Blogging

Blogs - short for "web logs" - are the backbone of all organic SEO initiatives.

In the fast-changing world of online technology, the old "set it and forget it" model of Yellow Page advertising isn't enough anymore. The new reality is that you can't just think about your advertising once a year when you renew it. More and more consumers are looking for service contractors via the search engines. To get the high search engine rankings that will enable you to compete successfully for these leads, you need to engage frequently with your customers via online media. Ideally, you should contribute something to the "online conversation" every day; if that's not possible, once a week at a minimum.

Why? The internet is governed by a "social contract" between websites and search engines. When a website delivers relevant content that will be of high value to search engine users, the search engines will deliver visitors to that website.

While updates to current web pages are helpful, what search engines really want is fresh content in the form of new web pages. Blogs are an easy and extremely effective way to add those new pages to your website.

One way to think of it is that every blog post is a "raffle ticket" for a search engine win.

Having a blog on your website also gives you another advantage: an active blog lets your website visitors know that your company is "for real". Companies that regularly post to their blogs are perceived by consumers as dynamic, knowledgeable, and legitimate. They will be much more likely to choose your company over a competitor with old, out-of-date website content.

Despite the many advantages of blogging, the vast majority of small to mid-size businesses don't do it. They worry that they lack the knowledge, time, and resources to blog effectively.

How can iMarket help you with blogging?

Our websites come with easy-to-use blog software, set up and ready to go!
We offer unlimited technical support during business hours. Our advisors will be happy to answer your questions about blogging to enable you to do it more effectively.
If you don't have the time or interest to blog, you can outsource it to us! iMarket's blogging service will create weekly blog posts for you, customized to your company and region and optimized for SEO performance.

iMarket's blogging service will include articles about the following topics - or, if you want to write your own blog posts, you can use this list to help you think of ideas.

Comfort tips
Safety tips for homeowners
Repair and maintenance reminders
Energy saving ideas
Information about federal, state, and local appliance rebates and energy-saving incentives
"Green living" suggestions
Holiday greetings
Community and charity events
Information about new products and services
Warnings about extreme weather conditions (first big snowfall or a heat wave)
Coupons and special offers

Here's what people say:

iMarket has been very attentive in answering our questions and returning calls/emails promptly to us. They are working diligently in obtaining the volume of business we are pursuing.
iMarket Solutions also conducts great phone conferences to personally explain our campaigns, reports, and any feedback that we have for them. They really take our feedback into consideration and value our requests as a customer.
iMarket gives great overall customer service and attention to detail. They have been a pleasure to work with. Thank you Nadia and Martina for all of your help!!!
Sincerely,

Baxter Carbine
Triad Mechanical Co, Inc.

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Adding a Personal Touch to your Content With a Little Help from Al Capone!

We love blogging for our clients - but we also love it when you take a little time to get involved to add personal touches to the blogs to make them even more share-worthy. One of our newly launched clients, Lee's Foodservice Parts & Repairs went the extra mile this week and wrote their own blog post that involved some history, a famous gangster, and a speakeasy... and the post still had to do with a service call to install a walk-in cooler in Chicago! Here's an excerpt from the post to grab your interest:

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