Blogging for business
We often have new clients asking us about blogging for their business website. "Do I need to do a blog?" "Are blogs important for a business website?" "How often do I need to do it?" "How much time will it take?" "What do I write about?" "Can someone else do it for me?" "I'll be away for 3 weeks and won't have time to blog - what do I do?"
Do I need a blog?
The answer is no. But you don't need to SEO your website either - or have a website at all. The truth is, blogging on a business website is an integral part of SEO and promotion. Search engines have complicated algorithms to determine the relevancy of a site to the search phrase entered. Google's algorithm purportedly looks at over 200 factors. One of these is fresh content. Blogging for your business is an awesome way to add fresh content, keep existing customers informed, and generate traffic. Do you need to blog? No, but you'd be silly to ignore it. Blogs are important to the health and life of your business's website.
How often should you blog?
This is a "How long is a piece of string" type of question. We recommend to our clients that it's no less than once a month. Once a week is much better, and there are many business blogs which are updated every day or more. If you've never blogged before, either private or business, we'd recommend you aim for every 2 weeks. It's not only search engines that like fresh content, visitors appreciate a dynamic site too!
It doesn't need to be a time consuming thing either. You're not writing "War and Peace". It's a journal, a diary. You may select a hot topic in your industry, maybe a new product or service you now offer, or it could be a brief overview of a family holiday. The latter can be very effective even though it's not blogging about your business per se. What that does is give the customer a little insight to the family side of the business. It helps them connect with you and your business on a personal level.
Can someone else do it for me?
Definitely! Although, if the blog entry is going to be about your business or it's products and services, make sure the blogger is knowledgeable about the subject. You're still writing non-fiction! It's needs to be factually correct. So, maybe you had a great year and you want a blog about your record breaking sales figures. By all mean let your sales manager or CFO write it.
Blogs have a great little tool that allows you to go blog crazy for a bit, but stagger their publishing dates. So feel free to write 4-5 blog entries, but, when you save each one, elect a publishing date sometime in the future so that it appears that you are writing them each week or so. We will teach you how to do this when we train you.
