So, you’re thinking about starting a blog for your business. The only problem is, you don’t know anything about blogging, let alone how to get the process started.
The good news? We can help!
Running a business blog is not only a great way to drive traffic to your website, but it’s easy, too! And once you know what to do, and what not to do, you’ll be getting clicks in no time!
In this article, we’ll break down 9 tips you need to know in order to run a successful business blog.
Now then, let’s get started
1. Link Your Blog to Your Site
The overall goal of your blog should be to drive traffic to your businesses’ website and convert that traffic into sales or new customers. By setting up your blog on your website, you make this that much easier to accomplish.
Not sure how to do this? There are plenty of tutorials online that can walk you through the process. Just be sure you have enough hosting to store all of those awesome blog posts you’ll be writing going forward!
2. Build From the Ground up With SEO in Mind
If you don’t know a lot about SEO already, start doing research immediately. SEO, or search engine optimization, is going to help you get those blog posts on the first page of Google for various search results.
That traffic from search engines can help your blog take off, which of course makes it easier to get conversions.
3. Learn How to Format Content
A huge part of SEO is formatting content properly. On top of that, it makes it easier to read for your users, which makes them want to stick around and even come back again for more information.
The basic idea? Use paragraphs, headers, and break up large bodies of text with some media, like a picture or video. Don’t put too much media, though, as you’ll slow down your blog, hurting your search engine rankings in the process.
4. Let Your Customers Know Your Blog Exists
We’ll be honest, ranking on search engines is hard work. It also takes a while, which can be discouraging if it’s your only source of traffic.
That’s why it’s a good idea to let your customers know your blog exists. By having them go to your blog, you can start getting traffic right away.
Also, if they love what you’ve written, they’ll possibly share it on social media sites, help you get even more views!
5. Let Google Help You Blog Better
If you want to write awesome blog posts that rank high on search engines, who better to help you than the most popular search engine ever?
That’s right, Google has plenty of tools that you can use to make your blog that much better.
Want to get detailed traffic breakdowns so you can see where your users are located? Use Google Analytics. Want to see how fast your pages are loading? Use Google PageSpeed Insights.
These tools are all easily avaliable, and free, so there’s no reason not to use them.
6. Utilize Whitespace Design
When it comes to making a great blog that users will love, aesthetics are a huge piece of the puzzle. And while formatting your content the right way is important, there are other things that you can do to make your website more aesthetically pleasing.
For example, using whitespace design is a good idea. It’ll make your content more legible as well as help things flow well together, two things that users will very much enjoy.
7. Write a Lot of Words… and Often
You know the old saying “practice makes perfect?” Well, it’s never been truer than it is when talking about blogging.
Seriously, if you can find time to blog multiple times a week, you’ll find yourself getting better at a rapid pace. That will help you write content that users want to read and share, build up a library of content, and show search engines that you’re consistent.
Speaking of lots of words, try to stick to around 1,000 words per article if you can. That’s a good benchmark, as it’s more than enough to get your point across but not too much that users will close out the window as soon as they see it.
8. Build a Solid Email Marketing List
We touched on this earlier, but getting another traffic source besides search engines is a good idea. And one of the best ways to share your content with your existing customers is to email it to them.
Email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your customers or clients in general, even if you don’t have a blog. But with a blog, it’s a must-do marketing strategy that every business should take advantage of.
9. Pay Attention to What Your Audience Likes
As you start writing more, you’ll notice that certain types of articles do better than others. While it may sound obvious, doing similar articles to those that get the most clicks is a great way to get, you guessed it, more clicks!
Of course, you never want to repeat yourself or insult your audience. But if your content on QuickBooks for Mac gets twice as many clicks as your other articles, it only makes sense to write more about that topic.
How to Create an Awesome Business Blog
Well, there you have it! Those are 9 tips and tricks on how to create and run and awesome business blog! So, as long as you keep these ideas in mind, you should be able to find success with your blog eventually.
Remember, linking your blog to your site is a good idea. Focusing on SEO and using whitespace design is also smart, especially if you’re just starting out.
Last but not least, be sure to promote your blog heavily to your existing customer base. That, along with traffic from search engines, can help you get good traffic to your site via your blog.
Looking for more marketing tips and tricks? Check out our blog!
