A blog is a fantastic way to communicate more than just the nuts and bolts of what you sell. It shows who you are. And that, as I’ve talked about before, builds trust. Blogging is also an easy way to create more keyword rich content for your site which is great for SEO. And, if you get lucky and write something really useful to people, you’ll attract valuable links from other sites which can significantly boost your search engine ranking.
Blogging for better Google rankings
Small business web design and the rules of how we get you better Google rankings have changed. Once upon a time in the old SEO world, we used to build lots of links to rank the page. Now we build a page to attract a few great links. It’s pull and not push. In other words, if you’ve got some great content on your page (and you let people know about it), people will read it. Some of those readers will have their own websites or blogs and they’ll want to share your content with THEIR readers. And that’s where it starts getting fun from an SEO perspective!
Want to know how to write great content?
Obviously, this little blog of mine is no replacement for an online writing course, but there are some basic features of a successful blog post. You need to:
- Provide value (free info goes a long way)
- Solve problems (e.g., it’s your product or service)
- Write for people, not search engines
- Be bold (it’s ok to ruffle a few feathers; your blog is YOUR point of view)
- Build empathy (talk about your own pain points and why your solution has improved it)
- Only have one ‘big idea’ per post (don’t go off on a tangent)
- Follow typical essay writing format (intro/set up the problem, how you solved the problem, summarise the solution and why it’s great)
- Make sure you have a clear ‘call to action’ of what your reader should do next.
Now, one more thing: When you have a great piece of content, you have to advertise what you’ve got. You promote it to earn readership, a wider audience and, of course, links. Promotion can be though your social network, a mailing list, or even a blogger outreach program. You gotta let people know! And here’s why you’re doing it all… By writing great content, you’re not just building links, you’re building a content base. Believe it or not, that’s a real asset for your business. So if you haven’t started a blog, the time is now! Oh and if you want to see how us friendly web geeks write our blogs you’re welcome to take a squiz over at our online education centre. It’d be interesting to see if you think we’re walking the walk!
