Blogging is one of the cheapest and most effective ways you can spread the word about your business. Blogs are free to set up and use, and you can write about pretty much anything related to your business, its products, or the wider market you operate in. Is it possible to start up an effective blog with no prior knowledge?
What is a Blog?
A blog is like an online diary or journal. You can add images or videos, and use your blog to talk about whatever subject you choose. Most website template sites will offer a blog as standard, or here at 118businessdirectory.co.uk we can help you get started. As your blog is part of your website it can be searched by Google, and if your blog contains relevant and interesting copy, then your blog could raise awareness of your company. You can post as often as you like, and the posts can be as long or as short as you like. As a starting point, you should be looking at posts that are at least 500 words long, and updating your blog around once a week.
What Do I Write About?
Well, that’s up to you. The best blogs contain a range of posts on different but related topics. If, for example, you run a joinery business you could write posts on trends in modern furniture design, about services you offered, something about how joiners train or qualify, famous furniture makers of the past, and so on. As long as the post is relevant to your business and interesting to your readers, it is doing its job. Keep a list online or in a notepad about potential ideas for blog posts, and job down new ideas as you think of them.
Outsourcing Your Blogging
Many small business owners just don’t have the time to write a blog post every week and prefer to outsource the job to someone else. Try to find someone who understands your business and who can write engaging blog posts in well-structured English. This isn’t always as easy as it sounds; be wary of overseas agencies or freelancers who may promise a very cheap price, but who struggle to express themselves in English. Always read over your blog posts before publishing them to a wider audience – this gives you the chance to correct any errors before they are published for all of the world to see.
Updating Your Blog
Google gives a higher ranking to websites that are updated regularly. Regularly of course is a subjective term, but there’s no need to be updating hourly, or even several times a week. Weekly is probably sufficient for a new blog post. There is also usually a facility that allows you to upload several blog posts at the same time, and schedule them to go live at a time of your choosing. Don’t forget also to go through old blog posts and delete any that are no longer relevant, if your product range or services has changed.