Blog writing

Blog post writing for your business

When we suggest to a client they have a blog on their website, they usually look back in horror. Choosing not to have a blog on your website usually comes down to a handful of reasons, that I'll share with you today. So here goes:

1. I don't have time to write a blog post
2. I don't have anything to talk about
3. Why would someone want to hear what I had for breakfast that day?
4. What is the point of a blog?
5. Do I really need a blog on my website?

By this time they're trying to talk themselves out of having a blog for the above reasons usually due to 'the unknown' which is fair enough - we all feel more comfortable with the things we know and having a new job to do can be daunting especially if it's not your 'thing'. But don't worry there are great answers to expel all your fears about blogging.

Time for blogging

The first reason of "I don't have time to write a blog post" is something you'll either need to make time for or employ someone to write on your behalf and add it to your website for you. This is because blogs have so many benefits for a website - if you want to have better natural search engine results. Read more about How to get 1st page of Google.

Top Tip: Employing a blogger or a website copywriter who knows what they're doing is paramount - don't just choose any old 'copywriter' - choose a 'website copywriter' or 'blogger' with experience. I've come in to contact with many "copywriters" - some as recent as last week and been so dismayed by their lack of knowledge about SEO - this all has to be part of the process - it's not enough just to spew out 300 words for a blog post. In fact this will damage your site rankings, not enhance them. If you're not sure who to employ - ask about our fully managed websites as we can produce blog posts and website text for your website that is SEO'd and ready for today's readers (and search engine bots).

What to write in a blog

The second reason of "I don't have anything to talk about" is a good reason but, again do not dismay - you actually have loads to talk about! This also encompasses the third reason on why blogs are important..."Why would someone want to hear what I had for breakfast that day?"

When you have a website, you've added content to the pages that tells people all about your products or services. Your business may not change it's product offerings or services for many years or even ever - depending on your business. So bearing this in mind, the blog is there for you to add fresh, unique and well written content, to keep your website 'alive', as it were... (Search engines know when you update your website and how often, so don't leave your website to fend for itself because it can't). You have to regularly feed it high quality food (words!) to keep it fit and well.

• If you had a customer walk in to your office/shop or call you on the phone, think of all the different questions you get asked - add the answers to your website blog - not one-liners - but meaty, information-rich and ultra-helpful answers (remember to include the question first!)
• Add useful tips that are relevant to your business sector - i.e. how to clean/maintain/get the most out of your [insert product name], how to ask the right questions for the best [insert service name here], how to get the best out of your [insert product name or service], etc
• Blog post sub headings:- Who - What - When - Why - How 
  Give yourself these headings as the questions to answer for each subject, to start you off. These are usually used when writing press releases but because a blank blog post page can be daunting if you're not sure what to write about, these will help you be inspired.
• FAQs or glossary of terms are also useful but be careful not to 'mix-up' those key phrases. Keep to one subject and variations of that same subject
• You can add case studies - always ask the client first if you intend to name them on your website
• Write about the projects you're involved with or the processes you follow to give to-notch customer service
• Make sure your topics are of value, are interesting and relevant to your business  - don't write about what you had for breakfast, unless your business is all about breakfasts, catering for a particular time of day, how the body digests or diet tips, as an example.
• Word count does count - as I've said before, when it comes to website content (and blogging)... size matters. Having 1000's of pages on your website is expected by Google. 10 pages is not enough! 100 pages is not enough! The more pages you have the better. But the web pages must contain relevant, unique and useful information that your users will find engaging, educational and - depending on your message - amusing. You are competing with BILLIONS of other websites - all growing in size and bulging with great text. It's endless... The quality of words really count so try to give as much thought as possible to each sentence. Don't keyword stuff and don't waffle just to get a higher word count! 
• Here are some fun tips on website copywriting

What is a blog?

The fourth reason of "What is the point of a blog?" can be answered in many ways because there are so many fantastic benefits to having a blog on your website. A blog is only good for your website if you post on a regular basis, using unique, well-written, key word relevant text. You can add video, text and imagery to a blog post - it all helps.

A blog is a 'web log' - a collection of articles that have been added to the website with a date and if it's one of aprompt's blogs you can add/edit/delete blog categories and add/edit/delete blog posts to each category, it will also auto-archive each post in date order and then year order. You can add 'tags' t each blog post so tat if a user clicks on the tag (a key phrase link at the bottom of each post), it will take the users to all other posts with that same tag which are relevant to that same subject. Please note: these are just some of the features of the aprompt blogs we create for our clients websites - these are not necessarily included as standard in other blog software.

The point of a blog is to share information with your audience for free. Giving them lots of useful information with tips and tools for them to use that are relevant to your business sector. Business blogs can help the decision making process for your audience too.

Is blogging important?

Well the last point "Do I really need a blog on my website?" will of course have the response of 'Yes - you really do need a blog on your website'. But you have to work at it! It's all about communication with your customers so communicate using your website and you'll be doing it a favour. Blogs are incredibly useful for your audience and can save you time as a business owner by adding those Q & A's, news, events, tips, tools, supporting info, case studies, recipes (if your a foody), advice, etc. All these subject matters are invaluable for your customers and your blog gives them the opportunity to read about them at their leisure so they can be fully informed about news/events/tips/tools/supporting info/case studies/advice, etc. Not only that but they can refer back to them at a later date whenever they fancy. If you use Twitter (which we recommend), you can also tweet your blog post to reach a wider audience too! Totally a win-win.

Employing bloggers

If you'd like to employ a blogger and website copywriters who know what they're doing in relation to SEO for websites, then please get in touch with our website copywriters in Wiltshire and we'd be delighted to have a chat with you to see how we can help.

Written by Kirsty Paget