Six-Figure Freelancer Blog

To blog or not?

In his blog, Roland Tanglao wrote, “Hit Me! [a search engine optimization – SEO – article] by Paul Lima is wrong and misguided.” And a number of folks stood up and cheered, as is their right.

My SEO article was written for small business owners with simple web sites who want their sites to show up in Google searches. While Tanglao makes some valid rebuttal points, some of his points do not apply to those with static web sites.

For instance, Tanglao is correct when he writes, “Make sure your website has clean urls. No funny ampersands, question marks, “.asp”, “.php”, etc.” In fact, I mention that in my SEO book, It’s 11 pm. Do you know where your Web site ranks? . However, I did not mention it in the article as most static web sites do not use such symbols. Also, there is only so much you can say in a 1,200-word article.

He also writes, “The rest of search engine optimisation is a waste of time and money. Such as meta tags and search engine registration. Everybody knows that because of spoofing that search engines ignore meta tags.”

Gee, when you Google my name what do you see below links to my site?

Paul Lima, Toronto freelance writer, copywriter, writing instructor, writing coach, media relations and media interviews consultant, can train you to become …

And why does Google display those particular words about me? Because those words are part of my meta tag copy. I don’t call using meta tags to create my own search engine site description a waste of time and money.

Tanglao says “Link exchanges are a waste of time…” However, CanadianActor Online, like countless other web sites, has move up the search engine ranks primarily based on link exchanges.

Tanglao goes further: “And having your SEO firm pay people in the Philippines, Poland and elsewhere to ask people to link to your site is irrelevant because links from sites with no content or content that is obviously there to just to increase search engine rankings are a scam that search engines are increasingly ignoring…” He is absolutely right. And if by writing that he is implying that I wrote otherwise, then he needs to re-read my article.

I am not in any way knocking “RSS feeds” and “pings” and “blogs.” In fact, as you can see, I have started to blog. However, not every small business owner has time or energy to spend on blogging. Tanglao, on the other hand, seems to have no time for anyone with a static web site.

Blogging did not make business sense when I was writing for newspapers and magazines. Nor did it make sense when I was writing primarily for corporate markets. My static web site, supplementing my direct mail and other marketing techniques, drove some clients my way. But mostly it was there to act as an extension of my business card and direct mail – so that people who received my marketing material could read more about me on my web site and see samples of my work. Then they could decide if they wanted to ask for a quote.

So why am I blogging now? Quite frankly, because it now makes business sense for me to share information from my books about writing for corporate markets, writing for periodicals, SEO, media relations and copywriting. The easiest way to do that is through a blog.

Do you need a compelling business reason to blog? Of course not. If it suits your personality, blog away!

However, if you are running a business, invest time in blogging only if it makes business sense to do so. For instance, if you send out an electronic newsletter on a regular basis, consider blogging. If you routinely update content on your web site, consider blogging. If you have a lot to say about the state or nature of your industry, or about things that have an impact on your industry or business, consider blogging. If you are selling a downloadable product or one that appeals to web surfers, blog away.

But keep this in mind: There are about 100 million blogs out there. There is no guarantee that anyone will read your blog – or mine! In short, it takes work – planned, strategic and systematic work – to boost your search engine rank through blogging. Just as it takes work to boost your rank using traditional SEO tools. Investigate both options, and choose the strategy that makes sense for you and your business.