Last Updated on May 23, 2022 by Ryan Hamner
Is your business blog new, or do you already have a company blog that simply isn’t getting the traffic you would like?
Because in the end, no traffic oftentimes means less business—and less business can mean a big ol’ frowny face, and nobody wants a big ol’ frowny face.
Company Blogging Tips:
What you will learn in this blog:
- What a blog is
- How to start a blog
- Choosing a niche for your blog
- Knowing your audience
- Choosing a CMS
- Engaging Content Tips
- Content Marketing and Blogging
- The importance of blog structure when starting a blog
- Ways to research keyword phrases for your industry
- The importance of long-form business blogs
- Why you should use pictures and infographics on your blog
- The importance of following good on-page SEO
- Why you should write using semantic variations
- The importance of updating the content of your blogs
- Why user experience matters
- How to use re-directs
- The benefits of using local SEO when blogging
- Why proofing is important
- How to promote your business blog
What is a Blog Post?
A blog post is literary art in digital format. Seriously though, a blog post is essentially an article that is educational in nature and can contain images, videos, and other forms of media about a certain topic.
Blog posts are usually 600 to 2000+ words and can be used to address different topics such as camping, music production, cooking, aliens, and of course digital marketing.
Sometimes you may hear a blog in its entirety called a blog and also a blog post called a blog as well. The term can be used for both.
Someone might say, “I just wrote a new blog,” when talking about a single blog post. But, someone might also say, “check out my blog about digital marketing topics,” when talking about their entire blog. Both uses of the word in these scenarios are applicable.
Blogs Info:
- Written in article format
- Cover specific topics
- Can contain images, infographics, videos
- Are usually 500 to 2000+ words long
- Help build traffic to websites through SEO
How do You Start a Blog?
Starting a blog is rather easy. But there are a few questions you should have answers to before starting your blog. Especially if you want it to be a success. In this case, “success” is defined as getting people to your blog to read your blog posts.
- Choose your niche or topic
- Know your audience
- Pick the right CMS for your blog
- Write engaging content
Below, we’ll look at all of these elements of blogging in detail.
Choose Your Niche or Topic
When starting a blog, the first thing you’ll want to do is to choose your niche topic. For example, having a blog about photography can be cool. In a blog about photography, you might cover outdoor photos, photoshoots for businesses, commercials, and a ton of other areas associated with photography. However, if you drill down a niche, you’ll probably do better at building traffic to your site. For example, “small business photography” or “commercial photography tips” might work better.
Niches tend to do better when it comes to blogging. Because end-users usually search by specific topics and questions rather than by generalities. For example, is someone more likely to search for “photography” or “who should shoot a business commercial” Are they more likely to search by “cameras” or “types of cameras for headshots?”
Know Your Audience
As you select your topic, you’ll want to know your audience. These two kind of go together.
You could write about the same topic, but depending on the words you use, your approach, and niche topics within the blog, your audience could be from different demographics. So again, always know your reader before you write a blog.
Choosing the Right CMS
Before you write and publish anything, you are going to need a content management system sometimes called a CMS. There are many different CMSs available for use. The most popular, and easy-to-use CMS in many people’s opinion is WordPress.
WordPress is great for beginner and advanced-level bloggers. It’s a powerful CMS and offers many robust features for growing a blog.
However, there are other types of blogging platforms or content management systems. Other bloggers use Joomla, Drupal, Magento, Blogger, and Medium.
Each blogging CMS has its own benefits. Content management systems like WordPress and Joomla are open-source CMSs. While Blogger and Medium are not. Blogger is a blogging network and Medium is owned by Washington Post. Medium can also get writers a decent amount of traffic bringing thousands of readers per blog depending on the blog and its content.
Content Management Systems (CMS) for Blogging
- WordPress
- Joomla
- Drupal
- Magento
- Blogger
- Medium
Write Interesting and Engaging Content
This part of the blog should be bold and written in red. You know, that’s how they write the important stuff or they should. Anyway, always make sure that the content you publish in your blog is original and engaging. You want your content to have value and give readers useful information that answers their questions, teaches, entertains, etc.
