B2B Blogging for SEO

MullerMgt.com

1 (847)302.1433

[email protected]

A Basic Guide

FOR BLOG POSTING

and

SEO BEST PRACTICES

prepared for

Norman Distribution

July 2015

by

Muller Management

http://www.mullermgt.com/

mailto:[email protected]?subject=Norman%20Distribution%20Blogging

© June 2015 MullerMgt.com 1

Introduction

Dear Friends,

It’s been a pleasure to have worked with you. At Norman

Distribution, Chicagoland’s favorite DSD distributor of

healthier and specialty foods and beverages, you’re about

to take a next step towards marketing excellence. I cannot

stress enough that this step is not to be taken lightly. It will

give a real competitive advantage as there are many

companies, especially in the food and beverage wholesaler

space, that have not taken this step… or that have started

and given up. This is because it’s hard. It’s not that hard to

write. It’s not that hard to come up with ideas once you get

started. It’s not even that hard to navigate the technology

and SEO (hopefully this guide will make you all experts in

no time).

It’s hard to be vigilant. It’s hard to consistently dedicate

resources and time from your already hectic schedule

towards something that’s rewards can take months or

years to show a good ROI.

It’s hard to define your brand, what it stands for, what it

means to your customers, and how you will present

yourselves as an organization while maintaining your

individual personalities with images and words.

I promise, if you stick to it, it’ll be worth it. Not only will

you reap monetary rewards from new business you

wouldn’t have found otherwise, but you’ll find new

connections and new opportunities.

Stay vigilant, my friends.

Best,

Will Muller

The Main Points:

Write your post

(following these tips on topics and style).

Edit and upload your images.

Post your blog.

Repeat.

Repeat.

http://normandistribution.com/tag/chicago/


SEO Blog Posting steps for NormanDistribution.com

1. Write your blog post.

a. Many people choose a generic word processor like Notepad.

b. If you choose to use Microsoft Word, save as (or paste as)

Plain Text before putting it into the CMS.

2. Select your images.

a. Crop (note that your in-post images will be cropped to square

with your theme) and save. You can adjust size later, within the

website, but try to shrink images near to size first (max 645px).

b. Name it as accurately as possible as this will become your slug.

c. Limit size to 645px in width (unless you expect visitors to want a

large Hi-Def version, in which case you’ll upload 2 versions).

3. Upload your images.

a. Log-in to Wordpress.

b. Media>Add New

c. Click “Select Files” button.

d. Select your image file.

e. When the image is done uploading and crunching, a thumbnail

appears at the bottom: Click “Edit” to the right of it.

f. A new tab opens so you can view it full-size. Ensure it looks good.

g. Scroll down and enter a Caption. This caption will appear below

image if inserted into post; so if you are putting the image inside the

post and you don’t want one to appear, skip it. However, if it is going

to be the Featured Image (image at top of page and on the Home

Page), you should enter a caption – it will not appear on your post. (i.

e. “Norman Distribution is great”)

h. Enter Alt Text – do NOT skip this, and try to include at least one

relevant keyword. Grammar is not too important. (i. e. “norman distribution chicago”)

i. Enter description. Grammar is more important here. If possible, use two or more

complete sentences. Keywords are good. (Do NOT duplicate text from the Alt Text

section. (i. e. “Chicago’s Norman Distribution offers retailers healthier food options.

Snacks, beverages, & other food items are available at discounted wholesale prices.”)

j. Click “Update” towards the top right.

k. Close this tab. Go back to the previous tab and repeat image upload process as

necessary (steps 3c-3j). Try not to duplicate any previous Alt Tags, Descriptions or Slugs

(SEO file names for URL with dashes for spaces). Close the “Upload New Media” tab.


4. Add your new Blog Post

a. Posts>Add New

b. Enter the Title of your post.

c. Make sure you are in “Visual” mode.

d. Copy the text of your post from step 1.

i. If you’re using MS Word:

1. If using Google Chrome browser, right click in the main section of the

Add New Post screen, and select “Paste as plain text” option.

2. If using another browser, save your Word document as plain text before

copying, and paste into the main section.

e. Format your post (with bold, unordered lists, headers, etc.) and add Tags & a Categories.

f. Insert body images. (optional)

i. Click where you want the image to appear in your post.

ii. Click “Add Media” at top of editor.

iii. Select the image you want by clicking it.

iv. On right side “Attachment Details,” scroll down to “Attachment Display

Settings” and change “Link To” to “Attachment Page”

v. Change Alignment and Size, if you’d like.

vi. Click “Insert into Post” button.

vii. The image appears in the editor.

viii. Additional size options are available by clicking

the image and selecting the “Edit Image”

button.

