While it’s important to have some sort of presence on the Web, the times they are a changin, for what drives search engine mojo.

Did you know you can have a blog self-hosted on your domain that can give you the very added bonus of driving natural search engine traffic each time you post new content.

 Yes, I’ve definitely partaken of the blog Kool-aid!

 Here is a new way to look at what your site is creating for you.

Search engines love updated CONTENT and lots of it. Content is what colors the stick figure of your website and keeps the search engines coming back for more.

Think of it in terms of what search engines see. A stick figure website with no blog, no keywords, no tags, no new content, no feeds. (See Option 1 below)

Option #1 your website without a blog:

Option #2 – your website with a blog:

I think I would pick Option #2.

While you don’t have to have your entire website built on a WordPress platform – you can at least add a blog to the website so that each time you’re posting your brilliance the web crawlers are coming back to the site!

Using tags and categories for your blog posts also help you grow your search engine visibility as does linking to outside blogs! (Authentically!)

 Even if you decide to stay stick figure and not have a blog, you should still help your site along by:

 1. Submit to the ADD URL form through Google – http://www.google.com/addurl.html .

 2. Submit your site to (MSN) LIVE -

http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx . 

 3. Submit your site to Yahoo – https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit  

 Now go out there and attract those web crawlers!!

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1. You ask them about measuring metrics and they say, “Metrics, metrics, we don’t need no ‘steenking’ metrics.”

Helpful Tip: Measurement of social media activities should be happening using tools like Radian6, HubSpot Grading tools, and some from Mashable’s list here.

2. Early on, you ask the expert how often you should tweet and they say, “As much as you like, just keep in mind never to do it in mixed company.”

Helpful Tip: See Guy Kawasaki’s post on Twitter Cluelessleness.

3. You search for the profile they were tasked to set up on LinkedIn.com and when you can’t find it, they say, “LinkedIn.com isn’t cool anymore. We set up your profile on Hookedup.com but you’ll need to lower your browser security to ‘hit that.’

Helpful Tip: Keep up with the actual LinkedIn.com blog for great insight on how to empower your profile.

4. You find the Flickr.com account they created for your company, but to your surprise it is populated with photos of horses named Flicka.

Helpful Tip: Use Flickr to build your brand online – see tips here.

5. You ask for strategic insight on what you should add to your blogroll and their answer is, “I don’t know, I’ve never tried that sandwich.”

Helpful Tip: See Dave Taylor’s timeless piece on blog rolls here.

6. They send you a large box of organic pea pods the week before the debut of 1st company podcast, with a note that says, “Only the freshest peas possible will do for your first cast.”

Helpful Tip: Read “Podcasting for Dummies” and Evo Terra’s blog to keep up with everything you need to know about podcasting and how it does not involve casting peas.

7. The expert says the best way for you to build online buzz and loyalty is to give away free pairs of shoes like that Zappos.com guy because everyone loves him and shoes always make people happy.

Helpful Tip: See Tony’s presentation on building real customer loyalty offline and online here.

Bonus: They rent a dog to do tricks in the background of all the company YouTube videos they’re producing for you. When you question their judgment they exclaim, “The better the tricks, the more the clicks.”

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Ok, I just stuck that video up there because it made me laugh. It also reveals a deeper question to ponder about product endorsements/reviews and how they can quickly turn to broken painful shells in one’s marketing plan. (Or at the bottom of one’s bathtub.)

Now, back to the topic of the day, blogroll-scrubbing. I recommend that you take time out about every three months and scrub your blogroll.

Does this entail real soap or painful walnut shells? Nope.

Here are five easy steps to take to do a good blogroll scrubbing.

1. Hit each blogroll link, and make sure the blogs are still lively (or even alive.)

2. Make certain they still have the content you want to refer your readers to.

3. If there are blogs that aren’t updated anymore then take them off your blog and let them rest in peace in the blog cemetery.

4. If you have blogs on your roll that no longer reflect your mission, your standards or your focus, then take those off as well.

5. For every two blog links you scrub, find one new one to take its place.

Keep your blog roll timely and always remember it’s a virtual library shelf for your blog visitors. You don’t want any resources or links up there that won’t be helpful to your community.

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What does the title of this blog post mean? Its purpose is to inspire you to look at your blogroll (if you don’t have one – start one) and get all the “ME, ME, ME” washed out of it.

ME, ME, ME means getting your blogroll off of ‘More about Me” and focused on other bloggers that might be beneficial and meaningful to your readers.

In this day and age, you really need to have a blogroll if you’re going to have a blog, but for Pete’s sake (as my mom likes saying) don’t have every link on that roll be another link about you. Don’t have the only links you have on the blogroll be links to other sites about you.

Who are you reading, who inspires you, who might inspire your readers, who do you get jazzed about that’s another blogger? What knowledge do you want to share with your readers from another blogger? Think abundance not scarcity! There’s plenty of greatness about you and others as well so make sure you give your readers additional places to find it!

And here’s an oldie but goodie, “We are the World.”

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