Engaging blogs will be well written and often include cool pictures, infographics, and even videos.
So as you set out to write 2000 words to smash the competition that has 1500 words, make sure that all 2000 words are engaging. Make sure you don’t just play the numbers game of whose blog is the longest. Quality content will usually win out in the end.
Tips for Writing Engaging Blogs
- Create unique and engaging content
- Use pictures and infographics
- Incorporate video when applicable
Content Marketing
Blogging can be intimidating for some businesses and organizations. Also, blogging can be very competitive for some businesses depending on what market they’re in. For these reasons, hiring professional content marketing firms and SEOs can be very beneficial.
Professional content marketing agencies stay up-to-date with the latest SEO trends and the latest changes in Google. Typically, these agencies have in-depth knowledge of blogging and all the aspects associated with developing and implementing a successful blogging or content marketing strategy to bring in free organic traffic.
Keyword Research
Agencies do keyword research to ensure that blogs are written on keyword phrases that a company’s ideal customers are actually searching on. Additionally, in doing keyword research, content marketing agencies are also able to determine what keyword phrases a particular business can rank for in Google.
Content Calendars
A part of content marketing is building a content calendar. This helps businesses and agencies stay organized and on the same page. Content calendars detail which blogs will be written and when they will be posted. Content calendars eliminate surprises and help all parties stay on track with the blog publishing process.
ROI for Blogs
The ROI for having blogs written by SEO professionals can be immeasurable. In some cases, one blog can bring in thousands of dollars in new business every single year for free. That means no ad money, just organic traffic bringing in new customers. Conversely, attempting to write blogs without proper knowledge or hiring an SEO agency without the knowledge to properly develop content marketing strategies can be costly. So, getting blogs published right the first time is in and of itself a money-saver.
Company Blogging Tips:
What you will learn in this blog:
- The importance of blog structure when starting a blog
- Ways to research keyword phrases for your industry
- The importance of long-form business blogs
- Why you should use pictures and infographics on your blog
- The importance of following good on-page SEO
- Why you should write using semantic variations
- The importance of updating the content of your blogs
- Why user experience matters
- How to use re-directs
- The benefits of using local SEO when blogging
- Why proofing is important
- How to promote your business blog
I can remember in the past, putting hours of time into my blogging. I would finish up a blog post, and I would then proudly click the publish button and wait to see my blog get listed on the first page of Google, or to at least see a bump in some traffic to my site.
Sometimes it all worked perfectly, and other times it didn’t seem to work at all.
In short, if I spent hours of time writing a blog post, a beautiful, well thought out, well-written blog post—and got nothing out of it, the disappointment was kind of a big deal. I mean, let’s be honest, it was a waste of time, really.
Since that time though, I’ve learned a few things that helped me drastically improve the success of my blogs. And today, I’m going to share 12 things with you that could get your business blogs doing what they were intended to do—get you traffic, exposure, interaction, and well, smiley faces.
1. Structure Your Business Blog Right
This is very important—blog structure. Ideally, the taxonomy (categories and sections) of your blog should be defined properly before you start your business blog.
Having said that, if you already have a blog and the taxonomy of your business’s blog is not organized correctly, don’t worry, this issue can be fixed. Heck, it’s something we do all of the time.
If you use a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, then defining the structure of your blog would mean using the “Categories” feature of your blog post.
With any business blog, you’ll want to have no more than 5 to 10 categories that are directly related to your business. And every time you write a new blog, you’ll want the blog to fall into one of these categories. Simple enough, right?
On our blog, you’ll notice we have the categories (sections of our blog) listed as Business, Marketing, SEO, Local, Content, Website, and Video.
All of these categories are related to the core of what we do. Notice that you don’t see the categories above and something that is unrelated to the core of our business, like, “Team Outings.”
Adding categories that are not related to your core business or industry will not help your rankings on Google. Even if it did, that would not help your rankings turn into any tangible business.
