When a web designer sets up your website these days, they will most likely advise you to write a blog but why is this?
It’s been noted that websites with blogs (and fresh content) rank higher up Google* than those that don’t and those companies who blog on a regular basis (we’re talking 6-8 times a month) are more likely to see their leads double compared to those who blog around 3 times a month^.
What should you write about?
Blogging doesn’t have to be a chore. Set yourself realistic goals about how many times you can blog a month. Start slowly and build up.
Write about subjects relating to your business but in a casual way (imagine you are having a chat with one of your customers) and therefore you are more likely to reach a wider audience.
Aim to be the go-to blog for your business area. Share your expertise with your audience, ask what they want you to write about.
Here are a few ways to generate ideas for blog articles:
1) What are people and companies talking about in Linked in groups?
2) Find an article that is of interest to you and write a response (remember to include the link to the original article).
3) A more in depth FAQ section – what do you get asked about most in your line of business?
Once you have your blog, you can use the content to tweet and post on facebook. You can even get other bloggers to write guest articles for you.
Once your blog is in place and you’ve written a few articles, you can repurpose the content. This means you can take the information or content in your post and break it down into x number of Tweets and x number of Facebook posts. The benefit of this is it saves you a lot of time as you write one article and can then produce anywhere from 3 – 5 updates (depending on how long the post is) that you can distribute on your social networks, with a link back to the original blog post. So not only does it save you time, but it’s a great way to get more exposure for your blog.
If you want to increase your online exposure then why not have a Virtual Assistant, like Red Desk comment on your blog. If you are stuck, we can even write articles for you.
Finally, Jacqueline from Red Desk recently attended a blogging event and this is what she had to say: “Make your blog easy to understand, unique and always have a search box.”
*Google has introduced a new algorithm called AuthorRank which places the emphasis on new content rather than search engine optimisation/keywords
^ Figures taken from a recent survey by Hubspot
mel@reddesk.co.uk
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