Marketing Matters: SEO, Blogs and Selling Services

A direct relationship exists between the number of blog posts a company publishes monthly and the traffic its website receives, research shows. Photo: ©istock.com/fazon1

Q. Does blogging have a direct impact on my website’s activity?

A. According to a recent HubSpot.com study, there’s a direct relationship between the number of blog posts a company publishes monthly and the traffic its website receives. Companies with one to 10 employees that published at least 11 posts per month had almost three times more traffic than similarly sized companies that publish one or none per month, and about twice as much traffic as those publishing two to five monthly posts. The study suggested the more blog posts, the more leads generated.

Google weighs fresh and frequent content posted to blogs. Your search engine optimization (SEO) rankings are boosted as a result of your blogging.

Q. I have a great-looking website. I borrowed a little of this and a little of that from other sites. The problem is my SEO ranking is nonexistent. Can you help?

A. After taking a look at your site, here are my thoughts. First and foremost, your content isn’t original. Google’s Penguin and Panda software uses constantly updated algorithms to seek out duplicate content and imposes heavy penalties by dropping rankings. Second, I assume you haven’t invested in an SEO company to manage your site.

To raise your ranking, you need fresh content, a list of relevant keywords and landing pages. Hire a professional company to help you.

Q. I’ve read about the importance of selling benefits over features. Can you explain the difference?

A. Actually, you need to sell both. A feature is a description of the service or product. A benefit is the potential impact a product or service has on the individual considering it. Consumers get hooked on features, but buy based on benefits.

You can reach Harvey Goldglantz, president of Pest Control Marketing Co. and author of Marketing Matters, at hgpcmcinc@aol.com. His book, Marketing Matters, is available from the PMP bookstore.