Working in search engine optimization, we’re used to being flexible with SEO strategies. You have to be, as the “rules” dictated by search engines are changing all the time. If we don’t tweak what’s working and abandon what’s not, we’re not doing our job. That said, there’s a new trend in SEO that CyberMark recommends to all website owners – advice we’re taking to heart with our own clients and this new CyberMark blog, On Target SEO.

In 1994, a form of blogging got its start as “online diaries” – the same year when I got my start in SEO. By 2004, “blogs” as they had come to be known (the contraction for “web logs”) had developed into the news-sharing, opinion-shaping tools we know them as today.

At one time, commenting on other blogs with a link back to your own site was a great way of building inbound links and, in turn, effective search engine optimization. Now though, most of these are “no follow” links, meaning the search engines will no longer give you credit for these links when determining your link popularity. Still, blogs are one of the most exciting new tools for search engine optimization for three big reasons.

Search engines love blogs because they can:

1) Ensure fresh content on your site. The more often you post, the more often the search engines are going to crawl your site – a big plus as the more new, relevant content you add, the better your search engine placement is going to be.

2) Give you an opportunity to incorporate more relevant, keyword-rich content into your site. It’s an added bonus if you can connect your blog post to current events, as you can capitalize on those searching for more information on topics in the news.

3) Attracts inbound links to quality content. The more inbound links you have (from other sites with quality content), the more search engines are going to view you as an authority on the subject and rank your site accordingly.

Plus, a blog gives you an opportunity to engage in an open conversation of sorts with both existing and potential customers. They can comment on your blog, and you can comment right back.

And if you doubt yours is the kind of business that has anything relevant to blog about, think again. Whether used to share news relevant to your industry, or simply as a place to post pictures and stories about your talented dedicated staff, a blog is a tool every website can absolutely use to strengthen your SEO and build rapport with your target audience.

“What’s the point of having a website if no one can find it?” It sounds like an obvious question today, but not the case back in the early nineties when the internet was just taking off. I was in website sales at the time. Most of the effort went into building the pages and very little into building traffic. It was an opportunity I took to break into a brand new industry – search engine optimization (SEO).

When we started CyberMark International back in 1994, the search engines were primitive compared to those of today. And there were no books on search engine optimization – no blogs or websites detailing all the ins-and-outs of SEO. It was all trial and error as those of us on the ground floor of search engine optimization collectively “wrote the book” on how to optimize webpages – no easy task considering how fast search engines have been evolving ever since.

Fourteen years later, the basics of SEO are available to anyone who wants to spend time learning them. What’s trickier is being able to instinctively respond to new search engine algorithms – not only figuring out what changes to make accordingly, but doing it fast enough and effectively enough so as not to lose search engine ranking in the process.

Though keeping up with this ever-evolving industry is what CyberMark clients pay us to do, that’s not to say they have no interest in the subject. On the contrary, when we want to make changes to someone’s website, they want to know why, and understandably so. “Because we said so” isn’t a reason. In fact, website owners should be leery of any SEO company that does not want to explain how they’re going to optimize your pages and why. Chances are they’re engaged in practices that could seriously hurt your search engine ranking in the long run.

It’s this interest on the part of website owners that has inspired this blog.

Every day we field questions from clients who want to know more – not because they want to become SEO experts themselves, but because they want to be informed consumers. That’s our goal with this blog – On Target SEO: What website owners want to know about search engine optimization.

Whether you’re a client of CyberMark or not, please feel free to submit to us your SEO questions in the Comments section of each post. We promise to respond in one of two ways – in the Comments section of the relevant post, or with a new post related to your question.

There’s a science to search engine optimization, so you will find steadfast “rules” here. But SEO is also an art, so we promise to leave plenty of room to share some of the creative inspiration that goes into finessing your website’s way to the top!