1. Note that once changes are made in this

editor, they cannot be undone without

deleting the image and reinserting it.

g. Select your Featured Image

i. Click “Set Featured Image” (bottom right)

ii. Select your image for the top of the blog post

by clicking it.

iii. Click “Set Featured Image” button (bottom

right)

h. Save Draft, Preview (proofread!), and Publish your blog.

i. You should be all done, but just to be sure, click

“Save Draft” (top right) and then “Preview.”

ii. A new tab opens showing you what it’ll look

like. Make changes as necessary.

iii. Click Publish.

iv. Do a little dance.


Other SEO Tips, Best Practices, and Basic Layout Updates

1. Tags

a. Every post should have at least 2 tags – if you can have 20 relevant tags on each post,

that’s even better – as they are valuable for search engines and actual humans for

organizing your posts and finding content that’s valuable to their interests.

b. Most should include at least one hot keyword for your business

c. Refer to Google Analytics for keywords that folks are already using to find you.

d. Keep an eye on competition, brands, and customer websites and social media for ideas

on new tags. This will also help you come up with new ideas for new content.

e. Keep formatting consistent using Title Case (as opposed to ALL CAPS or lower case).

f. Tags should be a single word or phrase

g. Each Brand or Product should have its own tag. You may also add a tag for each product

category (i. e. a post may have a tag for Kettle Chips and a tag for Chips).

h. The system will remember tags you’ve used in the past to make it easier to add new

posts to appropriate tags. As you add new tags, make sure you go back through old

posts and add the new tags as relevant.

To add a new tag to old posts:

i. Posts>All Posts

ii. Hover over the post you want

and click “Quick Edit”

iii. Enter tags in the Tags field,

separated by a comma.

iv. Click “Update”

2. Categories

a. It’s best to keep the number of categories to a minimum. I’ve added the following

categories that, I hope, will cover almost anything:

i. Uncategorized

ii. Norman Distribution (for general about-us type stuff)

iii. Brands (for your products)

iv. Clients (for your customer spotlights)

v. Events

vi. Press

vii. Lifestyle (for general health and wellness posts)

b. Less than 15% of your posts should be Uncategorized

c. You can post to more than one category, if relevant. Most should fall into only one

category, though.

3. Excerpt (aka Meta Description)

a. This post summary is (kind of) optional. The Excerpt allows you to customize the snippet

of information that appears on search-engine results, social sites and your home page

introducing your post. If left blank, your home page will pull the first couple sentences

from the blog post, and Google, Facebook or whatever will pull whatever text they feel

is appropriate (not necessarily the first lines of the post). Using this feature also helps

Google not ding you for duplicate content.


b. It can be as long as you want, just keep in mind that the home page can only handle

about 90 characters, and Google about 145/two lines (this is not precise because they

go by pixel width, not character count).

c. If your post doesn’t have solid keywords and get to the point in the first sentence, or if it

contains video or an image within the first 80-100 characters, you’ll want to add an

Excerpt. d. To add an Excerpt (either before posting or later on), from the post editor page, simply

enter the text you’d like in the Excerpt field towards the bottom.

e. This field does support basic HTML, but keep in mind that search engines will ignore

HTML formatting.

f. Please use full, grammatically correct sentences. Tip: Questions work really well here.

4. Set a posting schedule

a. Ideally, a company like Norman Distribution should be posting new blogs at least

weekly. Realistically, this may not be possible; maybe shoot for once or twice per

month.

b. Assign a number of folks to be responsible for generating content with due dates a

couple of days prior to posting (i. e. Ryan this month, Patrick next month, then Arch,

etc.).

c. Post on consistent days (i. e. Every Thursday, the 1st Tuesday of each month, or the 5th

and 20th of each month).

d. The Posting Date and Sticky Buttons

i. As opposed to the Portfolio, Clients, and Services modules, you should not

change the Post dates. It can confuse regular visitors, and, more importantly,

Google doesn’t like it.


ii. If you’d like to make sure the link to the blog still appears on your Home Page,

there are a couple of buttons to make your post “Sticky”

1. From the Post editor;

2. or from the All Posts Quick Edit.

a. Be sure to click “Update.”

iii. Sticky posts are handy for allowing you to highlight certain content, but you

should limit yourself to one or two Sticky posts, as you want your Home Page to

update as much and as often as possible.

e. Don’t be so regimented that you don’t have fun with it or miss opportunities to post on

current events.

