“What’s all this business blogging and Web 2.0 stuff about anyway?”, I hear you ask.

You might enjoy one of my favourite, bite-sized videos, “Bring the Love Back” by Geert Desager. It explains the problem with the one-way communication of traditional advertising and websites (ie. Web 1.0). It’ll make you smile…

Instead of blasting information one way, Web 2.0 tools such as business blogs and social networks enable you to have a two-way conversation with your customers. They empower the customer to participate and add to the conversation, giving you critical feedback on your product or service. They enable you to listen and empathise with your customers and develop a trusting relationship with them.

Establishing trust is the first thing you need to do in order to sell them your ideas. Your goal is to woo them step by step, instead of expecting to go from coffee to marriage all on date one!

Let me know what you think of the video. There should be a follow-up from Geert very soon and I’ll post it for you here if it’s any good.

Cheers

Gina Couper

Today I did a Google check to see if my Juicy Onion Blog i360 had increased its page rank for the keyword phrase, “Gina Couper”. This follows on from my last investigations in this series, one week ago on 7 May, where my Blog i360 ranked at Number 2.

To my delight, today I am displaying at Number 1, now beating the New Zealand Herald, New Zealand’s premiere news site!

The only actions I have taken to improve the ranking of my blog over this past week is to publish two posts (the ones on 7 & 8 May) as well as 4 comments.

This just goes to illustrate how powerful the Blog i360 system is in helping you dominate the search results on Google. The Blog i360’s structure is optimized for the search engines in a multitude of ways, making optimization of the search engines (SEO) for business owners like yourself very simple.

One small example of this is a function I am using for the first time in this post, the “In Series” function (see bottom of this post, “Previous in series”). This enables you to cross link between any related posts in your Blog i360. Creating a blog that is rich in keyword relevant cross-links like this not only makes it easier for your readers to follow relevant information, it also gets you some extra Google Juice.

Number 1 already, and I haven’t even set up my landing page or activated my social bookmarking robot yet!

Gina Couper.

PS. You can get your own Blog i360 here.

Previous in series

What are the first basic steps you need to take towards getting your Blog i360 looking good enough to eat and giving your visitors a remarkable experience?

To do:

1) Get rid of the login and register options on the right hand nav bar (visitors find these confusing and plus they just look average)

2) Insert a new footer with your company contact details (visitors need to know they are dealing with a real company that they can trust)

3) Add an “About” page that tells your visitors who you are, your story (I’ve actually already done this)

4) If, like me, you don’t want a blogroll (or list of links to other sites), remove it. Personally I don’t want to tempt people to leave my site.

5) IMPORTANT: Set up your aweber box in the left hand nav bar - this will allow visitors to sign up for your email blog broadcast. This is how you grow your list - critical in the success of your blog and your business. While your Blog i360 offers your visitors a choice of RSS feeds on the left hand nav bar already, many people do prefer to subscribe to an email newsletter.

Here’s a screen shot of my Juicy Onion blog, after my first post and before I execute my To Do list:

That’s it for now. See you on the other side!

Gina Couper

Have you Googled your own name and company name recently? These words are the basic keyphrases your target audience will search when trying to hook up with you, or research you online, so you need to pay close attention…

Today I did two simple Google checks - one on “Gina Couper” and the other on “Juicy Onion”. At the time of checking, I had published just one post and one page on my Juicy Onion Blog i360. I wanted to know, “How does my Blog i360 page rank on Google compare to my page ranks for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and ZoomInfo?”

As you will see below for “Gina Couper”, my Juicy Onion Blog i360 already enjoys a page rank of 2, just behind results from the New Zealand Herald (one of NZ’s leading news sites enjoying massive link equity). Interestingly, for the keyphrase “Juicy Onion” (not shown here), I show up Number 1 – ahead of amazon.com, theonion.com, chowhound.com and ehow.com – all established sites with much higher traffic volumes!

So my Blog i360 did good, very good. But where is my Facebook ranking, pray tell?

One of the reasons Facebook is touted as one of the best hangouts online, is that it is supposed to enjoy high page ranking. However, as at today, for “Gina Couper”, Google displays no Facebook results whatsoever! I admit, I have only been active on Facebook for just over a month. Could it be that Google hasn’t even indexed my Facebook profile yet?

In contrast though, remember it was just a week and a half ago that I did my first Juicy Onion post, and I am already showing up big time.What about LinkedIn, then? I’m showing at Number 8 – a whole 6 ranks down from my Blog i360 results. Having been active on LinkedIn since October 2005 (more than 2 years), that’s a little underwhelming in comparison.

ZoomInfo’s “Gina Couper” results are nowhere to be seen. Once upon a time, I did show up here prominently – don’t know what happened. No my account hasn’t gone AWOL. It’s just that nobody can find it. Which in effect is the same thing really, isn’t it?

As a Twitter newbie (on board for only around 3 weeks) I have no ranking either. But I have heard great things on this via the Twitter grapevine so will keep my eyes peeled.I love Facebook for business, but who’s got more than a month to wait to show up in the search engines? If Woody Allen said, “Eighty percent of success is showing up”, then I’d have to add to that, “- quickly”!

Moral of the story? If you want to show up on Google in a juicy way, quickly, then get started with your own Blog i360. Don’t just leave it to social networking to get found.

Gina Couper.

PS. Leave me a comment and let me know what your questions about search engine optimisation (SEO) are. If you’re a business person, like me, learning about SEO is like pulling teeth! What stuff reaaaalllly frustrates you? What are you having trouble “getting”? I will endeavour to translate the Geek-speak for you. And I will break it to you gently.

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