Every blog should have a purpose. I don’t need to give a lecture on that, but consider these questions:
Is your blog really about sharing your thoughts? Is it about winning search? Or is it both? When I first started blogging I asked myself these same questions. How do you appropriately include and tag keywords without diluting the message?
This week I found out I am definitely not alone in this thought. One of my favorite local bloggers, Kyle Lacy, wrote a blog post entitled Is Blogging For Search Ruining Innovative Thought which touches on this subject. There really is not a right or wrong answer, but it makes for a great topic of conversation.
Here are my thoughts:
No one wants to speak to an empty room. In other words, a blog without an audience is a blog without purpose. Part of making your blog findable is using keywords. Yes, it helps your business by improving search rankings, but it also helps people in need of information find you. As long as it is relevant – go for it!
Chris Baggott said it best within the comments area on Kyle’s blog, “Keep in mind as well that Crap is Crap.” If you are stuffing your posts with keywords it is going to be totally obvious. Your readers will soon grow tired and your conversion rates will suffer. Ultimately, you have to find that balance which I truly believe does exist.
But should you feel self-conscious or selfish in doing it? Absolutely not. Blogging is fun and helping people through blogging is rewarding. But it is also time consuming work. If including relevant keywords increases your Return On Investment – go for it and don’t look back.
So, what do you think?
First off.. Thanks for linking!
Secondly: As long as you don’t get bogged down with keywords and become self-conscious about writing the right content… You will be fine.
Great post!
Derek, Thank you for your continuing thoughts on blogging. With being new to the blogging arena, I appreciate all of the insight that you have provided and continue to provide. Your ideas are thought provoking and help me to create a better blog.
Thanks for the comments and the insight. Great job to you on the original post – I think we have all thought about it but never really put it in open forum. It definitely generated some buzz and good interaction.
Have a good week Kyle!
Derinda,
you are very welcome! thanks for all you have done for me. Your blog is coming along great and you are doing an awesome job.
Happy Monday!
I’ll restate what I said on Kyle’s site: forget the 21st century world of blogging, linkjacking, search-engine optimization and keywords. This is a struggle shared with Sophocles and Virgil: shall we write for ourselves or temper our words for the glory of an audience?
My advice: do what you want, but pick before you start writing. On my personal blog (Turning Left Against Traffic), I write for my own amusement and accept that many readers will wander away. On our corporate blog (The Methodology Blog), we write in compelling, yet plain English to draw readers and win business. In both cases, the market—not the writer—decides whether the words have merit.
In the meantime, the technology is hilariously immature. Google doesn’t understand anything about what it is reading, it merely matches keyword searches against keywords in pages (with a hefty dose of algorithm to filter out the fakers). You can get traffic through keyword stuffing and only draw in customers with a grade school reading level. You can also make a lot of money selling commodity junk via email spam. The question is not what works, but who you want to be.
All writing, from quill pens to twittering, can range from banal to articulate. Eventually, you will be judged by your audience. You just have to decide who you want your audience to be.
Robby,
I appreciate the comments. I definitely have enjoyed getting to meet you and your view point on things. Always opens up a new way of thinking. I agree with this – have your plan and audience in mind BEFORE you begin writing. Very well stated.
Thanks Robby!