5. Share on Facebook, etc.

a. Just make sure that you’re sharing other stuff, too (see content guidelines below).

6. Content

a. Create and share your brand guidelines internally. You’ll need a solid baseline of routine

and trust for people to feel connected. While it’s good to keep your audience on its

toes, you’ll want to keep a consistent tone and look to develop your unique brand and

gain awareness.

b. Keep ‘em on their toes.


i. So, brand guidelines are important, but don’t put your audience to sleep. Make

sure to switch things up periodically… add a little spice.

1. Post 3-6 “boring” food/industry related posts that adhere to your style

guide, and then one disruptive post. Maybe something random or fun

or funny. Be creative. Keep and element of surprise while keeping an

element of your original brand. This will help you stay relevant and

share-worthy.

2. Remember, your business essentially serves 3 masters: The buyers, their

customers (consumers), and your brands. Make sure the content

appeals to at least one of those, and your content is balanced across all

three in appropriate proportions (I’d assume you’d want to target the

retailer/buyer audience more often than others).

3. Try to keep text open and inviting with varying texture. In addition to tip

6c below, spice it up with other variation like unordered lists, quotation

snippets, an underlined phrase, etc.

4. White space is your friend.

c. Use Headers and Sub-Headers

i. Unfortunately, the way your CSS is set up, you’ll have to violate one of the

cardinal rules of blogging SEO (as one of the Ten Commandments is “Though

shalt always use H1 headers”). With your theme, you’ll need to use H3 and H4

headers instead.

ii. All posts must use the H1 H3 header at the top of the post, or immediately after

the intro.

iii. If your post is longer than what can be viewed on a standard computer screen

without scrolling, use the H4 header.

iv. Try to use a relevant keyword/phrase in these headers if it doesn’t make you

sound off or mechanical. Readability and real human interaction trumps Google

– always.

v. To apply headers:

1. In the Post editor, highlight your header phrase.

2. Select “Heading 3” (or 4 or 5 or 6) from the drop-down on the left of the

‘kitchen sink.’


d. Links

i. If possible, always try to include at least one internal link (a link to a page within

your website) per post from a relevant keyword or phrase.

ii. Don’t be afraid to link to other folk’s content, it doesn’t hurt your SEO (and can

actually help if done correctly), despite rumors to the contrary.

iii. That said, keep it to a minimum – limit links to two per screen (internal or

external). You don’t want to appear spammy or like link dump, which will hurt

SEO and potentially turn off visitors.

iv. Always have links open in a new window unless it’s an internal link that appears

at the end of the post.

v. To insert links into your post, simply highlight the word or phrase that you’d like

to make clickable, and hit the link button at the top of the editor.

vi. From here, a popup window appears.

1. For external links (outside of NormanDistribution.com), paste the URL

into the first box.

a. Add a short description of the link or the name of the site or

page that you are linking to in the Title.

i. This gives you some SEO juice as well as a cute little

hover box.

b. Always click the box to Open the external link in a new window.


2. For internal links to existing content, simply click the selection towards

the bottom of that pop-up window.

vii. Click “Add Link” at the bottom.

viii. When selecting the URL to which you are linking:

1. Choose reputable sites

2. Link to a specific, relevant page (avoid linking to Home pages)

3. Only link when the link offers something that you haven’t already said.

e. The Writing

i. Look to you your “3 Masters.” What questions do they have before engaging

with you? What keeps them up at night? What would they say differentiates

you from your competition?

ii. Remember, your blog is not like the rest of your website. One of the biggest

values brought by blogging and social media is the humanizing factor. Give them

something with which to connect on a personal level by avoiding corporate

lingo. A good way to test this is to read your post aloud before posting it. If it

doesn’t sound like something you’d say in a real-life conversation (with a

customer, not your drinking buddies), consider editing it and inserting a little

more of your own voice – while continuing to follow grammar rules, of course.

iii. Stick to just one topic per post. If you feel that straying off topic is important,

write a separate blog post and link them. This’ll keep the audience on theme

while keeping your post more relevant to search engines.

