Blogging for business is, in (not only) my opinion, essential. Search engines, especially Google, love dynamic content. So if you ARE blogging you can deduce that Google will love you. Right?
Well, it depends really. Whilst it’s true that Google loves blogs you do need to be a little systematic about it. Before you start writing think a little bit about what you are trying to achieve with your website overall, and then more specifically about why you are writing this particular (blog)post.
Goals for your website could include:
- Building your brand by becoming the “go to” place for information on a particular subject; achieved by imparting knowledge to your readers that they want to share with others.
- Targeting additional customers by offering online sales via e-commerce.
- Encouraging customer feedback and discussion to build loyalty via your comments section or on a forum.
- Collecting names and addresses so you know who your readers (and fans) are, which gives you permission to speak to them directly via newsletters and mail shots.
- Rewarding your biggest fans with affiliate commissions or other special offers.
Reasons for the blog post could include:
- Turning a customer question into a post.
- Writing an article about news in your industry that would be interesting for your customers.
- Showing respect to a peer or other industry leader by including outbound links.
- Generating interesting relevant content that will be share-worthy via social media.
So now that you have a clearer idea of your goal(s) you can begin to write. If you aren’t confident yourself to write for the blog then make sure you assign this task to someone who is passionate and articulate within your organisation.
- order: start with the most important paragraph first (the pyramid approach) in case people don’t read the whole way through. Include any internal links or calls to action early on and make them clear.
- length: the ideal length is anywhere between 300 and 600 words depending on the subject. One or two lines is not enough and belongs in a tweet instead in my opinion.
- layout: people are most likely to read bullet points and well laid out text. Include an image or infographic if it’s relevant (and don’t forget the caption and description on the image for the search engines).
- content: include one or two relevant long-tail keywords so that you will show up for lower competition searches.
- outbound links: include these to show respect but don’t go crazy, ultimately you want people to stay on your site and buy from you (if applicable).
Lastly of course is the “how often” question. Don’t write if you don’t have anything to say. According to Hubspot research:
”If you’re trying to compensate for low or even mediocre quality with high quantity, you’re doing yourself more harm than good. Readers won’t regard your content well, and as a result, Google won’t hold your domain in high regard, either.
This graph, courtesy of Hubspot, shows blog frequency vs customer acquisition, and that you are still OK blogging weekly or even monthly. I think it’s better to blog less frequently than put yourself under pressure to blog at all, which may result in you giving up entirely. An abandoned blog is way worse.
Once you have posted your new blog article don’t forget to share it on social media. This will also help people find you, your website and your product or content. This is ultimately the goal.