You’ve heard it a hundred times. You need to have a blog to help your website. But how, exactly does blogging for a business work?
Well, let me explain a little about how google and other search engines work. To make a long story short, they are looking for fresh, relevant content to deliver to the searchers at every level. So, if you have fresh, relevant content on your website, you’re more likely to be found in search results if all else is equal. For this reason, having a quality blog with lots of relevant content being updated regularly can only help your website to rank well.
Of course, the blog should be part of your main website, not on some third party platform on another domain. That should be pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people still think they have to put their blog somewhere else. Just put it on your main website.
But, is a blog appropriate for a business website?
Absolutely. The term blog may remind you of some personal entries with embarrassing photos and cat videos, but that’s not necessarily what a blog is all about. In business, the blog can be set up to inform the reader of news and updates that they need to know about. Also, you can blog about things relevant to your audience, like trends in your industry, words of advice, things to be careful of, sales coming up, and so on. Of course, you can call it whatever you want. I prefer to call mine news, but really anything goes.
So, you may be wondering how often you should be blogging. That depends on your industry, your time available, and your readers. If you’re in a fast-paced industry like day trading, you may be sending out alerts daily or even more often to your audience. They are probably expecting rapid and frequent updates for such a high-paced industry. However, if you’re in a more slow-paced industry, like a funeral home, you may have a slower rate of publishing. As a general rule of thumb, I recommend blogging at least every month, with weekly posts being preferred. (Do as I say, not as I do. I am so busy with keeping up with my clients that I don’t always take time to publish my own blog.)
How long should my posts be? Well, again, that depends a lot on the topic, but make sure it’s at least 300 words to keep google interested. Just make sure you cover the topic thoroughly so that you get readers to come back for your great content. After all, if you keep your readers happy, chances are google will notice.
What about SEO?
Good question. There are a lot of things you can do with a blog to improve SEO. For instance, you can research key word phrases that you could use for titles, meta tags, and descriptions. My favorite tool for finding good keywords when blogging for a business is Market Samurai. Having a good focus on keywords can get you the most bang for your buck as you write your content. But remember, you need to make sure your blog makes sense to your readers above all. People can see through poor syntax pretty quickly and will leave your site right away if they feel like they’re reading through a bad Chinese translation. We’ve all been on those sites that are just looking to rank for a keyword. They’ve stuffed a keyword phrase throughout the text where it makes no sense and it’s very confusing to try and read it.
So, what’s the takeaway when blogging for a business?
Blog often and blog smart. Write content that will keep your readers interested and coming back. Stick to a blogging schedule so people will know what to expect and when to come back. If you keep adding to your blog regularly with good content, you’ll notice an increase in readership and you can grow your website audience over time.
If you know blogging for a business is necessary, but just can’t find the time, let our team of experts help with professionally written blogs at regular intervals and see what it can do for your business. Schedule an appointment today.