Business Blogs

Cornerstone Content is Essential

A good blog rests on a solid foundation of cornerstone, or flagship content. This is the content you build your blog around - it is indispensable, it is essential, it is what people absolutely must know in order to understand your brand and do business with you.  It should also be some of your most compelling content - it’s the ace up your sleeve, it’s what readers come to your blog for, and it’s your best stuff.

Flagship Content and SEO

Flagship content is naturally keyword rich.  As a central component of your blog, it should focus on your main message and therefore contain tons of your keywords. When writing your cornerstone content, you should focus on creating value for your readers - after all, compiling a useful resource is one of the ways to generate incoming links. One of the things that your flagship posts should accomplish is to answer the most relevant questions that people searching for your content are asking. Ask yourself “what kind of content would ensure that my readers get the most out of my blog?”

When you place flagship content with a high keyword density in a prominent position on your blog and reference it in future posts, it helps to promote the post in search engines and makes it more liked to be linked to by others. Amazing flagship content has the potential to go viral, because a useful flagship post or series of posts gives people something to link to, recommend, and remember.

How to Create Cornerstone Content

Okay, so you know that you need to write some compelling flagship posts that benefit and hook readers.  Now what do you write about? Here’s a few ideas:

1.  A glossary of terms related to your business.  This is a especially useful if your in an industry with lots of specialized jargon that can be intimidating to outsiders (note: coming soon on Create Compelling Content: a “Blogger’s Glossary”).  It’s also beneficial in the SEO sense, because you can use tons of keywords in this post.

2.  A series of tips for newcomers to your industry or niche; for instance, “Ten Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started….”. Fill in the blank with your expertise.

3.  How-tos.  A clearly-written how-to post or series is an excellent way to provide value for your readers, and it lets you show off your chops at the same time.  Bonus points if you can make it uplifting and inspirational, i.e. “anyone can attain this goal if they put their mind to it, here’s how”.  Inspire someone and they will not only remember you, they’ll recommend you and link to your blog.

4.  A powerful vision.  Do you have a particular vision or amazing, innovative idea for your niche?  Can you write about it in an eloquent way? Go for it.

5. Organized databases of product reviews or other resources for your niche. You can even include outside links as long as they add value and support your overall brand somehow (just be sure that these outgoing links don’t directly contradict your message).

6. FAQs about your business and industry are simple but very useful, and they are very easy to create and fill with keywords.

7. All of the above - videos and podcasts of any of the previous options are another great flagship, and they allow for your readers to access your content in their preferred format (some people like to read information, others learn best by watching or listening).  Use the many different methods of web-publishing to your advantage and create a video or podcast of your cornerstone content.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it’s a good jumping off point.  Feel free to share your own cornerstone content in the comments!

Link baiting is a term that comes up a lot in SEO discussions, and it can be a very powerful component of your SEO strategy.  Link bait is used to describe any sort of linkable content - a blog post, an image, a special feature - within a site that’s meant to catch attention and invite others to link to it.   At the most basic level, link bait is something bloggers and webmasters deem interesting enough to share with their own readers.  Successful link baiting can be an extremely potent form of viral marketing.

Despite the fact that link baiting is sometimes referred to in a negative manner (i.e. you’re “tricking” people into linking to you and coming to your site), it’s really about establishing yourself in your niche, creating useful and compelling content, and getting your ideas out there by reaching people who might be able to use them.

There are six basic types of link bait, or hooks

1. Breaking News - Be the first to break a major story or to share a unique piece of news, or just write up it in the clearest, most compelling manner.

2. Humour - People like to laugh, plain and simple.  If you can make them smile, they’ll reward you in the form of links and clicks.

3. Inspiration - Uplifting quotes, stories, and personal triumphs can all inspire people to link to your site.

4. Controversy and Attacks - Stand out from the crowd by being contrary or negative, by being the only one in your niche to dislike something, or by straight up slamming someone or something.  This is difficult to do well without reflecting poorly upon you and your brand, so it’s probably best left to the non-business or anonymous bloggers.

5. Flattery - Will get you everywhere. Write positive and genuine posts praising other bloggers, new products, and services, and anything else you really like. Be sure to link to whatever it is you are writing about, and they’ll probably return the favor.  You can also create a comprehensive list of websites, blogs, and other online resources for your niche (this technique combines #5 and #6).

6. Resources and How-tos - Teach your readers how to do something, give them something valuable, make your blog benefit them in some way, shape, or form. This is probably the best form of link bait for a business blog to employ - you’ll get to show off your expertise to a whole bunch of potential new clients and customers.

Remember, the more incoming links you have, the higher your blog will rank in the search engine listings, so be sure to include a little link baiting in your overall SEO plan.

Search engine optimization is not all about keywords and optimized site design, although those are certainly essential. However, the number of incoming links your site has also matters. I’ve touched on the matter of incoming links before, but I didn’t mention how important they were to your blog’s rank.

Link Building and Link Popularity

Link Popularity is a score based on the number of incoming links pointed at your blog. Clearly, the more incoming links you have the better, but link reputation and page importance play a role as well.

You’re nobody until somebody links to you - link building is the single most important part of achieving a high ranking website in modern search algorithms. I repeat, link building is the single most important part of achieving a high ranking website in modern search algorithms.

So how do you get other bloggers and webmasters to link to your blog? First of all, create compelling content that others will be interesting in linking to - content is still king.  Secondly, participate in the blogging community. Be active in relevant discussions, leave substantive comments on other blogs, post on related forums (as always, be sure to place a link to your blog in your signature), and trade links with topical hubs and related sites.

Third, link to other blogs in your niche - you can trade links, or just reward other bloggers with links and it’s likely they’ll return the favor.  Fourth, write glowing testimonials and reviews of services and products related to your blogging topics - chances are they will link back to you when they post them on their own sites.

The Role of Keywords in Link Building

Think of each post and page on your blog as a building block - each is its own unit and has it’s own ranking potential and relevant keywords. Use some of your keywords in each post’s title (search engines index posts by title) and resist the urge to write cutesy or attention grabbing headlines that have little to do with the actual content. You may be successful at gaining some traffic, but it might not be the valuable kind that’s targeted to your blog.

Writing keyword rich titles and headings that are also crisp and concise can do wonders for your blog’s rankings.  Not only will descriptive titles let search engine readers know they’re in the right place - they’ve found what they’ve been searching for - it will also help you out when others link to your site, even if they use the whole URL to cite your blog. Basically, you want people to know what they are clicking on, so you want your keywords to be part of the links that point at your blog.

The next post in my SEO For Bloggers series will cover link baiting and how to use your content as bait to lure in the linkers and readers.