If you don’t currently have a blog for your business web site, it’s high time you set one up. Even businesses with no writing staff can manage by hiring ghostwriters or inviting guest bloggers. You can also work on posts ahead of time and schedule them to run over time. I schedule a writing day when I feel focused and try to whip out at least 15 – 20 blog write-ups and then schedule them to post over a few weeks (shhhhh, that’s a secret! ).

So, why is a business blog so important? There are several reasons to set up a blog for your business (of course, not limited to these reasons).

1. Company Announcements. A blog gives you the perfect platform to launch your products and services. You can also use it to let your clients know about any changes that have been made to the business, including the hiring of new employees, corporate events, and other news.

2. Google and others love blogs. Since a blog is regularly updated with fresh content, you’ll find that your search engine rankings go up quite quickly. The more often a site is updated, the more the spiders (search engine robots) will check it. You can really build up your visibility and visitors with a blog..

3. Get more links. Often people are reluctant to link to a website, but they will happily share or link to a blog post they like. You’ll get a lot more backlinks by providing regular, useful information in the form of blog posts. And, more backlinks equals higher rankings in the search engines.

4. Build authority. Trust is vital when it comes to sales and many people who shop online are quite wary about new companies that they haven’t bought from before. You can help them decide to purchase from you by showcasing your expertise and offering consistent information on your blog. The regular posts will allow visitors to learn more about you and your knowledge while they decide if they’re going to buy or not.

5. Become more approachable. The truth is that businesses tend to be slightly intimidating to the individual. Through blogging, you can show people that you aren’t just a corporation, but a business made up of real people. Humanizing your brand can do wonders for sales!

6. Give something back. Whether you offer exclusive information on your blog or provide coupon codes to those who read it, you’ll find that by giving something back to those who come visit your blog, you are actually gaining. People will not only trust you and see you as an expert; they will pass your posts on and let others know about your content.

It really is worth having a business blog. Without it, you will be missing out on a lot of interaction with your target audience. Blogging doesn’t have to be difficult, so there’s really no excuse not to do it.

If you do blog, I would love to hear about how it helped your business. Please share in the comments below.

As a business owner, you know that search engine optimization (SEO) is important. Without it, your website will languish in anonymity. It can be very easy to get obsessed with getting higher rankings and more traffic, something that everyone wants. Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous people out there who prey on those desires to make your website the best that it can be and they set up scams to trap unsuspecting website owners.

It’s easy to be lured by a site that offers extra traffic or better SEO and while there are certainly plenty of legit operations out there. Here are five scams that you should be aware of.

1. Submitting to thousands of search engines.

This is a scam that has been around for quite some time. You pay a sum of money (usually astonishingly low for the service) and your URL will be submitted to not 10, not 50, but hundreds or even thousands of search engines. It sounds great because you figure that you’ll be covered no matter where people are searching, right?

Wrong. Most of the sites your website is submitted to are actually spam sites that may even pay the scammer for your site. You’ll be getting hundreds of spam emails from them which are a waste of time and energy and certainly not worth paying someone for.

2. Your URL submitted to 500 directories.

We all know that getting backlinks is very important and can raise our value in the eyes of the search engines, but just how smart is it to submit to 500 directories? Not very. The reason for this is because first of all, there aren’t that many good directories. The vast majority are link farms (yes, they still exist) which can actually lower the value of your URL. Google in particular notes when your URL shows up in “bad neighborhoods”. The second reason this is a bad idea is that Google gets suspicious when a brand new site abruptly gains 500 backlinks within 24 hours. You could end up in the sandbox or otherwise penalized for your “SEO” techniques.

3. An insider.

You’ll actually find that some SEO companies claim to have someone inside Google. This can be pretty appealing for several reasons, but it is 99.9% unlikely to be true. Even if someone were spilling the secrets of the search engine giant, it is an every changing algorithm, meaning that it would be virtually impossible to keep up with the changes. The algorithm is also far more complex than most people imagine, making it virtually impossible to crack completely and actually implement everything.

That being said, having someone on the inside could be useful in making sure your site is in the top results for your chosen keyword, but what happens when the mole is discovered, as they always are? Play it safe and stick to real SEO tactics.

4. Guaranteed top spots in Google.

Every website owner dreams of seeing his or her site in the top results for their chosen keywords, but the truth is that this is just not always possible. It’s quite ridiculous for anyone to promise it, since they can’t actually guarantee anything when it comes to Google. Even the masters move up and down in the rankings on a consistent basis and that is totally normal . . . but unpredictable.

Something else to look out for is which phrases they are guaranteeing top ranking for. Often these will be long tail keyword phrases that no one is actually looking for. You could easily rank for these on your own with minimal effort, but what’s the point?

5. Trade Secrets

Run away from anyone who claims it’s too complicated to understand and they fail to fully disclose and explain everything that is being done to your site.  They tell you these are trade secrets; they can’t discuss their proprietary technology, or speak in quasi-mystical jargon and non-specific terms.

Real SEO experts have a true interest in their field and enjoy educating their clients about the details. They don’t hold anything back and more than willing to share the whole process with you.

What other SEO scams have you heard of?