A good company blog can help elevate public understanding of the brand, bring more site visitors interested in your content, help convert those visitors into customers and boost search engine pages. This is the most crucial online location for those aiming to increase their business.
Your enterprise’s blog is perfect for advancing your content-selling objectives and offering never-ending assets to your possibilities and site visitors. But have you thought about going even further?
How Does Blogging Improve SEO?
Blogs are a terrific means for businesses to provide Google with what it is looking for and receive something back, namely, the presence in search engine results for their services. Let’s say you sell a product. Lots of other companies sell similar products. You want your product to appear on the first page of search results. But people might search a lot of different phrases while researching that product:
- Product name (“Nike running shoes”)
- Product category (“women’s cushioned running shoes”)
- Problem (“What are the best running shoes for shin splints”)
- Social proof (“best women’s running shoes of 2022”)
- Desired outcome (“Where to buy Nike running shoes” or “Which running shoes last the longest”)
What is the most effective way to make sure one web page covers all the necessary factors without resorting to keyword stuffing? You don’t. That’s what blog posts are for! They help maximize potential sales by addressing multiple queries that people potentially search for before deciding to buy. By acting this way, potential customers are given the confidence they need to move further along.
Writing blog posts can assist you in demonstrating to Google the credentials that you have about a variety of other positioning factors like location (localized words and subjects), social acknowledgment (hyperlinks and social media shares), user interaction (time utilized engaging with the content), as well as keywords, content length, subject depth, and many other criteria.
Here Is What Blog Posts Do For SEO
- Relevance: SEO experts love to debate Google’s potential ranking factors, but everyone agrees that a page’s relevance to any query is one of the most significant pieces. Blog posts allow you to target the questions your customers would type into search engines and create relevant content that answers those questions.
- Helpfulness: Other than videos and FAQ pages (both excellent types of content), blog posts are the best way to satisfy a searcher’s questions on a topic. If you look at the top three link results for informational searches, they are almost always complete guides from business blogs.
- Freshness: People tend to trust (and click on) content with a recent publication date. Regularly adding new ranges has the added benefit of luring more people to your site, which can result in more frequent crawls by search engines – i.e., more chances to improve your ranking. Of course, you can’t just publish new pages or services all the time, but you can write a blog post whenever you have a solid topic.
- Quality: Google Search Essentials (formerly Webmaster Guidelines) devotes a lot of space to content quality because it’s Google’s job to deliver quality results. That makes it your job to publish quality content to rank well. Blog posts are an excellent way to demonstrate your site’s quality through strong copy and visuals, page speed, topical authority, and more.
- Trustworthiness: When it comes to topics that impact a person’s money or well-being, Google cares a LOT about the reliability of your content (see its E-A-T evaluation system). While not a direct ranking factor, we know Google ranks trustworthy sites higher. In addition, blogs give you space to detail the credentials of your team members and company through author bios.
How Does Business Blog Content Drive Conversions?
Blog posts associated with business do a great job of raising knowledge of your company and getting people to engage in the first stage of the process. Each of those individuals could be a loyal client if you can keep them.
- Carefully researched keywords and search intent help draw exemplary visitors who are more likely to convert.
- B2C blog posts are more likely to directly drive sales because a product comparison, feature, or roundup can provide enough information for a purchase decision
- A potential B2B client may need to engage with multiple pieces of content over a long period before contacting you – that’s why it’s essential to have lots of high-quality content that satisfies their in-depth research!
A person deciding to transition from a blog follower to purchasing something can depend on multiple factors, including the content you post, the robust UX design, and the quality of the available goods/services.
No matter your business, the item or service you offer doesn’t depend on it. That blog site viewers will eventually come back and become customers. Instead, you can take action to make all of your blog posts capable of persuading someone to move along the sales funnel.
What Makes A Good Business Blog?
A primary factor to keep in mind: creating a successful business blog should prioritize the needs of your customers before the requirements of search engines. You are making the content to enhance your ranking and attract potential new customers. But it can’t feel like that!
We’ve all encountered a situation where we clicked on a search result only to find that the article was utterly insubstantial. What do you do? You exit the site and try again. That phenomenon is referred to as pogo–sticking, and Google is aware that users aren’t happy with the content on your website even though it isn’t a direct ranking factor. This occurrence is liable to decrease your search ranking if it happens frequently. The solution? Produce great content!
How to Produce Great Business Blog Content
- Answer questions your customers or clients ask.
- DO be helpful, for free – nobody will buy the cow if the only way to try the milk requires handing over an email address.
