By now, we hope you’re one of those clients who’ve heeded our numerous exhortations (e.g., this one) to start and run a company blog.  We’ll assume, too, that your posts are SEO-optimized and your pages are visible to the search engines.

That’s all great;  but what happens when a new visitor happens on your blog (let’s say they saw a reference to one of your posts on a social network or bookmark site)?  Do they stay awhile and graze on some more of your great content? …or do they read just that one post and then check out immediately?

Clearly, you want to stimulate the former, not the latter.  “Engaging readers with the additional content on your website gives you further chances to showcase your authority, encouraging repeat visits,” writes Kevin Gibbons in his recent post on Search Engine Watch.  It also increases the odds that your blog will attract comments – and eventually inbound links – from bloggers and others with search-engine ranking juice that surpasses yours (at present).  And assuming your blog is on your primary domain, all this will do great things for your company website’s ranking, too. – Enticing your blog visitors to stay awhile and return often

There are two ways to conquer web marketing: good content and even better relationships. The problem is, any SEO pro has already identified this.

Try targeting blogs as link resources. Not only do people trust blogs, they’re one of the most effective ways to both build your brand awareness and get high-quality content links that point back to your website. On the other hand, blogs are often overrun with coverage and link requests from online marketers. If you have any chance of getting your content to the top of the pile, you’ll have to find unique ways to reach your bloggers — and LinkedIn is just the tool to help you do it.

Let’s say you’re working on an SEO strategy for a new restaurant in Atlanta. Part of your promotion is to encourage different local food bloggers to tour the restaurant, sample the menu and then write a review. The first term you’ll use to search is “food blogs in Atlanta.” After scrolling through a few of pages, you’ll have a decent stock of sites. Unfortunately, they’re the same sites your competitors have encountered too.

So instead of backing into content relationships, try using LinkedIn as a search tool. By manipulating its search filters, you can target specific keywords and narrow by location. A search for “food writer” in the greater Atlanta area produces more than 650 results. Taking into account that maybe 40% aren’t going to be relevant because they’ve changed companies or don’t provide an ideal content match, you’re still left with a suitable sample of people. – HOW TO: Leverage LinkedIn for Your SEO Campaign

How often did we hear this question in the last three years? Marketers, sales(wo)men and many C-Level’s in the B2B space have asked the question many times in seminars. I am quite happy to have found a study that actually gives some insight in a quite complex business topic.

According to a Demandbase National Marketing and Sales Study in cooperation with Focus, the company corporate website is the top source of new sales leads for consumers. The corporate website still is the primary hub to harness customer interest driven by outbound online marketing activities. However, it is only second to personal connections and referrals. Nevertheless, more than seven times more effective than social media which speaks a clear language, right…?  Well, what if referrals lead to websites via Social Media?

Executives see the website as the top online source of sales leads (23%), followed by email (14%), online advertising (7%), and finally… social media (3%). What sounds as a clear message, is more a blur. The most important factor for measuring website effectiveness is the quality of leads generated (34% vs. quantity 9%). However, nearly one-half of executives surveyed do not know where users are most likely to leave their website. – Social Media or/and Website for Lead Generation: What’s the key to success?

Here are the top Internet strategy, marketing and technology links for the week of October 2, 2011… [Read more...]