Blogging is a powerful tool for businesses. Posts can be used to build search engine optimization (SEO) authority, educate readers about your products and services, increase affinity and boost your relevancy. If you’re considering blogging – or already are – be sure to follow these five business blogging best practices.
1) Create Consistent Content
Consistent content is key to building a captive blog audience. Blog subscribers expect valuable content on a regular basis. If your posts are infrequent, readers will likely find a more consistent source of information.
Plus,search engines love fresh content and reward those who deliver it frequently. While it may be difficult and sometimes overwhelming, it’s recommended to post at least once per week. Here are a few simple tricks to help you keep the posts coming:
- Create a content calendar and plan a month in advance
- Post different types of content like video, images and infographics
- Read other blogs to get your inspiration juices flowing
- Don’t over-commit yourself
2) Always Include Engaging Images
While text is important, and often the focal point of a blog post, images play a crucial role as well. Images provide a quick preview of what to expect. The right image can easily summarize your post and breathe life into your text.
3) Keep It Short and Simple
Short posts, around 300 – 500 words, are more easily consumable. Avoid being overly verbose and get to the point quickly. If it takes too long to say what you want to say, you’ll likely lose your audience.
If you do have a lot to say, consider breaking up a long post into two or three shorter ones. Subheadings are also a great way to breakup longer pieces. When you finish writing a post, ask yourself, “how long would it take someone to read this?”. If the answer is longer than five minutes, you should think about condensing.
4) Include Links
Including useful links is an important and expected part of blogging. It’s recommended you use at least two links, linking to both third-party sites as well as to your own content. Avoid linking to your own content only. And when creating links, be sure to have them open in a new window as to not send readers away from your post.
5) Promote Your Posts
Finally, it’s always a good idea to promote your posts to increase visibility. Promotion can be done through both paid and organic efforts. Pay close attention to which efforts yield the best results (Google Analytics is useful for this) and make adjustments accordingly. Here are a few suggestions for promoting your posts:
- Email friends and family with direct links
- Post on social sites, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+
- Use paid options to increase your social posting visibility
Blogging offers an abundance of opportunities for businesses to increase awareness, engage current and potential customers and build thought leadership. Do it the right way so as to optimize your efforts!
