I’ve written before about the benefits of business blogging – wildly effective, inexpensive and easy – and now I’m going to let you in on a few secrets. Here are three secrets to awesome blogging for your business.

1. Awesome Blog Post Framework

Every blog post needs the following:

  • A catchy title with the post’s focus keyword (this should be in the post itself a few times too)
  • At least one related image or video to help the post perform
  • An appropriate word count – long enough to engage the reader but not so long that it’ll turn folks off (600 words is usually right on the money)
  • A tag or two to help readers find similar posts

2. Awesome Blog Post Content

This is hands-down the most important part. While any blogging template – WordPress, Blogger, Squarespace, etc. – will prompt you to include a title and tags (with options for images/video), nailing the content is entirely up to you. I wrote a whole post to help you generate content or you can brainstorm awesome blog content the easy way: think of all the questions you’ve ever been asked by a client or customer. Bingo – the start of a “burning questions about xyz” series.

Answering questions is a great way to provide info that your target market is likely to search, particularly if it’s something you hear over and over. For example, over at Metal Roof Network, our best performing posts relate to the price of a metal roof. It’s what everyone always wants to know, and we’ve written no fewer than a dozen posts explaining why there’s no single answer to that particular question.

3. Consistent Blogging is Awesome (With Awesome Results)

Establish a blogging schedule – and stick to it. Weekly is great, bi-weekly works. Blogging consistently accomplishes several things.

  • First, search engines will keep crawling your site to index your new content. Remember, every new post counts as a new page, and the bigger your site, the more impressive you are to search engines.
  • Second, reliable blogging sends a message to your target market that your business is alive and well.

Sometimes, the hardest part is just getting started. But remember that you’re the expert, so use your blog as a way of sharing that expertise with your target market.

Bonus secret – don’t toot your own horn excessively. It’s a turn-off no matter where you’re doing it. Be factual, friendly, helpful and honest.

If you ready to get going with business blogging and you’d like a little jump start, I’d love to help.