Does writing a blog post for your website make you feel out of your depth?
Every time we build a website, we get asked the same question by the client: “do I need a blog on my site?“. Then we explain that having a website for your business isn’t going to necessarily send clients or new leads your way just by being there on the web. This is why blogging or writing articles is essential for your business.
If you’re not ready to dive into the deep end yet, let’s dip a toe in the water.
Websites are business tools. And like any tool, you need to look after them. Fresh content is important. Keeping your website regularly updated is essential in this respect. Search engines, like Google, love blogs. They like your site to be updated with fresh, relevant content. They can even reward you for your efforts by ranking your site better when searched. Using a blog is a practical way for a site owner to do exactly that. Each time you write a new blog post, you effectively create a new page for a search engine to visit.
Blogging is a big part of our organic SEO strategy; here’s why.
Useful blog posts help your SEO
As well as creating friendly, fresh content rich with SEO blogs also help you to create opportunities for ‘link juice’.
Link juice is adding internal linking strategies from one page or post to another page or post on your website. A solid internal linking strategy is excellent for SEO. See what we did there? We added a link to more information on our website that you might like to read that has more details on why we do internal links.
Another great way to utilise blog posts for your SEO is to use them as resources in your email campaigns. Add a small paragraph and then a button link to the post on your website. There you can tell them more about a service or add value to a product, like recipes for example.
Why is this important to SEO? Because it means a visitor to your site is engaged. And it means they stay on your site for longer. The longer a reader stays on your website, the more search engines, like Google, understand that your site is worth rewarding. Your visibility in the marketplace changes.
Getting past the ‘blogger’ obstacles – where do you begin?
Knowing why blogging is important for your business is one thing. But the idea of being a blogger’ can be a serious handbrake for some people. But a blog doesn’t need to be called a BLOG. It can be called whatever you like. Something that makes sense to you and your business. It could be NEWS or IDEAS or NEW PRODUCTS or RECIPES. It really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you are writing content that is relevant to you and your target market.
Writing itself can be a bit daunting. However, once you get the ball rolling it becomes easier and easier. A great tip from Maddy Osmon as she guest blogged for ithemes is to keep a pen and paper with you all the time. That way when you get a great idea for a blog post you can write it down straight away.
It’s so frustrating to forget a good idea! If paper isn’t your thing, try using your phone. I tend to email myself! Then I centralise the ideas for our team to access.
The best way to begin is to begin
In our 11 Critical elements of a good blog post, we expand on the many and varied reasons why blogging is important for your business. If there is anything you would like to ask about adding useful articles or blogs to your website, get in touch we’d love to hear from you.
If you still feel like diving into the deep end isn’t for you we can help. We produce blog articles for many of our clients on a regular basis.