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If you’re a business owner then somewhere along the way you’ve probably been advised to maintain a blog on your website.
Blogging for your business has a raft of benefits, not least the fact that search engines love to see a website that keeps its content up to date. And if you keep Google happy then there’s more chance of showing up on page one of your customers’ internet search.
If you’ve been given the right sort of advice about your blog then you’ll know to plan your content carefully around the key search phrases that your customers are typing into Google.
So, if you’re making the time to write the sort of content your customers want, and you’re doing it regularly, why is it that you’re not seeing the benefits?
Sometimes It’s the simple things that can make all the difference. When clients come to me to take over their blog writing, these are the 5 things I tend to notice have been missed along the way:
1. Is your blog easy to read?
I see this a lot with financial and legal services where there’s a fair amount of complexity to wade through or a lot of context to cover. The website visitor will open up a blog post to be met by a barrage of text. At best they’ll struggle through the first half and end up confused; at worst they’ll instantly click back to their Google search and select a different result.
So how do you make your blog easy to read?
Make the font size big enough and for the love of all things readable, please don’t use a faint grey font. There's a free tool that you can use called colourcontrast.cc that allows you to check the font, size, colour, and background for readability. This is particularly important for accessibility which leads me on to my next point....
Is it accessible for those who are visually impaired? Text readers need information to read the images on your site and this requires you to fill out the Alt Text with enough detail.
Break your text into chunks. People like to skim-read so they need sub-headings to help them do this (more about headings below). In addition to this, use bullet points with adequate spacing between them.
Keep your paragraphs short - Ideally you don’t want to have paragraphs longer than about 60 words.
Avoid jargon. Unless you are absolutely certain your reader will understand industry specific acronyms and phrases, leave them out of your copy.
Increase the left- and right-hand margins. If your text fills the entire width of the page it’s very hard to read.
2. Can Google easily tell what your blog is about?
Google (*other search engines are available) is a clever beast, but it does still rely on having things laid out clearly. The 3 parts of your blog post that it cares most about are:
Its URL (or slug) – this is the bit in the navigation bar that follows your business name
The meta title (or SEO title) – this is the bit that is hidden in your website set up.
The H1 title of your blog. That’s just a fancy way of saying the main header of your blog post, but you MUST have it formatted as an H1 which most blogs will do automatically.
What you want to check for here is whether all 3 of these match – ideally word for word. That way Google can scan them and go “yep” “yep” “yep” – this blog is about X and I know exactly how to index it.
A great way to check if you have all of these in place is to download the Chrome Extension "SEO Meta in One Click". It can give you a snapshot of any webpage and how its SEO titles are set up so you can see where you might have gaps.
3. Have you included links within your blog?
Your blogs are like loads of little Trojan horses carrying potential customers to your site. Make sure they can find their way to the services or products you’re selling and any other information they might need before they hire you.
Try to include:
Internal links to the services or products you’re selling. Moving customers quickly from information pages to sales pages is how your blog will start to generate leads.
Internal links to other blogs on your site. This one is more for the Google gods who like reassurance that your content is credible. It does have the added benefit of showing how much more knowledge you have on a subject and keeps your reader on your site for longer.
External links to reliable sources. If the research for your blog has lead you to a really reliable source of information that you want to share – include it. The right sort of external links are great for giving Google the reassurance it wants.
A couple of extra bonus tips here – make sure you set things up so the links open in a separate tab and make sure the text linking to those pages (anchor text) is descriptive (i.e. not just “click here” for example).
4. Have you ended your blog by telling them what to do next?
What’s the message you want your reader to end on? 9 times out of 10 it will be “if you want to know more then get in touch”. Make it easy for them to do so – provide a link, an email address, a phone number. You don’t have to be salesy about it – just remind them that you’re there to help. If they’re impressed with your blog and keen to get in touch, you don’t want them to have to scroll right to the top of their browser to get your contact details. Make life easy for them!
5. Have you told anyone about your blog?
If you’ve spent the time writing a great blog post and laboured over 900 words, don’t just post it to your site and hope for the best. If you do this, you’ll be sending it out into a void.
Make the most of all that work and:
Create multiple social media posts (using excerpts from the blog). Link to it and put it on different channels.
Send it to your network in adjacent industries who might want to use it as a guest post on their own site. This will give you the benefit of a backlink to your site and more opportunities for it to be shared.
Use it as the basis of your next email or newsletter.
Pitch it to relevant podcast hosts and see if they want to interview you about it.
The more people who see your blog, the more visitors you will eventually get to your site and the more leads you will generate.
Still a bit daunted?
Don’t worry – I’ve got your back. Even the simplest ideas can take time to implement and if time isn’t something you have, then get in touch. I offer a range of blog writing services that can ensure your business blog is working as hard as possible and not just floating around in a void.
If you'd like to get in touch then email me at tess@torjussencc.com