From SAF Sales Wake Up

For Increased Web Traffic, Think Outside the (Flower) Box

by Katie Hendrick

Just because you’re a florist and you blog, doesn’t mean you always have to blog about flowers — in fact, going off-topic can actually help your search engine optimization and, subsequently, sales.

Visit Exotic Flowers’ blog and you’re just as apt to learn about baseball, wine or horror films as you are to find information on callas, gerberas or roses.

Owner Rick Canale abandons the “all flowers, all the time” philosophy, interspersing advice on ordering hostess flowers or designing a bridal bouquet with posts about fellow Boston organizations and other “general interest” content. 

Canale updates the blog three times a week, because he knows that “creating blog content and indexing pages is key to Search Engine Optimization,” he said. While, on average, floral topics dominate two of those posts, it’s the light-hearted local titles — “Top Five Steakhouses in Boston,” “Advice for Incoming Freshmen at Boston College” — that get the most visitors, he said, adding “they’re also easier to write.”

In addition, Canale’s musings about a local institution, whether it’s the Parkway Gerbils (a little league t-ball team) or Papa Gino’s Pizza, has the potential to reach that group’s fans. “Everyone likes to see their names in lights,” Canale said. “When I mention someone local, I also bring it to their attention, too, and hopefully they will repost my blog to their followers, as well.”

Since introducing “foreign subjects” to the blog about a year ago, web traffic has increased 32 percent, Canale said. That improved web traffic has led to a higher organic web ranking “which equals higher sales,” he said.