Blog post syndication has been one of our most successful inbound marketing strategies. By gaining traction with well known industry e-journals, we have boosted both website traffic and qualified sales leads significantly. Becoming syndicated is a process involving hard work, creativity and careful SEO optimization of every post. Here are five of the most important steps.
The simple fact is that much of the criteria for being a desirable blog to syndicate is the same criteria for hitting well on search engines. Your blogging strategy should already include some manner of search engine optimization, most likely focusing on keywords.
Some syndication feeds will simply focus on the websites that register as an authority for certain search terms. The reason for this is simple: if your content hits highly, it is the most valuable content to use. Therefore, professional optimization is often the quickest route to syndication.
This should go without saying but sadly, it can't. Many bloggers, especially those with the sole intent of generating sales leads, seem to think that merely packing tons of content with the proper keywords will attract readers to what ultimately amounts to a long sales pitch. While this may be true in terms of directing initial traffic, if the information provided in posts is not relevant and valuable, users will only stay on the site for a moment before dismissing it and returning to their search results.
While a sales-oriented blogging strategy may help to increase inbound leads, it will almost never create the kind of search engine presence and mass exposure that can be generated by providing quality, syndication-worthy information. If you must twist ever blog entry into a sales pitch, you will likely be disappointed in the results. Just be sure that those pitches and links are well integrated and positioned near the end of posts containing valuable information.
Nobody likes old news. The entire purpose of blogs as an information source is so that readers can get the most up-to-date information. The purpose of syndication feeds is to make the seekers of that information immediately aware of its existence on your blog. If the information you provide to readers is not the most current available, your blogging strategy is moot and your blog relatively pointless.
Which airports get the most traffic? The ones that connect to the most places. The same goes for websites. Not only is it important to get other sites to link to your information, thus making you an authority on your subject, it is also beneficial to link to others. The best situation is to trade links with other sites. Consider joining a social networking "tribe" wherein corresponding blogs trade links to their respective content.
Even if you're not going to get a link back in return, your blogging strategy should be aimed toward providing the best information possible, even if that means linking to another blog that happens to have better or more specific information on a certain topic. The long term rewards of appearing unbiased and reader-focused will surely be worth the odd reader that strays away following a link.
As cliche as it may sound, one of the most important parts of getting noticed is to be unique. When researching for blog posts, you often find the same information over and over, especially if your blog concerns a specific industry.
If you provide readers with links to more information, you most likely sift through a few of the similar pages and choose the one that you think provides the most useful or comprehensive version, leaving the rest untrafficked. However, if you find one page that's different, you would be more likely to include that link as well. When planning your blogging strategy, being just a little different from the competition can result in your blog being syndicated alongside or above competitors who will never be seen next to each other, giving you an edge in attracting readers as well as syndicators who hand-pick their content.
One way to "be different" is to include your own "spin" on a topic. Make sure your views are well thought out and backed by the facts. This will add authority to your posts and help to establish you as a thought leader.
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