10 Blogging Tactics That Increased One Business' Traffic by 300%

River Pools and Spas publishes the most popular blog in the pool industry and is the number one pool company in the United States that specializes in fiberglass pools. The company started blogging in 2008, and to date, it has 760 blog subscribers.

This company is a great example of an organization that uses business blogging and organic search to its benefit. But what were the decisions that RPS made that set themselves up as successful business bloggers?

10 Things River Pools and Spas Did Right While Blogging

1) Got rid of PPC and decided to focus on earned traffic through blogging. In the early days--when pool companies weren't using PPC--the cost-effectiveness was relatively high. As more competitors utilized paid search, pool-related keywords became more and more expensive. For River Pools and Spas, this meant it was time to focus on organic content and traffic.

2) Used its blog to educate many potential customers at once. Before blogging, many people would call the company simply to ask for pool information. Without knowing if these people had any intention of buying, these one-on-one conversations were not leading to sales. By educating many potential customers at once through the blog, RPS could now funnel people through the sales cycle.

3) Blogged consistently, writing two posts per week. This consistency held subscribers’ interests and engaged new subscribers. By having an ongoing stream of published content, it also increased the probability the company would get found online.

4) Used questions from prospects and customers as fodder for blog posts. The company prioritized the questions it received most frequently and considered often-used keywords in prominent components of the blog article--like the headline! 

5) Optimized for long-tail keywords. River Pools knew it was best to target easier keywords when just getting started, and very specific words--or long-tail keywords--worked best. For example, 'vinyl liner pools' was a long-tail term the company targeted.

6) Made sure its blog was on the same domain as its website. River Pools blogged on the domain that also hosted its company website so that all inbound links to blog articles also gave SEO credit to the primary domain. That way, non-blog website pages could rank well too.

7) Shared blogging responsibility throughout a team. RPS understood that blogging is hard work. Team members compiled a list of topics or questions they could answer and rotated who would publish what article next.

8) Answered questions publicly that its competitors were afraid to talk about. For example, competitors never published information regarding pricing for others to see, but RPS broke the mold and published market prices of pool material on its blog. The post called "Fiberglass Pool Prices: How Much is My Pool Really Going to Cost?", received 20,359 page views and 84 inbound links, the highest numbers for both categories in River Pools' blogging history.

9) Encouraged conversation by responding to all comments--even negative ones. Subscribers noticed the frequency that RPS responded and felt welcome to share their ideas too, creating a collaborative environment.
 
10) Added calls-to-action on all blog content that led to conversion forms. These CTAs are what helped River Pools' blog subscribers eventually filter down the sales funnel by giving readers an opportunity to raise their hand and potentially engage in business!

These factors combined helped River Pools and Spas. Have you had similar success? Get any new ideas that you might start implementing on your blog?

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Comments

Posted by Rebecca Corliss on Mon, Jun 27, 2011 @ 02:15 PM