Professor Robert Krull of Texas Tech University studies the way online help systems are designed. Overall, Krull found, the largest problem participants had in using the help systems wasn’t in the information itself, but rather in finding the correct help topic. In other words, the people needing the help and the people providing the help were using different terminology.

Since the work I do as a freelance blog writer and corporate blogging trainer has everything to do with enabling people to search for and easily find the information, products, and services they need, I liked what Krull had to say about the importance of a common vocabulary.

First, Krull pointed out, online users “became lost in the unclear structure of the system”. Because they hadn’t framed their questions in the same terms used in the help programs, those readers became frustrated as they tried to navigate the system to get answers.

Ease of navigation (as I stress when offering business blogging help) is absolutely crucial to the success of any SEO marketing blog. From the manner in which the corporate blog page is set up to the corporate blog content writing, the process must be smooth.  Frustrating potential clients is to be avoided like the plague.

Krull goes on to discuss the way users “frame the search question”. Help system users are unfamiliar with the specific vocabulary used by a computer product.  They may frame their question by using one name for a category, when the program has it under a different label. Or, users may type in an entire sentence or question.

Since search engines “match” the words and phrases typed into the search bar with web pages that continually use those same words and phrases, business blog writing has a significant advantage over static web page content. Freelance content writers must be vigilant – just how is their content getting found?

The goal, of course, is to get the people needing the help (the online searchers who are the potential clients and customers) and those providing the help (the business owners and professionals using the blog writing services) on the same page, and most important, speaking the same language!

“It’s better to be roughly right than precisely wrong,” observed English economist John Maynard Keynes almost a hundred years ago.  I think that saying holds true when it comes to measuring the effects of SEO marketing blogs.

As a corporate blogging trainer and ghost blogger, I find business owners’ overriding concern is realizing a Return on Investment from their blog content writing efforts. Just the other day I attended a workshop presented by business development consultant Charlie Larson, who explored this very topic (measuring marketing ROI) with our American Marketing Association group.

Since “finance is the international language of business,” (was the message of the meeting), “business owners must understand the financial ramifications of all their marketing initiatives.”

As I look back upon my experiences with the different Say It For You corporations, small businesses, and professional practices, I tell Indianapolis blog writers that ROI is more than “analytics” and charts.

It’s not always possible, for example, to associate a specific ROI measurement to blogging for business without regard to all the other initiatives the client is using to find and relate to customers.  All the parts have to mesh – social media, traditional advertising, events, word of mouth marketing, and sales.  Every effort that “makes the cash register ring” contributes to “marketing ROI”.

Blogging for business carries benefits in addition to helping increase sales, I’ve found. Continuously producing and making available quality content, I teach business owners, helps demonstrate that you care about quality in all dimensions of your business. As they blog, they are constantly providing themselves with training about how to effectively express to customers and colleagues their unique “slant” on their industry.

From an ROI standpoint, getting it “roughly right” when it comes to corporate blogging for business means checking with everyone involved in providing the service or product – those who work in sales, advertising, accounting, production, and distribution.

And, while total precision in isolating blogging ROI may not be possible, the blog’s general bottom line must be clearly in the benefit column.