The other day I wrote about a problem a local business was having with their web presence in a post titled Savannah’s WGSA CW13 Has a Big Problem.
As a quick summary I told how they have a really nice looking web site that, unfortunately, is very hard to find.
Part of the reason got permission from them to write about their situation was to graphically demonstrate the effectiveness of blogging when it comes to search engine “findability”. I’ve found that it is always more powerful if you can use real world actual examples to demonstrate your point.
I figured I’d do a series of posts on the subject. I expected that over time my posts would climb up the rankings and it would show how blogging on a specific topic is an effective approach.
What I Didn’t Expect
So far even I’ve been surprised by the results.
It has only been 5 days since that post was published. Look what happens when you Google WGSA CW13. The first 6 search returns all point to that one post, either directly or indirectly.
With only one blog post I’ve managed completely dominate the Google search results for a specific keyword that I was targeting. In less than 5 days.
Granted it is an obscure key word. But don’t you think that most businesses would want to dominate the keyword that happens to be the name of their business? I know for a fact that WGSA CW13 does!
And if you happen to click on “repeat the search with the omitted results included“ it gets even better. As of this morning you have to go 27 pages deep in the search before you find a link that doesn’t point to me.
All because of 1 blog post. In less than 5 days.
And that, my friends, is just one real world example of the power of business blogging.
Interesting! When I look at the WGSA web site it sure is pretty! I’m going to guess that the pretty web site is not getting a high listing in google because it is not “VALID CODE” If the google bot can’t read it correctly, then not much gets read. I also see that the web site is not semantically correct. It’s pretty easy to make a pretty site difficult to get high rank in search engines when you do.
As for your search being so successful, its because you are so specific in you search. Example, if you put a string of letters in with the search as in WGSAXXX and searched on that I guarantee you’ll be the only one listed in the search. As for our search, works great, but who is going to search for “WGSA ch13″?
Just some quick thoughts we should all think about!
Thanks for the post and the great observation. I read all kinds of info about blogging and how it’s good for business – but I like to see some of the hard facts!
SWW, Perhaps that folks who are looking to find the business might search the actual business name?
At a minimum, most businesses out there would like their site to come up with a high ranking for their business name. Is that ultimately where they will get most of their traffic? Nope.
But you’ve got to start somewhere. When your site is all but invisible (a problem certainly made worse for the reasons you pointed out) blogging can help put it on the map.
As a basic “proof of concept” I think the point was pretty effectively demonstrated.
Hmmmmm…You want your name to come up as a result of search engines, and will never get there because of unstructured code. You yourself have a great web site. You work you buns off, and at the end your yelling out and what your yelling can’t be heard! It must be some foreign language. You are using wordpress and assuming it is putting your words out there properly! It is not. Example: the best web site for NASCAR news is by far Jayski.com He has more info then anyone, both current and past. He is not number one because…last time I checked! He had no H1 tag on his page. If there is no h1 tag the rest of the page doesn’t get read. I guess I’d rather stop and start making sure my pages are going to be able to be searched, then to keep putting out unsearchable information. Look at all your articles. All unsearchable?
Chris, thanks for the proff source, I am going to link your post for blackinbusiness.org readers. Blogging is the future for business.
Brooke, I’m with you. Sometimes it is easy to get big on hype and forget to deliver the meat and potatoes. I’m passionate about this because I see it working. But I try to keep to the facts as much as possible.
Jim, You are certainly welcome. Personally I think that it won’t be long before blogs are one of those given things that most every business has, just like the web site is now.
SWW, I’m not sure what you are driving at. I guess I’m a little rusty on my anonymous and my interpretation of secretive hinting is a little week.
If you are saying that WordPress isn’t the end all, beat all for SEO you’ll get no argument from me. But then I’m a business blogger, not an SEO expert. Never claimed any different.
As far as searchability goes, I’m not following you there either. SuccessCREEations currently has over 600 pages indexed in Google. I don’t think that’s so bad for a site that’s existed just over 6 months. Especially when you consider my posting average had been less than once a day (138 total posts so far). On the blog itself the little search box thingie up at the top of the right sidebar seems to work pretty good when I use it.
Show me a platform that has the relatively intuitive ease of use for new users, the versatility, adaptability, simplicity of re-theming, and sheer volume of freely available (and already written) themes, plugins and upgrades for nearly endless customization that WordPress has and better SEO characteristics – I might just consider switching myself.
Chris,
Good post. You’ve given a clear, real world example of how things can work.
I’m a new blogger. What is an H1 tag?
html tag used to show the most important line on page. BTW I’m SWW, just thought if I was going to mouth off, I’d let you know, I’m a real person! Ha Ha!
I’m getting back to ya Chris. I’m investigating that thingy up in the right hand corner. So far I see results are not from a search engine. Little busy here, may be tomorrow.
Don’t think I’m saying what you are doing is bad. You are doing an excellent job. We all can improve. I’m far from being where you are.
Wordress is fantastic! Not recommending something else.
Hey Tariq, To expand on what Paul said there are html tags that designate headers. h1, h2, h3, etc. They are used like this:
<h1>HEADER TEXT</h1>
Generally style sheets are set up so that the larger the number, the smaller the header. They do that because h1 headers are considered more important than h2 headers, etc.
