Why Should I have a Blog? - 10 Tips to Writing a Blog
10 Blogging Tips to Get Started
Maybe you’ve been asking yourself “How do I use my blog to drive traffic to my website?” or maybe you’re thinking ‘I have no idea where to start, I’m not really a blogger...’
Well I am not really a ‘blogger’ either but I think its a really important aspect to have on almost any and every website. A blog creates organic SEO and content that then gets picked up and read by online searches and shown to people who hopefully then become your followers and clients. As a client a blog can really help connect to you and your valuable services or products, its a space of information and also updates and so on.
I personally have this blog called Journal, here I have posted about projects and feedback from awesome clients as well as updates and the other thing I am writing more of is tips and helpful information for you to use in your social media or blogs.
So lets get to it! I have 10 top questions about blog writing for businesses to help you get started and how to best drive traffic to your site!
1. Why do I need a Blog?
It’s a great way to drive traffic to your website, build confidence in your audience, give valuable advice and build a relationship with your followers and potential clients!
More businesses are focusing on building their online presence and what better way to connect than a forum that is open 24/7. Building a blog is building an asset one piece at a time and creates connection and value.
You can establish your value and expertise in your field by giving customers tips, showing them your work and giving them more of you and your brand to connect to.
Blogs create organic SEO which means search engines will read your content and show it to those searching for information on those topics.
It is also a great way of sharing links that then bring people to your website for them to eventually visit other posts, other areas of your website and learn more about what you offer.
2. What Type of Blog Posts should I write?
There are so many options with a blog. You can mix it up and have different types of posts that connect with different readers.
Tips & How To’s - in your field of knowledge
News Updates - share the latest news in your life and business
Latest Projects - results speak for themselves, sharing your projects and latest keeps people engaged and provides social validation
Shout out to other businesses or clients - how awesome would you feel being in someone else’s blog?! It also creates links that they share back to your website and connects their audience to yours
Inspiration or Stories - sharing relevant stories, inspirations and ideas that your followers can connect to or save to use later is an awesome way of connecting and creating a community
Lists - Listing items that people can use to shop, to create something in their life or business, to convey important or helpful information all in one place!
There are a lot of other post types and you can mix and match to find out the best types to fit your business!
3. How often should I post?
This is like anything, consistency is key. You might want to post once a month, or set a goal of a minimum a month to keep the flow going.
The great thing about blogs is you can write them in advance and schedule some so you use up your creative writing juices efficiently. It is also about quality over quantity, if your followers and readers know what type of content and the quality they are receiving as they click the link, they will subscribe, they will return.
4. How do I plan posts?
The best idea is to grab a piece of paper and draw out 12 boxes
Label them for each month for the next 12 months
Add significant dates to your niche and dates you want to market, events, things like Christmas and any sales etc
Choose 1-4 items/categories of what you want to focus in terms of marketing for the year.
Then align your marketing categories and focus on one each month aligning also with any special dates, sales or events
Plan some posts that align with your niche and will help people convert to clients, become loyal and share the links with others. What does your audience value!?
5. How do I come up with new post ideas?
Set yourself a time to focus on writing the post/s
Keep a notepad handy to record ideas that pop up spontaneously to use later
Think from the perspective of your ideal client, what do they like? what would help them?
When the flow hits, keep writing!
Sometimes you just need to make yourself start and it will come to you as you do it
Make a brainstorm where each idea has 3 stems and you come up with ideas related to that one
Thinking about how you can give your clients and potential clients, solutions, ideas and confidence in your services and products, what sort of advice or information is valuable to them?
6. How important are the headlines?
VERY! A lot of idea building is seeing how you can make your headlines searchable. Think about what questions your clients and ideal audience are asking, use this as your blog title or use the answer! From a search engine perspective. Make your readers curious and want to click to find out more.
Search for similar content and see what words and headlines show up first.
Use questions that are searched a lot in your niche.
Use specific numbers i.e. “7 ways to curl your hair.”
Always write several ideas down before picking the best headline.
7. How long should the posts be?
It really depends on what you are writing about. Quality over quantity, but the amount of text will help google determine your expertise and understand what you are conveying in your blog. It depends what tone you have with your clients. There is no right or wrong length but the better you cover a subject and the more you connect to a reader the more likely they are to want more and come back.
The right length comes down to making sure your posts are relevant to your goal, if you are promoting something does it have all the information and links necessary? Do the links work? Do you have enough quality images and have you set it up in a layout that is simple to navigate?
In your post are you establishing trust, expertise and high quality? A long article has more room for SEO to find all the keywords and key phrases that are typically repeated, naturally, numerous times when an article is lengthy and focused. Search engines can tell when you repeat the keywords unnaturally just to get a better ranking and actually does the opposite. So length is important and more words are better than less, but don’t compromise the quality for the sake of the word count.
8. What are the benefit of having photos or images in my blog posts?
It really depends on the blog BUT images are always important especially adding an image as your “social sharing” image so that it appears wherever the link is shared. People remember things soooo much more when an image is attached.
Images equal a thousand words each, so I have heard. Images engage people especially those who aren’t avid readers but even those who are, a picture engages, it draws your eye in and it can be an awesome way to showcase your work, people and connect even more closely to your audience. winky face ;)
9. How do I optimize my blog posts for search engines?
There is so much information on how to make your blogs pop in the SEO market. That is to optimize it for search engines to really like your content and push it out to more people that are browsing the internet. Well I’m not about to cover this all in one segment but I can tell you a few places where you can definitely start.
Definitely write your blog, don’t write it in something else take a screenshot or make an image out of it, search engines can only read images if they have ALT-text which is text explaining the image to it. Search engines can however read text, they can find the information asses the quality and rank it.
Make sure you have worked on your title and changed the URL to be your title
Give your blog post a meta description so that it shows up on google search pages as well as other platforms where the link is shared. Giving users a quick sneak peek and more info on what they will find if they click the link.
Keep posting, keep your blog updated even if you think no one is reading it!
Share the link on your socials and in networking groups
Use keywords and words that are related to your niche or the subject you are covering in your blog, but do it naturally and make sure it sounds like you are talking/writing not like a robot, unless of course your blog is about a robot.
Just keep posting!
10. How do I grow followers and convert blog visitors into potential customers?
Keep it genuine, think about who you are helping with your blog or who you are connecting to, remember there are real people on the other side and try to think of ways they might find your blog helpful, encouraging or entertaining. it might even be a bit of all of those things. Keep posting and sharing it on your social pages as well as sending links to your clients that you know will want to see it, you can also connect other things like a MailChimp email that alerts subscribers you have a new post in your blog (like some of you will have come from right now!)
Make sure you have a goal of who you are wanting to reach and just keep at it, share it even if it seems a bit silly cause “you’re not really a reaaal blogger” but you are you and your clients want to know more about your business and be given support in the way only your business can do.
You can also ask for feedback from a trusted business friend or a good client, ask them what they like what they want to see more of and what was helpful. The more you post the more confident you’ll be!