Pro tip: Write a “cornerstone” blog for each category, then support this blog by interlinking to it with other supporting blogs.
2. Research Your Keyword Phrase Before You Blog
Over the years, I’ve forgotten to do this part or I’ve done this part incorrectly many times.
First off, you want to make sure that you are writing for a keyword phrase that people actually search by.
In other words, you don’t want to spend hours writing on a topic or keyword phrase that you think will get you traffic because you think people search using that phrase. You want to write a blog optimized for a phrase that you know people are searching by.
The next part though is this question, assuming you find a keyword/keyword phrase that has search volume (people are searching it), would this keyword phrase be worth your time to compete for rank?
For example, if you sell shoes locally, and your store is called Bob’s Shoes, will you be able to compete for the keyword “Nike shoes” by writing the keyword phrase, “Nike shoes” in your content?
No. You will get crushed.
So the trick will be to research until you find a niche keyword phrase that you can compete in. Maybe something like, “Nike shoes that work well for flat feet.” I don’t suggest using that keyword if you have a shoe store. I haven’t researched it, but you get the point.
Ways to Research Keyword Phrases
When it comes to researching keyword phrases, these days there are all kinds of tools available. You can pay $100/month for tools like Ahrefs, or you can use Google Search and see what people are actually searching for.
There are many many tools to help you and plenty of SaaS companies standing by to help you rank online… but remember – if you’re not making money yet – don’t spend too much or it will feel really uncomfortable for a while.
Also, one of my favorites ways of searching for potential keyword phrases, which is also free, is by using Google’s suggestive search.
Simply go to Google, start typing in a keyword or keyword phrase, and watch the keyword phrases that populate in the space below the search bar.
3. Write Long-Form Company Blogs
There used to be a time when you could get away with writing rather short blogs, build a bunch of backlinks, and bam, you were on the front page of Google. That’s definitely not the case now.
Many SEO pros say, and studies show, that the majority of blog posts are 500 words or less. This is not good.
Today, in order to compete, you need to write more valuable content and make it lengthy. I’m talking about at least 2,000 to 3,000 words if you want to see the needle move.
*FULL STOP*
You do not NEED to write lots of content to rank. but most blogs that rank have lots of good information, and that typically requires more words on the page.
Heck, some of the top SEOs write blogs that are at least 4,000 words and on up.
It’s this simple, you are going to do better with 10 solid, long-form blogs than you ever could do with 30 500-word blogs that don’t have any real value.
What to Write in Your Company Blogs
When writing your business blogs, think about the end-user, or the person doing the searching on Google. Think about how you are going to solve their problem with your blog post, answer their questions or show them how to do something.
Be specific with your keyword phrase and blog topic.
In doing these things, your blog post should be valuable, informative and give readers something they need and are looking for.
In the example below, you can see I searched in Google for, “how can my business accept credit card payments.”
The front page of Google gives me search results that are based on my search intent.
Did you notice that some of the top results don’t even have my keyword phrase?
I didn’t search for “5 Best Business Credit Card Processing Companies for 2019.”
That doesn’t matter, Google uses an AI technology (you’ve probably heard) called Rankbrain. Rankbrain can look at any phrase I’m searching with and determine what I’m looking for.
So in short, write long-form blogs on specific topics using specific keyword phrases. And make your content valuable.
4. Use Pictures and Infographics When Blogging
I’m not going to go into all of the details of “Bounce Rate” and “Average Time on Page,” – look into the latest on Core Web Vital updates for that insight.
However, I am going to tell you that the amount of time a user spends on your business blog (aka, “dwell time”) is a huge ranking factor for Google.
It’s this simple.
If a visitor spends a lot of time on your business blog reading about the advice you are giving them for x, y, and z, it’s probably because they like the content.
So it only makes sense that the time a user spends on a page should be a page-ranking factor.
Now, how do pictures and infographics play into helping with your business blog?
Well, say your business sells software. You can engage visitors to your page with infographics that show why and how your software is beneficial, maybe give some stats. This will keep your users on your site, and for good reason—you are giving them good content.
