If you own your own business and it’s got a website, you need to be blogging – no ifs or buts.
Blogs are a cheap and easy way to drive traffic to your website, and they play a crucial role in keeping your small business visible and relevant on Google.
You don’t need to be an amazing writer to create something that will have customers flocking to your site, but there are some basics we want to cover that will be the extra arrows in your blogging quiver.
Let’s jump into Blog Writing 101 as we answer some of the most common questions around getting started with blogging for your business.
Why does my business even need a blog?
If you own a small business that requires online traffic, you can’t afford not to have a blog. While big businesses have plenty of money and resources to spend on marketing campaigns, small businesses tend to get left behind and linger in the dreaded abyss beyond page one of a Google search. Luckily, blogs and Google’s SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) are a small business’ answer to this.
When you are posting regular blogs on your website, SEO rewards you by driving traffic to your site and sliding you up the Google rankings. It looks for keywords, links or images in your post, so when someone is googling that topic, your website is going to pop up, and more customers are going to come across your website, which means more sales for you!
What makes a good blog?
A good blog usually has these five key features:
An attention-grabbing title
First up, your title needs to grab your audience and entice them to click on your post. It should be snappy, so no need to beat around the bush. Think: 5 Skincare Products You Can’t Live Without, 3 Writing Hacks You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner etc.
Each paragraph has a point
Now you have a title, you’ll need to have a number of paragraphs, each making their own point. Break these up with subtitles so readers can skim the post for the info they came to read. Keep these paragraphs short and concise – we only have the reader’s attention for a short time, so don’t ramble on.
Call to action
Finish the post with a call to action, asking the reader to interact with you in another way. This could be as simple as inviting them to follow you on social media, subscribe to your emails, download a freebie, or to check out another page of your website that is relevant to what you’ve written about.
SEO keywords
Don’t forget those SEO keywords! These are what Google will be looking for in order to boost your visibility, so try and include them throughout the post. They need to be specific, and words that your target audience is likely to be entering into search engines when looking for services or products that you provide. This being said, don’t just litter your post with very obvious keywords for SEO purposes. Google algorithms are very smart these days and can pick up on copy full of keywords that don’t fit – and you’ll be penalised for it.
Quality writing
Probably the most important aspect of your blog post is that it needs to be well-written. There’s no sense in posting poorly written content that is just a jumble of SEO keywords, as this will hurt your brand and Google will not pick up on it. Your copy should be well thought through and easy to read. Take time to draft and edit your writing. If you’re not confident in your writing skills, think about hiring a copywriter. They can either write your post from scratch or give your writing a quick proofread and edit.
How do I know what to blog about?
You can blog about literally anything that has to do with your business. Think about your passions, what you can teach your audience, current industry trends, new products/services or even a behind-the-scenes of a day in your business. FAQs are a great place to start looking for blog ideas too. Consider what questions are most commonly asked about your business, and you already have an idea of what your audience would be interested in reading.
We’d also suggest taking a look around at what others in your industry are blogging about on their websites if you’re at a loss for ideas. By no means should you be copying anyone else, but it can give you some good ideas for where to start.
How do I get started?
Before you get started with the writing part, we recommend coming up with a big list of ideas. Open a fresh Word document and start listing down any ideas that come to mind (there are no bad ideas!). Having this list will mean that you don’t have to come up with a new topic every single time you go to write a post – you’ll have plenty of topics ready to choose from.
Once you have a few topics, write below each one the points you’d make in this blog post. For instance, if the topic is 5 Tips for Waking Up Early, you’d have points one to five written out underneath. With the blog title and the key points written up, you now have a skeleton outline for a blog post, and you have a clear guide of what you need to write!
What if I can’t write very well?
If you’re not confident in your writing skills, it’s okay – you’re among friends! Before dismissing yourself, we’d suggest giving it a go and seeing what kind of a blog post you can come up with. If you’re comfortable, ask a friend to give it a look over and give you some honest feedback. Taking a short writing course to build up your skills is also an option.
If you’re really worried about the quality of your writing, or you’d just prefer not to do it, you can always hire a copywriter to do this for you. Copywriters are experts at creating blog content that is irresistible to SEO rankings.
Now that you know how to create a blog, go on and give it a go! If you’re sharing your blog on Instagram, make sure to tag us @thesplendidword.
And if you’re interested in our blog writing services, you can get in touch with us here.
Happy writing!
By Emma Beckenham
