Blogging, SEO and Content Marketing – Does it really matter?
05th Feb 2019
SEO Consultant and Editor of North Wales Business, Lisa Baker, discusses how to write blog posts that will help your business.
I’m often asked by customers ‘why should I bother to write blog posts’?
Blogging is a great tool to use as part of your SEO and Content Marketing strategy.
A well-written blog post is interesting for your customers, keeps your website fresh and can help with your SEO – so you should definitely think about writing a regular blog.
Why is blogging important?
Here’s just a few reasons to blog:
- Engage your audience with your brand
- Establish yourself as a thought-leader in your industry
- Share industry news and helpful content for your customers
- Improve the range of keywords Google associates with your website
Ideally, you should share content at least once per month, and share your posts across your social media to increase readership.
What should I blog about?
If you don’t have the time or the talent to write in house, DesignWeb offer a full SEO and content marketing service, but if you’d prefer to write yourself, here’s some simple suggestions you could write about:
- Company & Industry news – share news of significant new products, charity news, new contracts or investments in the latest technology.
- People News – people buy people, not websites, so make your people characters within your business. Share their news, such as charity walks, runs etc. – and of course, if the company does anything noteworthy, share that too!
- Topical Thought Leadership – What topics are trending in your industry? Set yourself as a spokesperson/expert for your sector by sharing your opinons, on everything from Brexit to industry-specific challenges Act like a leader and you will carry the authority of one, so don’t be sjy -speak up!
- Seasonal tips – everyone loves ‘top tips’. What to share and when will depend on your industry, but things like ‘Top 10 Tips for getting your home ready for sale’ ‘Top design trends this January’ ‘Top 10 employer challenges for January’ are all examples.
- Customer service – sick of answering the same questions? Chances are your customers are tired of asking. Save time by providing advice on common queries in a blog post. End the blog with a call to action button connecting to the customer support email address – it will save repetitive calls if they are asking common questions.
A word about sales content in blogs
Blogs are supposed to be information that your customer wants to read, not what you want to talk about – keep this in mind when you are writing content, and you won’t go too far wrong.
For starters, that means sparing the sales copy.
Nobody likes to feel sold to – we’ve all seen blogs that sound like a nagging child – ‘buy me’. ‘Buy me now’… ‘10% off, now will you buy me?’
In short, the answer is, they won’t ‘buy’, and they won’t come back to read more posts.
Blogs should add value to your website and your business – filling them with sales copy will just disengage your readership.
The occasional offer is ok, however your blog’s goal should be building a relationship and engaging your readers. Do this, and you’ll earn their trust – and when people trust you, special offers are less important.
How will my blog posts help Google find me more customers?
If Google can find and index your blog posts, like the rest of your website content, this can have a big impact on your SEO rankings.
To do this, think about what potential customers would search for on Google (keywords), and talk about this in your content – keep your ideas original, your text natural and flowing and include plenty of keywords in your text. Get this right and you’ll soon see more visitors.
Ultimately, blogging has so many advantages for business that you are turning down a valuable tool by ignoring it – so take our suggestions, think about what your customers want and get started on that first blog post today!
About the author
Lisa has more than twenty years experience in copywriting, digital marketing, digital publishing and SEO, and works as part of the DesignWeb SEO Team. To learn more about our SEO services, please get in touch.