optimization

About a year ago there was a commercial on Denver TV for a Pontiac dealer. At the end of the commercial, the announcer said, "Google us at Pontiac Denver." This seemed strange to me.

I thought it would be better if they said the dealer's actual web site. By telling the viewers to Google them at "Pontiac Denver" they were opening themselves up to their competition, especially if their competion was higher in the results for that term. So, I did a little experiment.

I wrote a blog about this to see if I could get on the front page of Google for the term, "Pontiac Denver." It's been more than a year now and my blog is still on the front page for that term.

My experiment taught me two things. One, the advertising people at the car dealer didn't understand how to use the Internet effectively. They should have sent the viewers to a specific web site and not opened themselves to the competition.

Two, blogs can be a powerful tool for search engine marketing. They get picked up quickly by the search engines and you can gear your blog posts to a very specific keyword phrase.

I had an incident a couple years ago where I put up a blog on a Friday. By Saturday afternoon the blog was on the front page for the keyword phrase I was going after. I took down the blog post that after, and by the next day, the post was off the front page of Google.

Blogging isn't always going to be so effective, but it did seem to work well for a term that didn't have much competition. Using the blog as a tool in your online marketing strategy might help you, too.

Dave Carlson is the owner of Green Chair Marketing Group, a boutique marketing firm specializing in developing comprehensive marketing plans focusing on Internet strategies to help businesses succeed. He can be reached at 720-922-3124. See his Web site at www.GreenChair.net.

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