5. Remember to Practice Good On-page SEO
When writing your blogs, it’s very important to remember to follow on-page SEO best practices.
Focusing on each of the points listed below can greatly impact how your business blogs rank in Google.
On-page SEO Best Practices:
- Use a proper title tag
- Create optimized URLs (i.e. seo-guide, not an_seo_guide)
- Use meta tags to help searchers understand the intent
- Upload optimized images (shoot for around 50KB to 100KB)
- Name images variations of your keyword phrases*
- Use keywords in your image ALT tags*
- *Use unique images that are accurately named and ALT tagged
- Utilize an assortment of keywords throughout your business blogs
- Read high-rank content for your terms and use common phrases
- Practice internal page linking with unique and accurate anchor text
- Again, make content easy to read and comprehensive
6. Use Semantic Variations When Blogging
As you write your business blogs, use semantic variations of keywords, or synonyms that mean the same thing. In other words, don’t stuff your content full of the exact-match keyword – write for a human, not a search engine.
If you think back to number 3 on this blog, and my discussion on Rankbrain, you will remember that Google can determine a user’s intent based on what they search.
7. Update Your Content Regularly
Google loves fresh and robust content.
Google also changes its ranking factors on a regular basis.
So how do these things connect?
Well, you can improve your business blog’s SEO by updating current blogs with new content and by updating your blogs according to new SEO insight. Now would be a good time to subscribe to our newsletter to keep the juices flowing.
To stay current and keep content fresh you have to really stay on top of your content, or work with a professional content marketing / SEO agency.
8. Consider User Experience
The user experience should always be considered when writing a business blog.
Content design is pretty much science when you think about it.
For example, when you write your blogs, the style isn’t the same as writing a book, obviously.
You have end-users connecting to websites on not only desktops but also on iPads and smartphones.
Check out the graph below from Statista and know this data is from 2020. The number of mobile users accessing the internet worldwide is growing every year.
So for a user on a mobile device, clicking from the search results of Google to see a big wall of text might be a problem.
The goal, of course, of blogging, is to inform, help people solve problems and ultimately connect.
To accomplish this, you need to do a million little things, and always be looking to refine and improve your blogs and the user experience of your business blog.
Think about the user experience and your blog post. Is your blog hard to read? Does it flow? Can a user skim through the article and quickly see what the blog is about.
Factors to consider when writing the perfect business blog:
- Does the blog content actually address the title and the user intent?
- Does your business blog use proper header structures throughout the blog?
- Are you incorporating enough pictures and infographics into your blog?
- Is your blog mobile friendly?
9. Redirect URLs with Low-Performing Content
Old business blogs can be great. They can get your company visibility online for years to come, bring in lots of traffic, and help your company generate revenue.
However, some old blogs could actually be hurting your rankings in Google simply by existing.
In short, pages that bring no value to your business blog, pages that get zero traffic, or pages with “thin content” must be dealt with.
When to 410 a Blog (Trash it!)
Remember earlier when I talked about our business blog, and how having a category on our blog for “Team Outings” could negatively impact our company blog?
Well, let’s say we at one time went in that direction. Let’s say we had 20 blogs that talked about our business outings, which is clearly not related to the core of our business.
For these blogs, we’d want to remove them. Yep, even though it took hours and hours to probably write 20 blogs about playing cornhole and drinking beer, camping, or watching football, we’d have to kill these blogs.
But, we couldn’t just delete them.
We’d have to redirect them with what is known as a 410 redirect.
A 410 tells Google, “Hey, this content is gone. Don’t come back.”
When to 301 a Blog (Redirect it!)
The other option is the 301 redirect, and it’s totally different than a 410.
A 301 sends traffic from one URL to another URL.
Now, assume that we had written five SEO blogs that were 300 words each. This is what we’d call “thin content.”
In this situation, we’d want to either 301 redirect these URLs to a related article on our business blog or, we’d want to possibly reuse all of the content or portions of the content to make a new long-form article.
In a nutshell, though, removing and redirecting the content on your blog that brings no value can give your business’s blog a major SEO boost.
