I know that a lot of people see me as a journalist and general blogger, and you likely imagine that I must be a very keen writer. You may have surmised that it's something I have wanted to do for a very long time as well? Well, actually...you're wrong. Just like you, I've found that it was a necessary evil to be found in a search online and it's something that I have had to learn to embrace over a period of years.
The more you write about your expertise, the more you understand what you do and of course who needs to know about it and to put it frankly, you become more of an authority in it as well.
When I started my website in 2013, I was told, just like you, that I had to have an updateable section to my website. I was offered suggestions like a Calendar of Events, Latest News, Case Studies or of course a blog. As my business was brand new, I didn't really have much to offer in the first three categories, so I decided to start a blog.
You may be like me gentle reader (back then) and perhaps just starting up your own business. It's probably been suggested to you that writing a blog will help you get found in search. That's likely why you are here.
With a blog you can literally take your journey of growth online and start sharing a story. That's exactly what I did initially. It was like a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" sharing my ups and very few of my downs (of course). I didn't quite "journal" but I did bring my audience on a journey of my learning how to start and build my business. I still do that to a certain degree today, I guess.
Beginner Blogging Tips
Having a blog on your website means you are promising to write regular content (maybe a monthly drop of information?) that will benefit the reader. This blog then gets read by Google and their Google bots (and hopefully a few humans). What these bots do is crawl (look through) through the pages you have written and pin it to Google, leaving searchable pathways using the words you use in the blog.
It's highly recommended that you use typical questions that are put in to a search as your blog names and / or perhaps subheadings in your blog. This means your blog on that subject stands a much greater chance of being found in a search.
The blog also shows very effectively what type of person you are, and I would encourage you to inject a bit of personality in there. It will in turn improve traffic to your website and ideally be something that people want to share and talk about. This in turn boost's your credibility and authority.
It's the one piece of online space you have where you can be yourself and not conform too their standards.
I'm sure you know that it can take an average of seven touchpoints before people want to buy from you. Having a blog can make this easier for both of you as the reader learns who you are and more importantly how you can help them. Creating a rapport and relationship, where they come to understand what's in it for them to approach your business for assistance. Can you think of or identify other ways you can you make this happen without using a blog?
Definition of Touchpoint
See definitions in:
All Computing Psychology
noun
What to write about
I set aside some time every few months for writing down frequently asked questions or thinking of changes and updates that I think my audience needs to know about. It's very important you write about what matters to your audience so I would return to my Customer Avatars frequently to see what pain points they have and what I can do to assist them.
Always write for the human, don't overstuff your blogs with words. This will be to your detriment and can be quite damaging to your website as you will be penalised by Google for it. You will need to understand what Keyword or Key Phrase you want to use for each blog and then put it in the title, first paragraph, some subheadings and maybe spotted throughout the text in sensible places. Make sure to add it in the meta data as well The keyword, unsurprisingly for this post was "blog". Please read above.
How is metadata used for search?
As mentioned above search engines crawl a website and guess its general purpose based on the elements it has; metadata enables webmasters (that's you) to tell search engines what a page's title is, and what the content is about. Do a search and you'll see the blue line that you click and underneath that clickable line you'll see grey writing which describes what the page is about. That is metadata in this context.
Let the customer inspire you
I have an onboarding form that I pick up each time I receive a phone or email inquiry and normally the first thing they tell you is why they have contacted you, this is their pain point. It's become such an issue that they have gone to the trouble of looking you up and contacting you. This means they feel you have a solution to this pain point. By the very virtue of them contacting you (even if you're the fourth or fifth person they have called) you stand the chance of getting a sale out of it.
What should a blog look like?
I would recommend if you're just starting blogging, to do roughly 500-600 words and add a featured image as standard to your blog. I would also recommend adding at least one picture or video in the middle of it that suits the context of the section or at least that suits the blog. I wouldn't personally use the same image in both places, it looks odd and at times untidy.
Try to keep your sentences to under twenty words each, even if it makes sense to write them longer. For some reason we can feel exhausted reading along sentence in our heads more than saying it!
Write a title that is under eighty characters that leaves your audience either intrigued or heard. Hopefully, you were looking for this title in your search? Write two hundred words per subheading, this is short punchy content that can be easily scanned. Remember to explain any jargon where needed.
Then add a few pictures relevant to the topics discussed along the way and this forces the reader to scan further down the page. It will also help Google understand how much content has been consumed by the reader. This is another measure that Google Analytics (GA4 at the time of writing) takes into account for the perceived Customer Experience (also referred to as CX). GA4 enables you to measure engagement and traffic across your website. The more favourable this is, the more it is found organically in search.
It is highly recommended that you use calls to actions like suggesting the reader view other blogs or website pages that would be useful. Ideally, you will be recommending pages and blogs on your own site rather than someone else’s. This is referred to as On Page Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Then when your blog is finished and up publicly share the blog on other websites and directories, and this is referred to as Off Page SEO.
Always leave your audience with a call to action that includes contacting you! If you would like any clarity in any of the things mentioned above, then contact me.
Working with clients Nationwide from base in Mullingar.
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