If it exists, there is a probably a blog about it.
- Vegan, allergen-free baking? Check.
- Breeding Siamese cats? Check.
- Independent book store slam poetry sessions? Yup, theres probably a blog for that too.
The Internet is the great equalizer of publishing, where anyone who is passionate enough can set up shop and broadcast their thoughts to the online world. Businesses should be no different. A business blog is a great way to inform and educate your target audience while simultaneously establishing your company as an industry expert.
However, there is more to blogging than meets the eye. Building a generic site and haphazardly publishing posts isnt going to provide much value for your brand.
While you may know your industry inside and out, there is a lot about blogging you might not know.
1. Optimize headlines and content
Blog posts can rank on their own in the search engines, increasing your online brand presence and helping drive traffic through to your site.
Since search results are created based on search keywords, you have to optimize your blog posts to match.
One way to do this is to create headlines that reflect a query that someone might use with keywords like tips, how to, lesson and other subject matter related keywords.
2. Interlink posts: it's incredibly important
Every time one site links to another, the first site passes some of its trust factor along to the second. This link juice is what makes linking from a well-established and trusted site valuable.
Hopefully, you have linked your blog to your main site and vice versa.
Just like you have an internal linking structure for your corporate site, you should also interlink posts on your blog.
By linking related posts together, you encourage readers deeper into your blog and keep them engaged longer.
It also shows that you are an expert on the subject matter.
3. Not all comments are created equal
For a new blogger there is nothing more rewarding than seeing that someone has left a comment on your latest post.
Comments mean readers are finding your blog, reading the posts and liking the information presented.usually.
Some comments are great, well-written and thought-out; they add value to your blog and encourage conversation.
Other comments are not so great. Some are combative when they dont agree, some are completely off-topic and self-promoting and others are just plain spam. Use comment moderation wisely: search engines look at the comments on your blog as content and they could be affecting your position in the SERP.
4. Customize URLs
Your blogs URL structure can be incredibly important.
First off, the URL should reflect the optimized headline to target the most important keywords. This gives the search engines one more place to pull keywords from.
A customized URL is also much easier to remember and far more appealing than a string of numbers and letters. That is very useful when trying to build a better user-experience for your readers.
5. Blog posts need promotion
If you think that just by creating the blog and publishing posts youll suddenly develop a massive following, you're in for a big surprise.
Loyal readers arent just going to come to you; you have to go to them (at least in the beginning).
Use your own channels to promote each blog posts as it goes live. Share it across your social networks; send a Tweet, post to Facebook, submit it to LinkedIn groups. Publish the posts on social bookmarking sites, use them to create content for your newsletter and more.
Operating a blog is just as much promotion as it is creation.
About the Author: Nick Stamoulis
