So, now you have a blog and you're not sure what to blog about? Hopefully, these tips on writing a blog will help you decide what to write about and how to go about writing it. Once again, I am directing this article to my small business clients who have or want to have a blog on their website. I'm not covering how to write a personal ramblings blog.
If you have a business website with a blog and you think you should have articles about your kids or dogs on there - go out back and hose yourself down with some ice cold water and then come back and read on. I'm also specifically targeting those of my small business clients that are working with us on search engine optimization campaigns.
Getting Started
My first rule of writing is "Write for the Humans!". Sounds simple enough? You'd be amazed at some of the stuff I read and I wonder what they were thinking when they wrote it.
So, to get started you need to have a subject for an article. The obvious answer here is to write about something you know about. Don't choose a subject to write an article about just because you think it will gain you some search traffic. Keep it to subjects that you consider yourself very knowledgeable in. Our hope in this is that people will build trust in you by reading your article and possibly contact you for more information about the subject.
Do Some Research
Ok, you're all geared up and ready to write? So, what do you write about? Start simple, start small. Baby steps will lead you to bigger steps. Pick something that your clients frequently ask you about. Don't think of it in terms of "well if I give that information on a webpage, they won't need to call me." Instead, think of it as helping them out by giving that on your website and also, you're giving the information for those that don't call you to ask about it.
Once you have a topic in mind, start digging. If you are already an expert on the subject, you shouldn't need to do much research for the information - but you DO need to research HOW to present the information. Here's where we'll get concerned about how search engines see the article.
If you have a contract with us to do your search engine optimization, just send us an email with your subject and we'll send you back a list of keyword phrases to target. If you don't, then do some keyword research (not covered in this article). After this, you should have at least 1, but no more then 3 keyword phrases related to your subject. If you have none, but you're writing to try to gain new customers, you need to rethink your subject, re-research and start over. If you have more than 3, great! You have material for your next blog article.
You should be trying to keep each article in the 500-1,500 word range. Any shorter than that, you probably don't have enough to write about and if it's too long, you should break it up into smaller articles that are more specific. It's ok to write a 'series' of articles instead of writing a whole book in one article.
Once you have your keyword phrases, choose the primary one (the one with the most potential, least competition). Work it into your title - exactly the same way that your research led you. I wanted to name this article "Successful Blog Writing", but my research led me to name it "Tips on Writing a Blog". This tells the reader that what they searched for is what your article is about.
Your primary phrase should show up in the first paragraph of the article. This reaffirms that they're reading the write article. Also, add it to your description. This is the summary of what your article is about and will show up on your blog overview page. Finally, it should show up one more time, possibly in your conclusion.
Remember, we're writing for humans not search engines. We shall NOT overload our page with keyword phrases, but we will work them in when they make sense.
In this article, I have bolded my primary keyword phrase so it would stand out for you.
Take your other 1-2 keyword phrases and work them in to your text where it makes sense.
Choose Your Audience
Again, let common sense take over here. There should only be two people you are writing for:
- Those that you do business with and
- Those that you WANT to do business with
If you are writing an article to impress your competitors, don't. Last time I checked, my competition isn't donating to my mortgage fund or sending me grocery store gift cards.
Write your articles as if your customer were sitting in front of you, asking you to explain a subject to them.
Ask For A Sale?
What a concept! I don't mean that you should spend your blogging efforts hard selling someone. You'll lose readers quickly if they feel that your article is merely a sales pitch. Give them genuine information that's helpful and then end your article with a simple note about how that (if needed) you would be happy to provide those services that you mentioned to them or you'd be happy to discuss it further with them. Open the door!
Bottom Line
If you write your articles for your customers and you make them informative, your customers will appreciate it. If you don't feel comfortable writing, but you do have great information to pass to your customers, then hire someone to write for you. Don't go with a national blog writing service, find you someone local. The last thing you want is for your customer to find the great information that they think came from you to show up on some other website.
If you need more tips on writing a blog or you need for us to help you set up your blog, please give me a call and (for a nominal fee, of course) I'll work with you to get you started. We can also help give you by doing the research and getting you the topics that you need to write about.