To blog or not to blog, that is the lingering question for every business that takes up space in the online world. For some businesses, a blog is obvious and simple to create based on their services or expertise, but for others, it is more of a stretch to think of what their audience and customers could benefit from a catalogue of articles. No matter what your focus is on, a blog can help to become more easily found, and it builds your brand voice and expertise as you develop it.
Be findable, make the search engines love you
Search engines comb through millions of pages of websites, with the main goal of connecting a searcher with the site that is most likely to be what they want. If your website only contains the keyword that they searched for a few times, it's not likely your site will be selected as the one to offer the searcher, or at least not on the top page results.
The more pages that your website has, the more opportunity to increase the number of times you can mention these important keywords. Every new blog page is a new page on your site that can be riddled with the keywords that your audience is searching for. But don't abuse this trick, it's more important to have good quality content than it is o have a bunch of keywords.
Be useful, have the information they are searching for
Finding topics for a blog can be a head-scratcher, but having a few different streams of ideas to pull from can help to keep you inspired. These streams need to be based on what your audience and clientele are already searching for on the internet that has to do with your business. How can you provide them with information from the industry, or share personal stories from behind the scenes?
Use the identity of your business to create these streams. If you are a vegan product, you can blog about recent vegan news or create a list of tips or vegan gifts ideas. As a leather belt shop, you can blog about the best way to maintain leather, the history of the belt, or belts around the world etc. Think outside of the box, address local news and events that are on brand or interesting to your business.
Be your brand, build your expertise and voice online
Creating a consistent blog can also help to solidify your brand’s voice. By dedicating time to creating written dialogues it acts as a training grounds for that voice. When you spend time writing with this brand voice on a more consistent basis it becomes clearer and easier to define.
It is also a great opportunity to keep learning within your business and industry. When you commit to writing a blog you are constantly looking for new information and ideas, and as you research and write about these topics in details you are building your expertise in the subject. Both in your own skillsets, but also as an online library that your audience can see as proof of this expertise.
The most important thing about committing to a blog is making sure that your commitment is within your reach. Don’t start with a goal of one blog per week if that is not realistic for you. By choosing a goal that is appropriate for your schedule you will find yourself much more successful in the task, even if it is one blog per month.
Start where you can, and find how you write the best. For example, some people like to batch their blogging by setting aside a large chunk of time and writing a few at once. Others prefer to set aside a smaller chunk of time every week to blog. Find what works for you and just do it.
