Blogging has become the number one social media marketing tool today. If you’re serious about online marketing, your blog is your hub for all your inbound marketing efforts. You use it to push out content and your readers/customers amplify your words or message to their friends and business associates. Blogging is the best thing since sliced butter — until it’s not.
With the explosion of any new medium (although I would argue that blogging isn’t new), a number of compatible tools emerge. Just think of all the tools you have to manage your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Some of these tools serve us and some do not.
I believe that tools claiming to help you blog better or “SEO your blog” are doing you a disservice at best and cluttering up the Web at worse. Who needs more flotsam clogging the stream of information flowing on the Net?These “blog writing tools” are no different than the paint-by-number kits we played with as kids. No real artist would use those kits and no self-respecting writer would use a blog writing tool for SEO! For one, using a writing tool slows you down. I tend to write extemporaneously and fast. As every good editor will tell you, true writing starts with the editing process.
So, let’s say I’ve written my 500-word post like normal, not thinking too much about keywords, but the post has at least a keyword focus. When I’ve used these blogging tools, my post doesn’t make the grade; doesn’t pass their test; doesn’t move the arrow into the yellow zone.
SEO Blogger Loses Voice
Here’s what happens when I follow the tools’ recommendations, which are keywords culled from a number of search engines, popular blogs and social networks. (I question the validity of this research, but that’s a subject for another blog post.)
My post, with the aid of my new “blog writing tool,” bears no resemblance to my original intent. It’s now a watered down version of a focused thought. My original idea to educate and inform my readers is lost. My unique voice has been diluted and my thought leadership has been thrown under the bus because now I sound like every other SEO blogger trying to rank for “SEO blogger.”
Ranking Doesn’t Make You an SEO Rockstar
As a blogger, ranking for keywords is not my primary goal. While I author a few blogs that rank for any number of key terms, that was only a goal when testing a few SEO theories. Which brings me to another hazard of using blog writing tools: you’ll never discover new key terms or be able to create a new search query space. If you didn’t understand that last sentence, pay a visit to the SEO Theory blog. Michael has more to say on this subject than I ever will.
In conclusion, if you’re serious about blogging, it should be part of an overall online marketing strategy. If you want to blog by rote, you’ll only attract trolls and robots, and you’ll never become a blogging rock star.
P.S. If you can determine what keyword phrases I’m optimizing for, you’re on your way to becoming an SEO blogger without needing to use any blog writing tool;-)
