If you are a small to medium business owner and are new or, at least, largely unfamiliar with the inner workings of the internet, running a blog while you have a fully-functioning website may sound counterintuitive. However, there are many advantages to having a blog than to not have one even if your company already has a website. In this article, we will explore some of the reasons why we think it’s practical to invest time and effort (take note how we didn’t include ‘money’ in there) in maintaining a company blog alongside your company website.
Blogs are a great way to solidify your company’s online presence. Maintaining one can improve your website’s organic search rankings, in other words, how a search engine, like Google, prioritizes your website whenever it wants to display search results. The main goal to keep in mind is to always stay relevant online. Nobody wants to visit a blog and see that the last post was from 2015. That will send the message that you’re a company that doesn’t take care of their yard, perhaps the company is no longer business, they might say. Keep your content current.
Another quick tip that we can put out there is in managing a blog; don’t just go to Google images then grabbing the first nice picture to put to your blog. Those pictures may be copyrighted material and that could spell trouble for you. Search engine algorithms can determine copied content and will prioritize in their rankings the website who first posted the content. This is especially true in written content. So, even if you were given permission to copy/paste a written content from another online source, the search engine will prioritize your post less.
You may also do a little homework here and there by looking at Google Analytics. See how your competitor websites are doing. If they are doing better than your in terms of rankings, look at things like the topics they are discussing and the length of their posts and other things that make their blog stand out. Learn what you can from your competitors.
The last and probably the most important thing we can dispense out here is this: Content is King. Once you’ve looked after your keywords, phrases, the choice of URL, titles and meta-description, the most important thing to take into consideration is the actual thing your viewers will consume. Your content should be engaging and interactive. While you have to tell them what your product is about, your job is also to entertain them. Make short and direct-to-the-point videos that are fun and easy to consume. Use adorable images that that would make your viewers warm up to your company. People find it distasteful when you blatantly peddle your goods to their faces.
Information on how to optimize customer engagement is certainly out there. If you take your time to learn about them, there is so much that it can do for your business. We’d also recommend that you invest in a company who can help you sort these things out while you devote your time in taking care on the other aspects of your business.
