Blogging And SEO With Lee Robertson
Lee Robertson also known as LGR operates LGR Solutions which is a a blog and website consulting company. In this interview, Lee sits down with me and discusses the differences between a blog and a website, why blogs are valued so highly with regards to SEO, what it takes to manage a blog and much more. Of course, you’ll have to stick around to see what Lee’s response is to the question, “What is the future of blogging?”.
How long have you been blogging?
Feb 1 2006 is when I started my first blog actually. Before then I had just been helping others setup and run blogs.
You operate an online business called LGR Internet solutions. How has blogging enabled you to engage your audience who in turn, may be potential customers?
It has opened up conversations with a lot of people that I might not have had contact with. I have had several readers become long term clients because of the conversations that started on my blog. The blog has also become essential in communicating with my current clients and allows me to keep in touch with them and with what is happening.
One of the services you offer is Website and Blog Management. Is there a difference between a website and a blog?
A blog is really just a website, but a lot of people still think of them a seperate things. Many people when they hear the word blog still think of a personal online journal, and don’t realize that blogging software, like WordPress, can be used to run the rest of the website as well. A lot of small businesses out there have websites that they just need a hand with to update. Often what happens is I will do some small updates for them and after we talk awhile we will move the site into WordPress or another CMS and they eventually start to do the updates themselves. Mostly just an educational process.
Some of my SEO friends have claimed that Google and other search engines love blogs. What do blogs have over regular websites that makes them so yummy to the SEO spiders?
I would agree, but I would say that Google and the other search engines have a real love affair with WordPress blogs more than any other. I have seen posts from WordPress blogs get indexed within 15 or 20 minutes on occasion, while posts from other blogs run on other blogging software can still take days. Even Blogger blogs tend to not get indexed as quickly. I think there are several reasons for that. The permalink structure plays a part, the posting frequency, and pinging the blog search engines like Google blog search when a post goes up. Google loves fresh, good content and the more you can give it the better.
Going back to the topic of blog or site management, can you describe what it takes to successfully manage a blog?
I think people need a willingness to learn to successfully manage their blog. I come from a more technical background and many of the things people need help with managing their blog are the technical aspects. How to FTP, how to crop a photo, things that anyone can learn. Of course there is more to managing a blog than the technical aspects, but that is where I see a lot of people getting hung up.
Based on that, which publishing software do you recommend to your clients the most and why?
In the last year I would say I am recommending WordPress 85% of the time. It depends on what the client ultimately wants to accomplish but the majority of the time I know that WordPress will be able to provide them with what they feel they need at the time and will be able to grow with them as they learn more and want to expand what they do on the web. Often what I hear from clients is they want a basic website and they want to be able to update it themselves. WordPress fits the bill perfectly, then when they are ready to add to the site, perhaps by adding a blog or regular updates, then their site grows and no huge changes are needed.
Have you noticed any positive or negative trends over the past few years as they relate to blogging or self publishing?
Ok the good. People are more interested in expressing themselves and sharing what they know. That is great! The more people share the better. Not only does it help others, it helps to create relationships. When I was a kid I had a penpal in another country it took months to write back and forth. Now we can do it in seconds. That helps builds communities and that is good.
The bad….people all want to make money online. I can’t blame them, we all have bills to pay but people will occasionally place making money online ahead of creating the relationships and community. Ultimately then they fail at making money as well.
What do you think is the future of blogging?
The future of blogging is to help in creating community. To connect with those around us, whether they live across town or across the world. Blogging is about telling stories, whether the stories are for your business, your hobby or your family. Blogging makes it easy to tell those stories and connect with the people that want to hear them. I might be a bit of an idealist that sharing information can help us actually get to know each other and understand each other better. I have to wonder if the future for blogging is perhaps to take a step back from the professional blogging that we are seeing so much of and becoming a little more personal again.
You can catch LGR at his company blog where he publishes content related to his business.
This Interview was published on December 3, 2008 at 3:23 am • Did you like it? Subscribe!
Submit to Reddit or StumbleUpon or Digg • Del.icio.us
Nice interview Jeff! I think you probably could’ve squeezed a little more out of him. Find out how much idealism he’s got.
Very informative interview about blogging. I find LGR’s website very helpful with suggestions of websites and other on-line tools for small business. LGR created our bookstore site and we are very very happy with it.
I particularly like the part at the end when he talks about blogging as a way to build community. It’s a very interesting perspective to a cyber communication, but I think he’s absolutely correct. I’m not sure I agree, though, that blogs need to become more personal than professional. If you look at recent industry trends (odesk.com has some interesting ones) blogging to make money is actually thriving in a down economy. And the people who are hiring bloggers are companies. I think the reason why this is the case is to bring a personal touch to the business world. Just my point of view.