A review of my server logs recently pointed to a very interesting fact relative to the business case of weblogs - search optimization and traffic building.

Over the past couple of years, I have purposefully neglected to build site traffic. Frankly, if I had set out to build traffic, I probably would have relied on some sort of affiliate program, a link farm of some sort (my first thought I mini-blinds).

Lately, I have noticed a substantial increase in traffic due to this web-log. People come in from all over regarding my posts about Southwest Airlines. What does this have to do with SEO?

The point is this: All of my postings revolve around the concept of integrated marcom. In one way or another, they seek to point out examples, thoughts or ideas that organizations are using to market and communicate more effectively. So while my topics are broad, they all seek a common purpose.

In doing so, I realized that this content also becomes 'search hooks' that attract site traffic and improve rankings.

The upside to all this is stronger brand credibility, increased eyeballs and more sales opportunities. Plus, it's good content that search engines like to index and other people like to link to.

There's been a lot written recently about web logs and what they mean to business. That's my take on it.