Successful Blog Writing for Your Website

Blogging is a great way to connect with your audience through content that is relevant, current and engaging. It’s the simplest way to keep the content on your website fresh and allows you to build trust with your audience and even position yourself and your business as leaders in your industry. So, where do you start and what exactly should you be posting on your blog? Read on…

How many blogs should I post each month?

The more blogs you post, the more organic SEO-rich content you create for your website, the more likely you are to appear in search results, the more people visit your website, discover your brand, buy a product, sign up for your service …  and you live happily ever after! If you feel exhausted already, we get it. If you’re a small business with limited people-power or resources, then writing and producing a weekly blog post may be completely unrealistic. Why not start with one well-crafted post per month? If you focus on quality rather than quantity, you’re likely to get good engagement and can build from there.   

How long should a blog post be?

Depending on your topic and your audience’s appetite for reading lengthy articles, you should aim for anywhere between 500 and 1,000 words. Remember to break your blog post up with images, headings and dynamic content blocks, and make sure that it’s easy to read both on desktop and mobile. Most website platforms will tell the reader how long it will take them to read your post, so keep an eye on this. Most people won’t commit to a ten minute read, but you’ll find they can easily cope with three.

How do I know what keywords to use in my blog posts?

Organic SEO is all about key words and choosing the words and phrases that your audience are most likely to be searching for. They also help with your website ranking and visibility. There are a bunch of tools you can use to do your own keyword research, many of them are free or have a free component. They are a great option if you’re not trying to perform advanced SEO gymnastics. A good dose of common sense and understanding your audience is a good place to start.

What topics should I write about for my blog?

It’s good to have a list of blog topics at the ready and be mindful of themes that complement key events or activity within your business. Start with a brainstorming session to help generate ideas and work out keywords. Here are a few ideas to get you started…

• Answer your customers frequently asked questions about your product or service one blog post at a time

• What are your customer pain points and how does your business solve these?  

• Are there changes in your industry your customers want to know about?

• How can you add value by using your unique skills or expertise to share information, tricks or tips?

• Are there industry topics that are currently trending which your customers want to know about?

How do I leverage my blog posts?

If you’re going to go to all that effort of writing a stand-up blog post, you may as well make it work for you and leverage the content. Here are a few ways to get that blog post out in front of multiple audiences.  

• Post it on LinkedIn – either your personal or business page if you have one. It shows your fellows in the industry that you’ve got something useful to say and helps position you as a thought leader or contributor the conversation.

• Do the same thing on Facebook

• Pull out some of the key points from your blog, couple them with an image and create bite-sized tips or thoughts for Instagram.

• Share your blog to your email list or include it in your next customer newsletter or email.

• Written something you think is really good? Consider using it as advertorial in an industry magazine or relevant publication where you’re likely to reach your target audience.

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This blog post isn’t perfect. I didn’t do any keyword research before I started. I did however pull from my own experience and tried to answer all the questions I used to ask myself when I first started writing blog posts. Is there better advice out there on the internet? Probably. Will this information be useful for someone? I hope so. If nothing else, it’s given me the opportunity to hone my craft a little more and that’s always a positive thing.