20 Jan 2008 |
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 This post highlights 5 simple tips that you could follow to help you create a successful, reguarly read, visible blog for you business website. I stress the word hints, as each and every writer has their own style and is blogging for different purposes, but these snippets of advice should prove useful for all writers.
Having discussed in a previous post why businesses should consider writing a blog, it only seems right that I should provide some quick hints on how to write effectively and here they are... Be Relevant...It can sometimes be easy to get carried away with writing, as blogging is after all another vent for self expression, but it is crucial to post articles that are relevant for your given industry or business. People are looking for useful information, so providing a unique or new insights into subjects can provide great value for your website visitors. Such examples might include upcoming tourism events that could be attended by potential visitors to your hospitality website or explanations of new legislation or industry changes that highlight the need for your particular business good or service. Use your knowledge to become an expert on your chosen topic. Be Concise...Time is precious, so ensuring your reader can extract the relevant data quickly and easily is key to success. Be sure to write in a way that is clear and concise, no one wants to wade through pages and pages of text and if presented with such a page, you will be sure to have a high bounce rate. Having a clear introduction text that highlights everything you will talk about. Remember you are trying to grab someone's attention and make them read on, so be sure to make it interesting or provide a solution to a problem. Facilitate their navigation by having subheadings and subsections to help divide up the article and help someone read the section they are most interested in. Be Regular...A website that is out of date doesn't present a good image of your company and this is especially apparent with a blog, as untouched ones are very obvious. Ideally the common perception is that updates should be at least weekly, to keep content fresh and encourage visitors to return. Some simple advice would be to try not to burn out too quickly, meaning don't exhaust all your topics within the first month of existence by posting frantically. Simply lists of planned topics and often splitting areas up into more detailed separate post proves a useful way to ensure consistent, regular quality content. Be Seen...Blogs, just as any other part of your website should be written and structured in a way that is search engine friendly. Your blog posts will be filled with industry relevant keywords, which should bring traffic through search engines. However, you want to ensure you have the best chance of being seen by ensuring your website is correctly SEO'd. Be Accurate...Blogs should be seen as another contact point with customers, as so just as you would be unhappy to let poorly written text with errors and inaccuracies on any company literature, set similar standards for you posts. Spelling and grammar are often overlooked, but well researched and presented information and arguments are the backbone of your blog's success. It is no surprise that the most visited blogs are the most insightful, useful or entertaining reads around. Try to set similar standards for your own website content.
Comments (2)
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While I enjoyed the concepts provided in both this blog and the "Why Businesses Should Consider Writing a Blog", I did notice multiple grammatical errors in each one. I don't mean to be a jerk and point out the one flaw, but as you said, it's very distracting and diminishes the readers concept of you being an authority on the subject. |