When to combine Blogs (Refine it!)
One more option is to take 2 or 3 weaker blogs that all share the same topic and combine them into a single blog (keep the best performing one live and 301 the others being combined).
Doing that, with some fresh images and hopefully, some current insight that is completely new can turn 3 bad blogs into one high-performing cornerstone blog.
The legwork has been done, so don’t give up on your content unless it’s actually trash.
10. Go Local with Your Business’s Blog
Back to an earlier example.
Do you remember when I talked about Bob’s shoes? How could you forget?
A local shoe store owner can have a hard time competing online with companies like Nike, Amazon and other monsters with huge digital budgets.
However, Bob can target niche keyword phrases and also local keyword phrases where there is going to be less competition.
For example, instead of trying to take on the keyword phrase, “Nike shoes,” Bob might go after local keyword phrases such as, “best places to buy women’s shoes in Jacksonville Florida,” or in some cases even, “best places to run in Jacksonville Florida.” In targeting these keyword phrases, Bob could very well pick up more local leads.
Although going after keyword phrases that target specific areas doesn’t totally circumvent the whole issue of competition, again, the competition will be significantly less.
For our company, trying to rank for the keyword, “SEO” would put us up against some of the biggest and most expensive players in the space.
But again, by targeting our local market with keyword phrases like, “Jacksonville Florida SEO,” and “SEO Jacksonville Florida,” we have a much better chance of indexing on the front page of Google. Organize blogs by location – that’s a pro tip. Write it down.
11. Have Someone Proof Your Blog
Important! Always have a process in place, an app like Grammarly, or an editor to ensure that your blogs are as grammatically correct as possible.
You should never be the final person to look at your blog before it is published. Even a quick read by a coworker is better than just pushing a blog live without any checks.
Errors are not uncommon, but wreckless errors on your business’s blog can lower a user’s confidence and hurt your image.
12. Promote Your Company’s Blogs Through Social Channels
Social signals play a role in SEO regardless of some of the articles you may have read online.
Personally, I’ve seen some of my blogs surge to page one in Google after getting over a thousand Facebook likes, and yes, I’m assuming the Facebook interaction was part of the reason the blog moved.
Hootsuite actually conducted a study in 2018, however, and it showed that blogs with top social shares had a 22% boost in SEO, and I am pretty sure that wasn’t biased research.
Even so, traffic and sharing can generate conversions and click and backlinks, so share your content. Don’t make the mistake that because you wrote something people will immediately find it organically.
Sharing with everyone you can think of is going to speed that up significantly.
But regardless of SEO, getting your blog into social channels, like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, can get your company and its blog major exposure.
So anytime you write a blog, don’t skip promotion. Even if you just spend $20 on a Facebook boost for your business’s new blog, it can go a long way.
Additionally, depending on your business, posting infographics on Pinterest that link back to your blog can be a great way to build traffic to your site.
Recap
Well, I hope you got a lot out of this article and that you use these tips to make better blog posts for your business that help you generate more leads and more sales. Learning how to write a business blog and promote it will certainly go a long way to getting you more organic traffic, and better quality leads, but knowing how to do something and actually doing it are two different things. You can read articles like these all day long but if you don’t start writing then you won’t be any closer to reaching your goals. Write a business blog today, and message us if you want feedback.
Bonus business blog writing tip for anyone who made it to the end of this blog:
Start small and be genuine. If you can’t get a 2000-word blog done today, that’s fine. Write the first section at any length and hit that publish button. You can and should be revisiting your content on a regular basis, so don’t worry if you put something out there that doesn’t feel 100% complete. Do what you can do with the time that you have to do it, and over time you will look back, make changes, update and see that you have really made significant progress. Being genuine is being genuine to your audience, brand, and personal voice. At the end of the day, if you write something that you believe would have helped you 5 years ago (or even 5 days ago), that is all that matters. When you focus your business blog on genuine useful content, you sleep better at night because you have placed something special out there, and like a message in a bottle at any moment someone could find it and their life could be changed forever.
