Business owners are passionate about what they do and want to share their expertise with others. For some, that desire does not end with helping their clients. More and more Americans are realizing that they can add a blog to their business website and start a dialogue. Not only will you create a medium for conversation with your audience, but you’ll rise in the search rankings, too.
Main Benefits of Blogging
Blogging allows you to start a relationship with your audience. They can read your article, share it, or leave a comment. They might find that you have provided a solution to a problem that they have experienced, or that you have provided them with some valuable advice. Either way, provide them with some sort of value and they’ll definitely be more likely to interact with you again.
Aside from being a source of useful, original content, posting regular blog articles provides duel-pronged SEO benefits.
Firstly, Google and the other major search engines love sites that produce regular, original content. It’s easy to neglect a site, and those who put in the effort to keep things fresh must be rewarded. Search engines rank results in terms of relevance, and in general terms, the more recent results will provide more relevant information.
The second SEO benefit of regular blogging is relating to the keywords being used. You blog provides you with a perfect opportunity to produce content that your audience is searching for. By writing articles closely focused around a particular keyword, you can give your site an improved chance of appearing high in search results. Repeat this process for all of the most relevant search terms, and you’ll have opened up plenty of routes for traffic to enter your site.
Tips for Effective Blogging
Do You Actually Like Writing?
This is the single most important factor in the entire process. Some business owners really take to blogging, often surprising themselves with the joy they get from writing, but that experience is not universal. Boredom or a dislike for writing will only result in low-quality blog posts that yield no benefit whatsoever. Nobody will read them and you’ll have less time to run your business.
Nowadays, the internet can connect you with lots of talented writers who will be happy to speak with you and write blog posts that communicate your expertise in an engaging manner. For those who want to write for themselves, your advice is below.
Ask Someone to Proofread
Inexperienced writers should never publish anything online without first asking someone to proofread. Try to find someone who writes emails as part of their job or else has graduated from college. Basically, you need someone who can pick out grammatical errors and typos while also sharing constructive criticism. A poorly written blog article is a major turn-off. Proofreading will improve the quality dramatically.
Direct Writing over Indirect Writing
Internet content is now read over PCs, laptops, smartphones, and tablets, with wearable technology next on the horizon. The old fashioned writing styles adopted by newspapers are less effective on the web. Quite simply, direct writing is the clearest and most effective way to communicate in content writing.
The best way to explain this is by providing two examples…
Example one: Gary Johnson, CEO of ADB Marketing, once told me that advertising is not the only to market a business.
Example two: ADB Marketing CEO Gary Johnson told me advertising isn’t the only way to market a business.
The second example eliminates the mental breaks from the first and enhances the readability. Try to speak with direct language whenever possible. Your content doesn’t have to be complex to be appreciated.
Use a Thesaurus to Improve Your Language
Overusing the same words throughout a blog post can be frustrating for the reader. Do your best to look out for words that you’re overly dependent on. For instance, three or more of the same word in a sentence is almost always too many.
As an example, let’s say that you see the word because appearing 12 times in your 300-word blog post – that’s far too many. Pay a visit to a site like Thesaurus.com and enter because in the search bar. A list of alternatives will appear that can be used in a variety of situations. Do the same for other overused words.
Format Your Content
You absolutely need to format your content. This means breaking up paragraphs that run way past five or six sentences. Web-based writing has to be concise and digestible – you’re not writing a book. Always take the time to break up huge chunks of text.
Another key piece of formatting advice is to select a concise title and integrate a couple of headings in your content. You can’t expect that everybody will read all of your work. Include a key subheading and you might at least encourage someone to read that portion.
Follow all of that advice and you will dramatically improve any web-based content that you write for your business. The recognition might even boost the SEO performance of your website.