The Chartered Institute of Marketing in the U.K recently said that businesses need to invest in SEO if they want to survive online. They go on to say how most people “Google” a word to find a business. If you are a real estate broker in Denver, Colorado and someone Googles “real estate broker in Denver” will they find your business? Or will they find your competition’s web site? This is  how most people will find you. If you don’t invest in optimizing for search engines, your sales will suffer.

I always try to explain this to those who are new to SEO or search engine optimization - you can have a great web site that is graphically or technically savvy. But without SEO, you will not be found. The fastest way to get results in search engines are by starting a business blog.  Blogs make it much easier for businesses to add new information to search engines about their business. A blog is engineered to automatically submit new content to search engines. Each time your business blog gets a new entry or post, you just increased your chances of being found. Pretty soon Google will index your web site within hours or days instead of weeks or months.

The problem with most business blogs is they aren’t blogging strategically or consistently. When there was less businesses blogging, it wasn’t as difficult to get search engine rankings. Today, you need to do it right. Your writing must not only be relevant but it must also include the keywords your potential customers are typing in Google - or other search engines. Your blog must also be set up correctly and it will power your web site.

Many businesses want to blog but lack expertise to start. Others start but after a few weeks it becomes less of a priority. They let their blog “go dark.” As a blogger and internet marketer, I know where my limits are technologically. I know enough to know when someone gets it right. I also know the types of blogging styles. RSSApplied focuses our efforts on maximizing search engine rankings for businesses. We either teach your staff or our trained bloggers will ghostwrite for you.

Businesses who ignor SEO because they don’t understand it are missing a huge opportunity. Those who have search engine rankings must be concerned with maintaining and growing them. Business blogs are an ideal way to accomplish both.