SWW/Paul makes a good point that my theme is using a h2 tag for the post titles instead of the h1 tag. It is something I should change. It has been bugging me that the post titles are the same size as when I put headers throughout the posts. I honestly didn’t think about the SEO implications.
Lesson: There’s always room for improvement!
Paul, I knew you had to be a real person because no machine cold make such good points as you were!
That said, I’m not so good at reading between the lines. I tend to be a bit of a literal guy. (My wife says I’m a little Spock-like.)
If I don’t understand I usually ask for clarification.
You didn’t offend me. I just couldn’t resist the cheap shot!
Chris I am writing a lengthy response to this entire subject. BUT – I have to stop you on this thingy……
Everyone thinks the same way you do. is not a size thingy….lovin that word….using css I can make the smallest size type on the page, and the largest. It all has to do with……ready for this…..semantics!…..without semantics, google does not read. If no on your page, no read. You have to have a document tree. Wordpress has it but you will not like it! Have a headache! Ha Ha!!!
I get that style sheets can set the headers to any size. However,generally the h1’s are set to be the biggest.
Not quite sure what you mean with all that about semantics. SuccessCREEations has the blog title in h1 tags so there is a set on every page.
How in the heck can I get that big article written if you keep commenting! Ha Ha! YES! h1 is usually largest, because it is also the most important. they go hand in hand. BUT – how about these guys who write a big page of great copy, and have no h1. They start with h2 to fit more on the page. IT DOES NOT GET READ! You have to have h1. The problem with wordpress is when you get to h2.
I believe all your headings on the side bars and your article are treated the same. I think you want the article heading to be a lot more important then – meta. Didn’t check, is meta h2?
Its a lot worst but I dont have time right now.
You were talking about WGSA having a problem with web presence. We both agree they have a pretty site. Mike Sansone said its because they have nothing worth indexing. When I look at that site there is an awful lot of information there. They do have to get rid of the frame. I believe your point was to write about their problem to demonstrate the “findability†of blogging.
What I’m trying to show is blogging in itself would not help. The search engines still would not read the page correctly. You gave an example of your post showing up in Google. The search result on google did get their name on google, by other people writing about it. I would think the goal would be to get the top result using the keyword “wgsa†and the search engine pointing back to the WGSA site. You did mention that you got results on an obscure part of the problem – WGSA – cw13. I do not think most businesses would like to dominate anything in search if it isn’t going to be used. I can make up anybody’s web page and misspell their name so bad that it will be the only result that shows up in google, BUT – who is going to use it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they are happy to see anything!
I think what you are saying is “You†got them listed by your blog, and you did. That does not solve their problem. Even if they started a blog it would not help their problem. I want them to show up number one when you type in WGSA. They do not have a proper document tree, and they are using code that is not valid!
I was also trying to say to you, that even your code is not being picked up by search engines. I also said you are doing all this work, and doing a great job at it, BUT – It could be so much better. YOU ARE Doing great, but could be doing something better.
As far as the slap upside my head….I’m the opposite of you, I splatter info and expect everyone to understand! I do throw info out there and do not spend time making sure its making sense. If we but heads long enough, we will both get what we want! You have my permission to SLAP all you want. You have to get the info for the readers.
You mentioned you’re a business blogger. I will guess the more pages that get read, the more money you make. Nobody knows exactly what search engines are reading, no one is an SEO expert. BUT – knowing how google reads your pages may help you become a bigger success then you already are. Are you sure that 600 pages are indexed by google or your name comes up in 600 instances of your name? You directed me to the search box on your page. That search box is programmed to go out and search a word on your site. It has nothing to do with search engines.
Suggestion for WGSA – Pretty site, but in this case, pretty comes in last. You already have them to your site, you don’t have to whoo them.
Suggestion for Chris – keep up the good work, your doing fine.
Suggestion for SWW, Paul Lamach – get back to work and quit making people think! I will spend more time on my blogging comments….maybe…..
I think its hard not to dominate a keyword if it is obscure but it’d be nice to dominate other keywords as well. I have a friend who domaintes hamptons keywords. She’s selling her domain for over 2 million because of it. I think it would really help boost business.
Paul, you’ve got a lot in there that warrants a more thoughtful response than I can give it at this moment with all the stuff going on here. But I’ll get back to it before too long.
Amanda, you are absolutely correct. And one of the advantages a blog adds is the natural multiplicity of pages that flow out of a single post. If you expand out that Google search to include the omitted results you find that Google sees something like 263 references to the keyword that are all somehow related to that post.
In this case 1 post = 263 references in Google. You won’t see that kind of a ratio in a traditional website.
And most of them are either pages where the post appears or a link to the post appears.
I deliberately chose an obscure keyword to target so that we could more easily see the effects of that one post and how many different ways Google would pick it up.
Obviously a more competitive keyword would take more than one post to see results. Even so, by steadily focusing in on different aspects of the same subject, overtime effective blogging will see positive results.
Thanks, Paul and Chris. That helps.
An acrurate assment of the invisible elephant,, It is a akin to being the who that `horton hardly hears..
David Paul
Savannah GA
The good news, David, is that it is something that can be dramatically improved!