Using Blogs To Boost Web Traffic

Do blogs really boost web traffic?

I’ve talked to a few internet marketers recently that have never used blogs before. I don’t blame them.

After looking at all the blogs out there, many people think that blogging platforms are only for blogging.

When ever I think about blogging, I think about the hardcore bloggers like Darren at Problogger.net and the rest of the b5media gang.

While there are many other bloggers out there typing away, I will confess that I’m not really a blogger.

What I mean by that is that I don’t like cranking tons of articles out each day.

So how can you use a blog to boost web traffic by being a non-blogger?

Well, whether you want to be a blogger or not, you can use it to store content…kind of like a content management system (CMS) does.

In fact, most of my niche sites are blogs configured as CMS’s. I don’t continuously blog on them. Their pretty similar to my static sites…except for a few traffic boosting differences.

Although using a blog to market my previous home isn’t a new concept, I think that the combined usage of blogs/SEO/PPC for residential real estate marketing is new to the majority of real estate marketers.

If you go out and ask 1000 realtors if they’re using blogs, search engine optimization, or pay-per-click advertising (or even the whole combination), how many would say they are?

I also read a recent real estate marketing article that mentioned that RSS feeds can be used to get better rankings in the “blog” search engines.

While that is true, that isn’t the full story.

6 Steps To Using The Viral Power of Blogs and RSS/XML Feeds

I’m about to tell you some things that some people may be afraid of telling you. Blog / RSS technologies have been used in the whole spectrum of good and bad web marketing (white, gray, and black hat). Bad doesn’t mean that the techniques won’t work. All that it means is that is frowned upon by the search engines…and by viewers that get irrelevant content.

Some internet marketers won’t tell you things that work because they’re afraid that somone will label them as a “black hat marketer”.

Here’s some mixed approaches that I don’t have a problem with. That’s because I’m not splogging (spamming using blogs) and I’m providing relevant content.

1) Alerting the Search Engines

I’ll go as far as saying that using RSS / XML feeds will help you get better rankings on “search engines” in general.

Google loves seeing fresh content. When you submit a post (in a non-spam like fashion), Google gets notified through the blog search engines (if your blog is configured to do so). When this occurs, your post will possibly get indexed faster than not submitting it through a RSS feed. This 1 step will lead to the viral-traffic-boosting effect that I’m about to explain.

2) Getting 1-Way Backlinks

Now that your post is out there in the blogosphere, you have a link back to your site from other domains (from blog search engines). So what’s so great about that? Popular search engines recognize that if more people (or domains) are linking to you, the article may be more relevant compared to nobody linking to you. These types of links boost rankings (especially if a links comes from a site with a high page rank).

3) Getting Links from Trackbacks

When another blogger recognizes your article, they may reference your article. This is another type of 1-way link that will boost your ranking.

4) Relative Anchor Text

If your blog is configured correctly, the title will be used as anchor text (hyperlink text) in another persons blog or in a blog search engine. When congruent anchor text is used to link back to your article, this is another trigger in the search engines that allow you to get relative points … boosting up your ranking.

5) Using Technorati Tags To Boost Rankings

While submitting a tagged post to Technorati does get you higher rankings (temporarily) in their blog search engine, it does have some great side effects. Technorati is spidered by the search engines too. So when a post is submitted, it also contains relative anchor text (a relevant title is in the hyperlink). I’ve noticed on several occasions that the Technorati reference was indexed in google. Since Technorati has a high page rank, it has a good chance of being ranked higher on the search engines as well. So when people search for a relevant keyphrase (which is the tag being used in the post), Google can lead them to your page through Technorati.

6) The Great Side Effect Of Social Bookmarking

When your article is syndicated (through RSS), it’s more out in the open compared to not using an RSS/XML feed. What this means is that social bookmarkers can easily bookmark your page on the net. When people bookmark your page and make it public, they’re also creating a highly relevant 1-way link back to your site. …again, boosting your search engine ranking.

Don’t you think that blogs should be included in your marketing arsenal?