- Correctly optimize your content so it draws the right audience
- DO write as much content as is needed to satisfy the topic and provide value; no more, no less
- DO use the language your audience would expect – only use technical words, slang, or industry jargon if that’s how your target customer talks, too
- Format your blog post to make it more scannable, readable, and engaging
- Look at the top results for your intended topic, and plan to write a better position than the competition!
- DO NOT just choose topics based on what interests you (or the writer, CEO, or another stakeholder)
- DON’T buy into myths about the ‘best’ content length for SEO
- NEVER crank out a post for the sake of publishing content
Let’s explore the steps necessary to turn your blog from a fundamental part of your enterprise’s marketing tactics to a dependable and trusted resource within your sector.
1. Designate a Team
You will require dependable personnel to lead these efforts, and if you do not already have a marketing team, it is time to assemble one. Creating a reliable and flourishing corporate blog takes effort, supervision, and a regular supply of pertinent, premium content. There are a few team members I recommend considering:
- Project Manager – This role serves as the point person for driving each blog post, ensuring that the company blog is consistent in post quality and frequency and meeting the informational needs of your industry and audience.
- Writer and Editor – You’ll want someone with strong writing and editing abilities to craft your articles. It’s helpful if this person has a background in writing and has worked within the marketing industry for at least a year.
- Distributor/Social Media Manager – Did you know your article’s life cycle had only begun when you published your paper? You want people to see the content you’re posting, so it’s helpful to have someone dedicated to sharing it with the right people.
2. Hold Regular Brainstorming Sessions
Regarding developing content, the more varied sources of inspiration you utilize, the better. Holding brainstorming meetings to get opinions on what subjects to cover on the firm blog is a good idea. This ensures that you gain various perspectives and cover all areas of interest. This requires a collaborative effort that involves not only your marketing personnel but also your sales team plus other vital teams in your enterprise to find out what kind of talks are occurring in your trading and what your customers and your rivals want to know more about.
3. Create a Strategy Document
Record your business blog approach so your staff is continuously informed of the plan. A strategy document can be used to ensure that all team members are aware of their purpose and objectives and are creating relevant content. Here are a few things that you’ll want your documented content strategy to include:
- Marketing team breakdown – List the roles on your team and their functions
- Audience personas – Make sure you know exactly who your target audience is, and if that includes industry peers, create personas for them as well.
- Goals – You may think you know your intent with your blog content, but it never hurts to identify it in your documented strategy. Make sure you include this so everyone understands what you need to achieve.
- Content creation process – Outline how you plan to create each piece of blog content so everyone is on the same page from start to finish.
- Editorial calendar – When will you be publishing your blog content? What content will you post, and when? Having an editorial calendar keeps everyone aligned on deadlines and overall strategy.
- Distribution plan – How will you share each piece of published content so the right people see it? Ensure you include tactics for visiting it seen by industry peers and how your sales team should use it in their drip campaigns and other communications.
4. Prioritize Educational Content
When it comes to thought leadership, education outweighs promotion. Brand recognition is the purpose of your company blog (and of thought leadership locally); however, if your blog exclusively focuses on your organization and product, you won’t be able to keep people interested. So, instead of focusing on your organization, talk more generally about essential aspects of the industry and information that is significant for your business but not entirely related.
5. Research What Other Industry Brands Are Talking About
Generally, you will be contributing rather than being the initiator of the discussion. By carefully listening to conversations occurring in your field, you can recognize untapped topics and give greater importance to your opinion. Staying current and staying in the game is essential for crafting a blog that people turn to for the latest industry information.
6. Enrich Your Posts With Data
Data always matters in marketing, whether used to generate leads or pertain to your company blog. Include reliable data from reliable industry professionals or make your evidence. This evidence proves that your assertions have a factual basis and boost your odds of obtaining connections and citations to your website.
7. Publish Consistently
Don’t post a single blog entry in a week, and then be silent on the blog for an entire month. Use the editorial calendar you put in your plan to ensure everyone stays responsible and content is created promptly.
8. Have a Distribution Plan
We have reviewed the significance of distribution several times in this piece. However, let’s break down what a successful distribution strategy looks like so you can make your content visible. The ultimate success of your business blog depends on whether people can find it. Make sure you share your content on various platforms and avenues, such as:
- Social media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.
- Email marketing – Drip and nurture campaigns and your company newsletters
- Sales outreach – Aside from your email marketing outreach, you want to ensure your sales team is aware of specific articles you’ve published so they can use any related to one-on-one conversations they’re having. Either share these articles with them by email or Slack or create a knowledge base for them to find these pieces easily.
Treat your business blog similarly to any other blog, and ensure the topics are engaging and helpful. They should include practical guidance or action steps that audience members can apply. Of course, the spot where you post news and developments concerning your company will remain, but it’ll also offer much more.
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