How to create a blogroll on your business blog

Having a blogroll on your business blog is very important for a number of reasons. A blogroll is a list of blogs that you read, are in a similar industry to, or are associated with, E.G. clients, distributors, colleagues, B2B (Business to business) connections etc. Blogrolls act as a signpost for site visitors, letting them know what internet content you think is worthwhile, as well as which online communities you partake in.

Blogrolls create links:

In terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), blogrolls link outwards to other sites, so they can be very useful for obtaining valuable incoming links, obtained when other blogs link to your website on their own. This can be done as a form of reciprocity, or the other party may actually be interested in what you have to say because of your common interests. Incoming links are seen as ‘gold’ by Google and the other search engines, because they infer yours is a blog that people are interested in, or whose content people value.

Creating your blogroll from scratch:

You’ve created your blog, but you aren’t linked to anyone, except possibly to other blog articles within your own blog posts. If you’ve ever quoted someone else in the same industry, or linked to his or her business blog because it was relevant to your article, this is the best place to start your blogroll.

Click on the ‘links’ category in your blog’s dashboard and add the URL address of said website. Then put in the title of the blog, as this is what people will actually see on your site. You have the option of writing a short description of the blog, so when people roll their mouse’s cursor over the blog’s name, your summary will be shown and they’ll know what to expect even before clicking.

Sourcing more blogs to link to:

You may now have a few blogs on your list, but you can be sure there are some great writers out there sharing their wisdom in your business sphere of which you are unaware. Find them and link to them. Use Google and search for very popular words in your field of work.

For example, if you are an optometrist, you would search for terms like ‘near sightedness’, ‘contact lenses’, or of course ‘optometry’. The links with the highest page ranking related to these terms are usually those sites that are most prolific in the field. They write about the topic on a regular basis, and the quality of their content is high. These are blogs you want to link to, and to read, as the more informed you are, the better your own blog articles will be.

Note: Emulating these successful blogs and websites is the key to achieving a high search engine page ranking. It’s no secret good content posted on a regular basis leads to more eyes on your website’s pages.

Use social media networks to find related blog sites

You’ve done your Google searches, you’ve listed businesses you are associated with, now it’s time to use social media to find more quality blogs to read and list in your blogroll. If you join Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, and if your blog is using WordPress or Blogspot, you’ve got an array of portals into the blogging world.

All of these social networking platforms (and more) have search functions just like Google that analyse the content of all its associated websites. Search for your industry’s most used phrases and you’ll definitely come across more sources of quality information and opinion.

Creating more business opportunities:

The more depth and variation your blogroll has, the greater chance you have of becoming part of an online community, having a voice in each social network, raising awareness of your brand, and communicating with others leading to business opportunities.

Direct business relationships occur when a potential client or customer communicates after finding you, while indirect business opportunities arise when your blog and its associated articles achieve high page rankings in search engines. If you have a lot of good content, your article links will be those chosen by random people searching for someone in your chosen market.

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