You’ve been told you should start blogging for your business and there are a ton of reasons why this can really help get your business noticed. You can read more about the reasons why in this blog post. But I’d love to help set you on your way to just getting started blogging for your business too.
Blogging is something I really am passionate about and it’s part of what I help my clients do because, quite simply, it works. Not long after I launched my website with my blog as part of it, I was already seeing traffic coming to my site and enquiries coming in. And that was partly helped by the fact that I had a blog. And you can do this too.
Here’s how you can get started blogging for your business…
Blog with your ideal client in mind
It’s so important to identify who your ideal client is before you start blogging.Try to get inside the head of your ideal client once you have identified them and blog about what they would like to know and questions they might have. A top tip here is to write down all the questions your clients have ever asked you and potential questions that future clients might ask you. Your blog post content can then be you placing yourself as the expert in your niche answering their question.
Be yourself
What can often happen when people write, especially when they aren’t used to writing, is that they become all formal. Try to write so that your voice comes through. Practice writing! It might take a while for your style to evolve and for your voice to come through, but it will come. Don’t expect your first blog post to be perfect either. Over time your writing style will evolve and blogging will come more naturally to you.
Cut the jargon
If you really are an expert in your niche, that’s great. But make sure you’re writing your blog posts so that they’re easy for your potential clients to understand. In my job, I could easily launch into talking about all the behind the scenes tech stuff involved in building a website and strategic branding. But does my client really need to know all that stuff? Not really. They need the wend result from me, which is a shiny new brand and website. Try not to confuse your potential clients and cut out any unnecessary jargon in your blog posts. It’s very easy to get carried away with anagrams, but you want to make sure you talk to people on their level.
Solve a problem
Once you start writing it’s easy to go off on a tangent and perhaps start ranting or writing far too much, especially when you feel so passionately about your product or service. Always keep it simple. Remember at that point, you are talking to a certain person, with a certain problem. Answer the question your target audience is asking in your blog post rather than further debating it or going around the question.
Call to action
So they’ve read your post and nodded all the way through. The biggest mistake you can make when writing a blog post is to not then tell the person what exactly they should do next. Make it easy for them. Include a link to your services, shop page or another page on your website. If you want them to contact you, include a direct link to email you. If you want them to comment, ask them to. People usually need to be told what to do next.
Use Headings in your blog text
Using headings will not only improve the readability of your blog post, but also it will help search engines to read and understand text. Headings are signposts that guide readers through an article. Readers like to scan content, to get an idea of what the text is about and to decide which sections of the text they’re going to read. Headings help them do that.
Use alt tags for the images in your blog posts
Adding images to your articles encourages people to read them as well as breaking up large chunks of text. Images can also back up your message and get you a good ranking in image search results. When you add images to your posts, you should always try to use alt tags or alt attributes which improves accessibility and your chance of ranking in image search.
Add links to your blog post
Adding both internal links to other pages on your site and external links to other websites. Before your content can rank, it needs links. Google finds your posts and pages best when they’re linked to from somewhere on the web. Internal links also connect your content and give Google an idea of the structure of your website. Make adding both internal and external links in your blog posts a big part of your blogging strategy. One way of adding external links is by crediting photographers with a link to their site or referencing what your mentors or people who inspire you have said in their content. For internal links you can mention your services or products with a direct link to another page on your site.
Use Yoast SEO if you’re using WordPress
If you use WordPress for your website and blog, make the most of using the free version of Yoast SEO. It’s a plugin that will help with your SEO, your use of keywords, alt tags, internal and external links, headings and the readability of your post and makes suggestions on how to improve these. Yoast uses a traffic light system to highlight parts of your blog post that work well and others that could be improved, and I would recommend using it (or its equivalents for other website builders to optimise your blog post for SEO. You can find out more about Yeost here.
Batch write your blog posts
If you’re having a ‘good writing day’ and you’re in the zone, why stop with just one blog post. You can batch write your blog content for a later date and add it to your website and schedule it in, ready to be published on a specific date too.
Blog frequently
Start blogging on the regular. It doesn’t have to be once a week. It could be once a month. Try to keep it regular though so that your readers know when to expect a new blog post. Remember that Google will reward you for posting fresh content on your website regularly, so try to schedule in the time to make it happen! I’d also recommend blocking out time in your diary to create your blog posts and make sure you get them done.
Guest blog posts
These are really valuable to host on your own website and to take part in. In fact, guest blogging is one of the best online marketing strategies you can invest in. It’ll help you build domain and search engine authority, in other words, Google will start to trust your site more and more and rank you higher if your site is mentioned on other websites too.
The host blogger must include a link to your website in the post somewhere. Over time, these backlinks will raise the value of your site to search engines, making your content easier to find.
To get started with guest blogging, you can approach others in your industry who have the same views or values as you or get out to network with like minded business people. A guest blog post will help promote your guests products and services and well as yours so can only be a bonus to both of you.
I hope you’re feeling inspired to get going with starting a blog for your business. Don’t get overwhelmed as I know this can feel like a hige task. Tackle your blogging strategy one post at a time and watch to see the long term benefits of blogging and how it can bring visitors to your website and enquiries to your inbox for years to come.
And if you really are feeling overwhelmed, feel free to reach out and tell me more about your business and the questions you have about creating a blog for your business. I’m genuinely passionate about blogging to get more visitors coming to your website and I’ll be happy to help you come up with a ton of ideas to get your blog underway.