iv. Use a thesaurus. For the keywords surrounding the post’s main topic, try word it

differently each time it’s mentioned, and be sure to use supporting phrases to

provide more context (i. e. “Demo Services” could mean using a wrecking ball,

so switch up the phrase with “Product Demonstration” and “Food Sampling,”

along with supporting phrases like “increase your exposure and sales with…”

7. Home Page

a. Currently the home page is set to support links to and excerpts for 2 blog posts: 1

“sticky” post (Letter from CEO) and 1 most recent post.

b. You can change the settings to accommodate any number of featured posts. The more,

the better, from an SEO standpoint, but for design and optimal user experience, I

recommend limiting this number to a maximum of 6, and only even numbers (2, 4, or 6).

i. To change the number of featured posts:

ii. Layout>Blog/News>Edit


iii. Within the Editor, find the code that looks like this

[blog_latest posts_number="2"] iv. Change the number to the number of posts you’d like, being sure to leave the

quotation marks in place.

v. Click “Update.”

c. Once your number of blog posts exceeds the number of posts listed on the home page,

you’ll want to add a “View More” or “All Posts” button:

i. Copy this code:

<p style="text-align: right;">[button size="small" link="

http://normandistribution.com/blog-2/" bg_color="#2A3350"]All

Posts[/button]</p>

1. This code will generate a small button in the navy blue color consistent

with your theme.

2. You can change the color of the button (bg_color) by either:

a. replacing the hex code (#2A3350) with another hex code,

keeping the “#” and quotation marks;

b. or simply typing the name of the color you’d like within those

quotation marks (removing the “#”). A list of supported color

names can be found here.

3. You can change the size of the button by replacing the word “small”

with:

a. large

b. xl

c. or by removing the size attribute all together for a medium

sized button.

ii. Layout>Blog/News>Edit

iii. Switch Editor to “Text” mode.

iv. Click at the end of the code already in the editor and hit the space bar or enter

button on your keyboard. v. Paste the copied code.

vi. Click “Update.”

8. Comments

a. It is important to monitor incoming comments on your posts and to approve and reply

to all relevant comments in a timely manner (ideally within a business day), and to not

be too sales-y in those responses, but rather, candid and personable.

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colornames.asp

© June 2015 MullerMgt.com 11 “

9. Inbound Links

a. Many SEO experts talk about the importance of building inbound links. Although its

value is important, serving the needs of your audience is considerably more important.

b. Inbound links can significantly boost your search rank, if done properly. Essentially this

happens as other companies and individuals recognize your content, products and/or

services as valuable to their audience and link to your website. This is a slow, organic

process. Companies that participate in link-sharing agreements or contracting with link-

building services should be avoided, as Google will ding you. Some white-hat methods

for link building include:

i. Post valuable, engaging relevant content.

ii. Post valuable, engaging relevant content. (This is not a typo, it’s that important.

You can ignore almost everything else in this guide if you follow this rule well.)

iii. Paid links (from relevant, reputable, popular websites or blogs; and/or from

strategic, well-managed Search Engine Marketing).

iv. Follow and link to other blogs’ content (see 6d above). Content creators are

often notified relatively quickly after these actions happen. Even if this warm

and fuzzy cyber-nod doesn’t result in a future link from them, you’re almost

guaranteed to get a number of visits from them and their followers.

v. Comment on other posts and blogs – just don’t be spammy. (i. e. Instead of

“Great article, check out our chia products at NormanDistribution.com,” try

something like “Thanks for sharing this info. As our company also promotes

healthier lifestyle choices, especially for schools and neighborhood shops, I’m

excited to see that you agree that chia is going to be the next big thing.”)

vi. For the brands that allow it, get yourself on Amazon.

vii. Registering with reputable directories, organizations and associations.*

viii. Real business relationships (The 3 Masters).

ix. Submitting to food and beverage industry directories and article directories.*

x. Submitting to health related directories and article directories.*

xi. Submitting to local directories (only in Chicagoland area).*

*do not do more than one of these per month

Stay tuned for part 2 of 12. Haha! Just kidding. This should cover 95% of everything

you’ll need to do. I’ve attached a quick cheat sheet, too. For anything else, feel free to

call 847-302-1433 or email [email protected] any time!

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.

-- Ted “Dr. Seuss” Geisel

mailto:[email protected]?subject=Norman%20Distribution%20Blogging

B2B Blogging for SEO

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Transcript of B2B Blogging for SEO