Web 2.0 is a really big topic, and in short, it means the move from static webpages- just text and images to interactivity, visitor contribution and the rise of video. These are all great ideas as it creates personal ownership, in the form of being able to voice and opinion in a subject.
Now what does this mean to * Your * business, after all that's what really counts ;)
Lets look at one area - Blogging
A blog is simple to use way of putting your own content up on line. It requires no knowledge to write articles and post them up on a site (if you are advanced, and have a blog already the real information is coming ;)
Blogs or weblogs have been put forward as the "quick free fix" for getting top rankings. The most professional blogging system is one called wordpress. Its free and has a load of support.
Now bloggers themselves are a weird bunch, and they are very web2.0 aimed and, most of the time not very business focused, more out just to make a few bucks online. However, creating a blog to use to drive traffic to your own site, and increase search engine traffic is something to definitely include in your plans.
Here is a few things to keep in mind:
1. Content - Blogs are a content tool, they are used to provide information to the user give valuable information (sometimes they cross over into opinion)
2. Time - they take time and consistent effort to contribute to get started and maintain
3. Integration -They need to integrate with your marketing plan which means, not just search engine ranking, but lead generation (collecting email addressees and first names) and can be a good form of pre - selling your future customers.
The wordpress free program is great however most bloggers do not set the site up to be 100% search engine friendly.
I will use my partners site which has had very little work done on it but is getting results. We started with the keyword research and settled on a core keyword of "Home Organizing" and secondary keywords of "home organizing ideas" and "home organizing tips".
We bought the domain: CompleteHomeOrganizing.com - The domain name achieves 3 goals:
1. Keyword Friendly - Has main keywords in the domain
2. Professional - it provides a professional appearance
3. Focused- it hasn't tried to be everything to everybody- specific needs.
We then set a plan of creating content, which went something like this:
1. Tuesday- create a 400-600 word article on a subject around organizing (bathroom organizing etc) around 30 minutes time required - first draft version only
2. Wed - Proof read article (30 minutes)
3. Thursday- Post article to site (10 minutes)
4. Friday- Create 3 new versions of article for distribution (30 minutes)
5. Friday- Promote article
The time commitment is small and can be applied consistently. The reason for the different versions of the articles, is to avoid the duplicate content problem online.
It is said that the same article, duplicated on several sites, will not count towards your site.
This has never been proven, however another reason, which is just as important. Having a different version of an article allows for a different density of the keyword to be available. Different versions allow you to also to approach the subject from slightly different angles.
Now because the site collects leads, the first part of the promotion is to let the subscribers, who have agreed to you sending them more information that a new article is posted.
You can send just a short message and title of the article, or part of the article, to encourage visitors. Remember education, information....not a pure sales pitch.
We then promote the article out to several article directories. We did this over a period of 3 months, but started to get results after 60 days. This is the * ONLY * promotion we have done (more is planned). And it has resulted in several top 20 rankings.
So around the rave of Web2.0 there are ways to leverage it into your online business without becoming a total web geek. The principles haven't changed, just the technology involved.
