Here’s the truth, people. There are two hard and fast rules to blogging, and I’m breaking them big time. If your goal is to boost your organic ranking, blogging is a great way to do it. But – and this is a big ol’ but – you have to follow two cardinal rules.

Cardinal Rule #1 – Content Rules

Whatever you write, it has to be relevant and interesting. Period. Full stop. It has to be something that is worth reading and, even better, worth sharing. Folks cruising the interwebs have crazy short attention spans, so you need to stop them in their tracks. You need to write something so fabulous and meaningful that they get sucked right in to those 600 words (the perfect length for the average blog post, don’t you know) and then can’t wait to share it to all their Facebook friends or all the people in their Google + circles or all those Twitter followers.

Lists are always great. People love lists. Tips and secrets and insider info – stuff that people feel they should be paying for (like cardinal rules about blogging) – it’s all great material for a blog post that people want to read. The idea is to ply people with useful content so they’ll a) read it, b) share it, and c) make a mental note of who you are and what you do for future reference. That, my friends, is the beginning of a beautiful relationship between business and client/customer.

Cardinal Rule #2 – Consistency is Key

Despite my poor performance right here on my own blog, this is a fact about blogging. Publishing regular posts will serve you on two points.

  1. You begin to foster a relationship with site visitors thanks to regular content that, if you’re obeying cardinal rule #1, is worth reading.
  2. You’re getting those new site pages indexed on the regular because search engines are crawling your new stuff. Routinely publishing new content means more pages on your site, which gives you a bigger profile online and more authority with search engines. Bottom line – the more you blog, the bigger your footprint, the greater your reach.

I’ve found that for many of my clients, the same few keywords are the money-makers. For Metal Roof Network, posts that focus on what metal roofs cost always get the most interest. For Miller Industrial Properties, tips about what not to do during a property tour are highly searched. For Lakeshore Paddleboard Company, people always want to know how to find the right board.

In each instance, we write many versions of the same information with the goal of owning that first page of Google for specific search terms. You want to know what a metal roof costs? Here, read one (or all) of our sixteen blog posts on that very topic. Wondering which paddleboard is right for you? We’ve written four posts on how to figure out that very concept. Don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot on that warehouse tour? You’re in luck – not only have we written a handful of posts about what not to do, we have a handy PDF for you too.

It’s not rocket science, but there’s definitely an art to this blogging stuff. Knowing it is one thing. Executing it is another. If you’d rather leave it to someone else, I’d love to talk. Ask me about a blogging special I’m running for small businesses – a flat, low monthly rate for for four posts a month, guaranteed to abide by these two cardinal rules and slowly but surely, certain to start upping your visibility online.