Create a successful business blog with these 6 quick steps

Why should you write blog posts in the first place?

A blog post widens your net

To motivate you to start blogging it is important to know why blogging can help get more visitors to your site and convert them into leads.

People are endlessly searching online with their questions or problems.

If your blog post provides answers to these questions or problems, then the stranger will find your post and you can potentially turn them into a lead.

A blog helps your site rank

Every time you write a blog post you are creating a new page on your site and you are increasing your chances of ranking in search results, having other sites link to you, plus Google loves fresh content.

A blog allows you to promote offers

Use your blog to strategically promote to these interested visitors and you will hopefully turn them into leads.

A blog allows you to establish yourself as an expert

A blog can help you stand out as an expert in your industry. By providing information and answers you establish yourself as an expert.

Now you know WHY you should blog – here are the 6 steps you need to know to create a successful blog.

Step one – pick a topic for your business blog

Fundamentally your blog is going to be educational – Rustonline do this well – it is going to answer a question or problem that a potential site visitor is trying to answer whilst searching online.

Come up with topics by thinking about

1. Questions you are frequently asked in your business
2. What problems you think your target audience needs help with
3. What you think your target audience would like to know about your industry

Check the words your target audience uses

When you have decided on a topic – do some keyword research so you know what keywords your target audience uses.

Focus on one topic per blog

Write about one specific topic per post in that way your post will be:

Step two – choose an obvious title

Create a great title by doing the following:

Make the title obvious

1. Bear in mind that most readers scan posts – so make the title obvious
2. Create a title that is NARROW (not too wide)
3. Include long tail keywords in the title
4. Make the value of the post clear in the title (e.g. 6 tips to write a blog) so readers know exactly what they are going to get.

Make the title 60 characters max

Make the title short (needs to be less than 60 characters) as Google only shows this number of characters in the search results – you do not want your title to be cut short. Use word doc tool to count characters.

Step three – create the perfect body

An appealing post has lots of white space

Have lots of white space (empty space on your page) in your blog (dense text is not appealing).

Readers scan so include headers & lists

Use section headers, numbered lists, and bullets to break up your text – remember readers scan.

Bold important information & include images

Bold important information, this allows readers to easily grab key takeaways from the post.

Include connected images to break up your text.

Step four – be found by Google

Optimise your post so it can be found by search engines.

Optimise around your long tail keyword in its different forms and guises – you do not have to keep repeating the same keyword. You can use variations of the keyword or break the keyword up.

Use it in the following:

And include links

Include links where you can. Link to external websites and resources, or to other pages within your own website.

Step five – convert visitors into leads

Strategically promote offers in your posts

Use your blog to strategically promote offers to readers within your post – this offers the reader a next step.

Step five – promote your post

Promote your post to maximise your efforts

And lastly …

Check your Google Analytics to see which posts are performing the best and also monitor which posts have the best results from the your CTAs.

And remember … IT CAN BE HARD TO FIND TIME BUT IF YOU CAN, COMMIT TO A BLOGGING SCHEDULE.