BUILDING A STRONG BLOG IS A BIG PIECE OF YOUR LOCAL SEO STRATGY

1. Team Writer GS Monroe Sunday edition June 5, 2015 BUILDING A STRONG BLOG IS A BIG PIECE OF YOUR LOCAL SEO STRATGY By Gary Monroe, Author, Keynote Speaker, Nationally Recognized Local SEO Consultant T My strategies are all about additional business or better said more money in your pocket. I don’t sell books (although I am an author), nor do I sell programs to make your site successful and for sure I no longer teach classes on Local SEO (that was a nightmare). I do lecture around the country and keynote at conventions and events. I simply take the styles and strategies that work and pass them along via tips and comments to all of you. o hear a LOCAL SEO expert suggest blogging as a big part of you SEO strategy is not the norm. Then again I tend to break all the rules and share tips and ideas that work. I use sure fire information that I have used and proven with my clients. From fortune 1000 companies to Chiquita’s Chihuahua Rescue in Los Angeles (now gone but still remembered). Here is the TIP of the Day fresh from reality land… If your website blog is bad then so are your chances of moving up the Google ladder, that’s a FACT. Fix it or live on page 336 of Google, your choice. If you use strong keywords to develop your blog and use those same keywords in your social media personal or business descriptions, then tether them to your website and YouTube all your digital assets will start showing up together on Google and other search engines. This is not rocket science just a process that makes sense and works. I do it with 30 to 90 second explainer videos I post to the first pages of Google. Yes I said I post to the first page of Google you heard me correctly. I have done it in less than 60 seconds. Please feel free to challenge me on this. I promise you I never suggest or comment on anything I cannot do… So back to the TIPS these are simple and just follow them. Stop questioning everything you read and just do it and see the results. Give it a week or two to start happening. If you build it around a small explainer video it will happen even faster. Take note of these vital ingredients to build your blog and you will have a loyal following in a short amount of time. Number 1: Pick a blogging style and stick with it. As you build followers if you are all over the map with your topics and styles they will move along and be gone as fast as they said hello. People have enough ADHD issues going on in their life to then to pick a blog in their particular discipline that goes on and off topic like the way a cow pees, crooked and never the same way. If it is Tips then stick with Tips it if is stories then say with that. Not forever but depending on how often you post, don’t keep changing up. If you post once a week, keep that style for 8 to 12 months. Give your readers some love, give them some congruence in their lives knowing they can come back to good old Bob the Golfers blog and not have him go from great golf tips to stories about

2. tournaments that mean nothing to your loyal reader. When you change your style do it slowly and invite your readers to join in the change. Be approachable, let them ask question and ask them to ask questions. You can only drive in one lane at a time (unless you are my wife) so stop weaving all over the highway and stay focused. Got it… Good. NUMBER 2: You have heard this before and now you are going to hear this again PUBLISH REGULARLY. If your loyal readers come back to your blog and it hasn’t changed in the last 3 weeks and then 3 changes in 5 days and nothing again, that is the kind of readers you will get the ones who follow nothing! This equates to ZERO and that is how many loyal followers you will have. Pick a schedule and keep it. And this is something other blogging experts don’t tell you to do, “Post your blogging days so your loyal followers know when to come back”. Please tell me this makes sense. I never here these so called blogging experts tell you to set up a schedule for you readers to see on you blog page. Oh and yes, STICK WITH IT. You can’t run a business unless your buyer knows when you are going to be open or “Closed Sundays”. So why be any different with your blogs, respect your loyal followers and guess what they will stay loyal. NUMBER 3: You post titles, make them snap just like a call to action these are no different. The nightmare of nightmares, your blog title, “How to Make a Meat Ball Dinner: The only meat ball in this blog is you… B O R I N G. How about “Fire Up the Stove for a Spicy Noodle Spaghetti Dinner in Fifteen Minutes – Our Family Secret”. Yes it is long but got your keyword and some attention. Design your blog content so it makes people want to make it theirs. Really important people, like I just said make sure the post gives them something to use in their otherwise somewhat dull lives… Facts, Tips, whatever topics so when Bob or Susan are at the water cooler they can say, “You know I was reading a blog I follow and this guy/gal is great or hysterical or the smartest person on the earth. You want followers then give your readers something to talk about to others. I am sure you received a blog emailed to you by a friend, be it a joke or some statement or tip. Your blog needs to make the reader sound hip, cool or in the know when they share it and they will share it everywhere. Maybe even give you credit. Give people a reason to follow you and they will. NUMBER 4: Interact with your readers. Ask your readers’ questions and let them know they can and should ask you questions. If they can talk to you, you become a friend, approachable, a pal. Get involved and think of your blog as a conversation. Interact and they will do the same in kind. NUMBER 5: Add testimonials to your blog page. Not in the blog but in the banner of your blog. This is something I will never understand. Google and most every other authority website suggest testimonials or referrals will increase you sales by 30%. Or from the other direction almost 30% of all sales start with a recommendation or testimonial. If you blog is called Susie’s Sewing Center or some authority name, in the banner in small letters add. “Most helpful blog I have read in years”.Bob C. Ohio,or “Just can’t go a week without reading this blog”, Julie S Los Angeles. Always use the power statement out of a testimonial. What is the power statement? EXAMPLE: I have been reading Steve’s blog for a long time. I always enjoy his comments on life, he is a pretty smart guy. I get up each morning and almost run to my computer to read his blog. I suggest you check it out, I am sure you will get a kick out of it too. (I highlighted the power statement). Do not put the entire testimonial on the page, if you like you can have a testimonial page but use the juice for your promotion. So in this case you would add, “I get up each morning and almost run to my computer to read his blog” Art Smith, Jolie Utah

3. Bottom line here, be smart, be creative and have some fun. Fun can be serious, it is alright to be attached to what you are suggesting or highlighting with fervidness. You can be passionate and creative about what you write in your blog, just follow good techniques and always put yourself in the reader’s positon before you post your blog. If you are bored with the article guess what? Yes, they will be too and want an aspirin after digesting your words. My advice, follow my suggestions, think outside the box a bit or more and most of all be excited about what you are saying. Excitement is catchy, you will not go wrong. So till next we meet… Take care. Oh yes, buy my book, read my strategies for a successful company and take all my classes on how to be an expert at Local SEO… Or Not. END ###