3 Blogging Basics: Why, What, and How
Most of the websites we create include blogs. We consider them a critical component of most websites and most successful SEO strategies.
However, blogging usually represents foreign territory for our clients. They’re unsure why it’s important or what they should write about. And if they’re not IT people, the whole process can seem intimidating.
For those just venturing into business blogging, here’s a basic explanation of why it’s is so darn important — and some quick tips on what to write about.
Why blog at all?
First off, there are too many websites for search engines to monitor in real time. Therefore, how often they crawl a given website depends in large part on how often new content is added.
For example, Google might crawl your website after an absence of three weeks. If new content has been added since then, Google will be more likely to return after only two weeks. And if there’s always new content, that’s a sure sign to Google that someone cares about this website. They’ll start crawling even more frequently.
Conversely, if Google never finds any new content on your site, their spiders might not return for a month or even longer. That means your site is going to do poorly in search results.
So adding new content to your site is a critical way of promoting your search rankings. And what’s the easiest place on a website to add new content? Your blog.
What in the world should I write about?
Once our clients get the importance of new content, they’re willing to start blogging. The next stumbling block? Figuring out what to write about.
Here are some fail-safe suggests.
- Client problems and the solutions you provided
- New developments within the company — new employees, a new office
- Developments within the industry — Is there a new product available? What technology is pushing your industry to change?
- Fun topics — company parties, company pets, a particularly interesting project
- Writing specifically for keyword phrases. For example, a client of ours specializes in exterior home improvements and is interested in acquiring roofing leads. He and I created an article on energy-efficient roofing solutions, frequently linking from the article to his roofing page.
How do I do it?
I’m not going to belabor this point. Suffice it to say that once I sit down with a new blogger and show them the incredibly easy GUI that modern blogging platforms provide, they’re sold. They can see the parallels between Word and WordPress, and see how easy it is to make the leap.
A final suggestion
So this is the basic information I give to our clients about getting started with blogging. One final suggestion: In terms of content, don’t limit yourself —remember that nearly any content is helpful.
After all, Google learned what you’re selling the first time it crawled your site. It also probably knows 500 other websites selling the same thing. Start blogging and differentiate yourself by out-content-ing your competitors.
Great Sitemaps = Great Websites
Everyone gets excited about building a website.
Why not? Creating a new site for your firm is a big deal. Often, the effort combines new branding, new functionality, and new ways of interacting with your clients.
Unfortunately, in all the excitement, some people rush the process. And the part they often gloss over is putting together a sitemap.
A sitemap looks like no big deal. It’s just an outline of your website – an “org chart” showing where each page on your site will fall.
But in reality, your sitemap is critical. It’s the foundation on which your entire website is built. It defines how your content is organized, what’s included, and what’s left out. A good sitemap also facilitates your sales process, laying out intuitive pathways for clients to follow through your site.
When folks rush a sitemap, a number of problems can occur.
Sometimes, critical content gets left out. Or the content is there, but buried in such a strange place that no one can find it.
Other times, the sitemap has to be heavily revised. And if we’ve begun design and development, that means work must be redone. On a simple site, that could mean an hour or two of extra labor. On a complex site, that could mean days.
Luckily, there’s an easy way to avoid these problems. Spend adequate time on your sitemap.
In other words,
- Think carefully about the goals of your website before you start work. Your navigational structure should facilitate your sales process, not represent any random old organization.
- Get third-party input. Talk to colleagues or trusted customers about how they approach your current site. What do they expect to find? What do they most often look for on your site? What do they have trouble finding?
- Make organization a top concern. Think carefully about what your customers need to know, then decide how that information should be organized. Make detailed notes about what content should go on each page of your site, so nothing gets left out.
- Finally, talk with us. It often helps to have one of our project managers put together a draft sitemap for you, based on your input and ideas. Because we’re not as close to your content as you are, we can often see it more clearly, and help you organize it in a logical, intuitive fashion.
And remember, take the web development process one step at a time. When you’re working on your sitemap, stay focused. Don’t get distracted by what photos might go on each page or what colors your site will be. Nail your content first, and everything else will fall into place.
Why content is still king
In our previous post, we talked about the importance of including keywords in your site structure.
What we didn’t say is that keywords mean nothing if they’re embedded in cruddy content.
By cruddy content, we mean content that’s poorly written or organized. That’s salesy or full of typos. That’s been pulled from a print publication and slapped into your site without being webified.
As web developers, we’d like to think that we can create perfect sites using clean code alone. But we can’t. It’s the content in your site that matter most. Great content helps establish you as an expert in your field. It gives customers a reason to visit your site. And it helps Google understand your site and classify it properly in search results.
Need help creating great content? Here are a few tips.
- Unless you’re a professional writer yourself, hire one. And not just any writer – one with experience writing sites optimized for web readability and web searchability.
- Write for your customers. Yes, your website should tell your story. But think first about your customers’ story. Who are they? Why are they visiting your site? What information do they need? If your content consistently addresses your customers’ questions and interests, you can bring them back to your site again and again.
- Remember that size matters. To optimize search results and get Google visiting regularly, you need lots of content – and you need to update it regularly. How much content do you need? Start with at least as much as your competitors have, and go from there.
- Don’t write for search engines. Yes, keywords are important. But if you overload your copy with keywords, you’ll lose credibility with your readers. Plus, Google knows that trick and is so over it.
The bottom line is that customers come to your site for content. Give ‘em that, and they’ll always be happy.
Want to talk with our SEO copywriter about your content? Contact us today.