Business Blogging

Blogging for business is a little bit like exercising. No one can point to a specific, guaranteed result and say “if you exercise, THIS will happen!” Still, exercising is an essential part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and while it’s not guaranteed to keep you from weight gain, heart disease, diabetes and many other diseases, it certainly will help to prevent them.

Likewise, most marketers and SEOs will tell you that blogging is good for business. Why? Let’s take a look at a few of the most beneficial factors of blogging below.

Why blog?

1)Search Engine Optimization. SEO attempts to conform to Google’s complex search algorithms by giving search engines what they’re looking for. For the last several years, search engines have been placing more and more emphasis on the following:

-freshness of content (i.e. regularly published and updated content)
-more content
-keywords, in titles and integrated into in-text phrasing
-fresh inbound and outbound links
-more subpages

Few strategies can satisfy all these criteria better than a regularly updated, well-written, search engine optimized blog.<

2)Really Simple Syndication. RSS feeds, or “really simple syndication”, allows customers and leads to stay in touch with your business through feed readers like Bloglines and Google Reader. By publishing regular company news, updates and valuable industry tips, you allow loyal customers and potential customers alike to get to know your business better, building brand and customer loyalty. Having a regularly updated blog is one more way of remaining visible to your customers and leads in every stage of the buying cycle.

3)Attract the Sophisticated Searcher. If you’ll recall Keyword Research 101, having both longtail and shorttail keywords integrated throughout your site’s content is crucial for getting found by search engines. Blog posts are an excellent opportunity to target smaller, niche keywords and longtail keyword phrases to draw in new crowds or targeted audiences. If Acme Repair Shop wants to boost its transmission services, they might write a blog post titled “Common Auto Transmission Failure Symptoms & Repair Costs” to draw users who are searching for transmission repair and pricing information. If the post truly covered the topic the title promised, the blog post would also provide a valuable resource to its readers.

What do I blog?

“We run a _____ business. What do we have to blog about?”

It’s a common question, and a good one. The last thing a business should do is set up a blog for the sole purpose of blasting out “We’re great! Give us your money!” propaganda. Readers won’t read that kind of a blog; no one will subscribe to the blog’s RSS, and existing customers will likely be miffed.

So what SHOULD you blog about? Obviously it depends on your business’ industry, but the most important thing is to keep in mind that the purpose of a blog is to provide a valuable resource to its readers. The second most important purpose of a blog is to capitalize on keywords.

Ask yourself, “what do my customers want to read about?”

Let’s take Acme Real Estate Agency, for example. This company’s customers are obviously interested in purchasing – or selling – homes, but it’s likely that’s not all they’re interested in. Acme Real Estate customers are probably also interested in what’s happening around the area, what the best restaurants and day care centers are and how one area of a city compares to another. Covering a variety of these topics will not only help Acme Real Estate Agency get found for key local terms, but they’ll be providing a valuable resource to their customer base as well.

Making blogs effective

As with any web marketing strategy, proper execution is key to success. There are three key factors to making a blog successful:

1)Titles must be concise, descriptive and contain the post’s primary keywords.

2)Stay focused on a single topic, and decide ahead of time what your topic’s main keywords will be.

3)Keep it short, between 500-800 words at most.

Want to know more about how to run a successful business blog? Drop us a line, or ask us a specific question to be included in our FAQ section.