Why Catalogers Should Blog for Search
Search engine marketing is one of the most important advancements in marketing since television. Millions of people every day are simply typing their wants and needs into that little box and waiting for the good marketers to deliver solutions. The goal of every marketer is to be the one presented on that page saying, “Yes, I do that.”
Before we dive into why catalogers should blog for search, here are two facts on Internet search every marketer should know.
1. According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey, 91 percent of all Internet users search. Search is tied with e-mail as the most popular Internet activity, far ahead of noisier trends like social networking.
2. Anywhere between 70 percent and 99 percent of the clicks on a search results page are in the organic results.
So if everyone is hitting the search engines first when considering a purchase, and almost all of them are clicking on the organic results, how does a cataloger get ranked organically across the hundreds to perhaps tens of thousands of keyword phrases that a searcher could potentially type?
Using a keyword suggestion tool, you’ll find there are 13,895 different phrases people use to find a toaster! If you’re the one with the most content about toasters, and that content is frequently updated, interesting and informative; allows interaction; and leverages many different keyword phrases, you’re likely to rank well.
The challenge, of course, is how to generate all that content. Blogging makes it easy.
Blogging for Search
Consider blogging as a search strategy. I’m not talking about the typical corporate blogging strategy that’s focused on a top-down, thought-leadership, CEO-centric kind of activity. This requires a new frame of mind about what a blog actually is and who should be doing it.
My suggestion is to empower all employees to participate in your company’s blogging efforts. By leveraging not only executives, but literally every member of your team, you’re able to greatly magnify the volume of relevant content about your company and your products. Look to your customers, as well. We’ve seen very successful clients use follow-up e-mails to automatically solicit feedback on purchased products. That content goes right into blog posts.
It’s a radical thought: When was the last time anyone considered an employee in shipping or customer service to participate in marketing communications? But think about it — who has the most interaction with your customers and your products? Free them up! Let them blog about it, and see your catalog achieve better search engine results.
Chris Baggott formerly was marketing manager of R.R. Donnelley’s catalog group before moving on to start ExactTarget, an e-mail service provider. He also launched Compendium Blogware, which provides software that enables organizations to leverage employee and constituent blogging for search engine optimization. For more information, go to www.compendiumblogware.com .
