It’s funny how people get a mental block when it comes to writing. Even writing this: I sat down with an idea in mind and stared blankly at the screen for a minute or two formulating what to write and looking for excuses to do other things… I made a coffee, checked social media and then finally thought… “Right. Let’s do this!”
But the power of the blog should not be underestimated. Google is becoming more and more content driven and a healthy blog or news section on your website is brilliant for the ‘Google Bot’ indexing tool to see regular new content and additions that will help your website power through the Google rankings- aiming to hit that all-important first page. Of course your SEO Agency (if you have one) should be doing this correctly for you but if you’re doing it yourself of simply paying for SEO Consultancy Services you may be producing the content yourself!
But the question remains: What to blog about?
Well that is easy. (Certainly easier than actually writing the thing!) You should write about what you know and what is relevant to your industry or website content. You want Google to pick up on certain keywords within that blog and associate you with the industry you are in. On the surface this can seem difficult but once you get started it’s quite simple!
You should make your blog a good mixture of the following:
Guides: How-to guides relating to your industry. Show your expertise and knowledge of what you do. You’re not giving away trade secrets remember, just showing that which you excel at! You may even wish to create a short Youtube instructional video and embed that into the blog. It shows what you can do and how good you are at doing it. This can take the form of explaining how to use your product, service or a piece of software relevant to what you do. People love quick guides and in the meantime you establish yourself as an expert!
Anecdotes: You could write a good blog about day-to-day goings on. (It’s not as boring as it sounds when you think about it!) A lot of people take for granted that which they do everyday can often generate some funny stories or good life lessons. This kind of stuff is always instantly readable! You need to be careful not to name names or belittle a client but you could generalise and talk about how often you see a certain situation and what you do to fix it for example or how you went out to a certain job several years ago and hilarity ensued!
Seasonal changes: Each industry has it’s own seasonal ups and downs, for example: Farming, any work done out doors, the Christmas rush, January sales, the mid-summer holidays, busy times and weather affecting how you work. It’s all relevant. It’s not a place to vent though, so remember to keep it light and generalise about how it can affect your industry or sales of certain products.
Industry-related News and Predictions: The media loves an expert. You see them on the news giving interviews and showing their authority in whatever field they work in. Many of these experts established themselves through the power of their blog. It could be the cost of supplies going up or down, a shortage or abundance of supplies, weather related affects, reliabilities of products, improvements in services or products and break-throughs in your field. You don’t need to have made these discoveries personally but you can comment on them. Remember that you’re not writing for the Google Bot but for people. If a story happens in the media and a journalist searches for an article on it- they may find yours. BOOM! You’re their expert!
New Products: If you have new products listed, why not blog about them? The benefits of using them, why they are unique, how they help or benefit the user in some way and perhaps how competitive your price is. It’s a great way to promote them and you can have links directly from your blog to the product. This could help boost sales for you!
Existing Products: You may wish to highlight a certain product you stock and perhaps sell more of it. If it is sitting on a page with a brief item description and a price it may not be selling itself as you’d wish. So why not give it a hand? Like you would with new products, list the benefits, how it is relevant to news in the media at that time and what makes it unique. Give it the spotlight it deserves and don’t forget to add a link to the product on your website!
Special Offers: If you know that you are stocking an item or service that is extremely competitive in price or you’ve recently reduced, then why not write about that? It will surely help sales of said product or service as well as highlight why it would be wise to buy from you or engage your service. People love a bargain and if you know you can provide a quality service at a good price, then write about it!
Conclusion:
With Google nowadays really pushing for quality website content and rewarding your rankings for making the effort, it’s useful to remember that a good internal link is almost as good as an external link to your website. Keep your Blog or News Feed rich with new entries and make your website a wealth of information about your industry, product or service.
Many people seem to think that because they do something every day that no-one will be interested in reading about it or that simply slashing the price of a products will be enough to sell it. Shout about it! – Write a short 500 word blog and let the world (and Google) know you exist. Even if you’re worried that the article is never going to be read by people, it will have been indexed by Google (plus other search engines such as Bing or Ask Jeeves) and this will help your rankings as well as potentially pointing people towards your website when they search for the terms and contents that your blog covers.
If you are unsure about WHY blogging will help your SEO efforts, then please read this article: Blogging: How it helps your SEO and your brand.
If you cannot find the time to do it or simply lack the confidence to write for yourself, then engage an agency like ourselves to do it for you. But make sure you work with that agency to put together relevant blogs and ask them about using ‘canonical tags’ – a short piece of HTML code that shows your article is the original and authentic version – this is to stop others from simply cutting and pasting your hard work and passing it off as their own!
Remember these few simple rules and when you have a spare half hour or so, start writing and see what happens. It really is not that hard.
– I just did it!
