Blogging Checklist: Building an Effective Business Blog

 Great news, your company has decided to commit to a blog.  Now what?  How are you going to make sure that you have an effective business blog rather than just another page on your website?

Blogging can provide your website with a great way to get noticed by search engines, aslong as you are creating quality content.

By following some simple guidelines you can use your blog to benefit your business and generate some new leads.  Below are some easy to follow tips for creating  an effective blog for your business.

10 Tips for Building an Effective Business Blog:

1. Allow for Blog Subscribers

Too many companies miss the value of obtaining loyal blog readers. The more readers you can get to subscribe to your blog, the more opportunity you have to fill the top of your sales funnel and increase the number of visitors coming to your website.

2. Ensure Your Blog & Website Are on the Same Domain

One of the top benefits of blogging is to build SEO value for your website. By placing your blog on a separate domain, you're separating the SEO value of your blog and website, hurting the performance of both. It’s critical that your blog lives on the same domain as your website, such as blog.domain.com or domain. com/blog.

3. Implement a Routine Publishing Schedule

Blog readers like consistency and the ability to know when they can expect new content; therefore, you need to develop a consistent blogging schedule. Whether you blog monthly, weekly, daily, or multiple times a day, keep it consistent. Don’t just post articles as your write them. Use your blog scheduling tool to release your content on a routine basis.

4. Generate Enough Blog Articles to Achieve Traffic Goals

How many blog articles are you creating each month? If you’re not creating enough blog articles you might not be meeting your traffic goals for the month. Publishing a blog article about a current topic or industry trend is a great way to bring more traffic to your site. Don’t just blog so many times a month, publish more blog articles if necessary to help your company achieve their goal.

5. Integrate Social Share Buttons

One necessity of every blog is social share buttons. How else are your readers going to share that fantastic article you recently published? The success of your blog depends on how many people actually read it! Did you know that social sharing buttons increased click through rates by an astounding 55%.

6. Implement a Clear Call to Action Into Each Article

There is no better way to maximize the potential of conversions from your blog than through a clear and compelling call to action. You should always provide your readers and visitors with some direction. There’s no better time than after reading one of your blog articles. Utilize a call to action that’s relevant to the content within every blog post. An even better way to target your readers and audience is by adding smart CTA’s.

7. Create Blog Content for Buyer Personas

Don’t just write. You need to develop content that targets your buyer personas. Your buyer personas aren’t going to read your blog posts if the content isn’t related to the type of service or product they’re looking for. Don’t just see your blog as a platform for you to talk about current trends and topics. Think of your blog as way for you to educate your buyer personas, and a way to engage with them to push them down the sales funnel.

8. Optimize for Mobile & Speed

Your readers’ time is valuable and they don’t want to wait for your slow blog to load. Test your website’s speed using online tools such as webpagetest.org to identify opportunities to reduce load-time. One of the biggest culprits is oversized photos.

Also, with the rapid increase in internet browsing on mobile devices, it’s critical that your blog is accessible and optimized for smart phones and tablets.

9. Ensure Blog is Completely SEO Optimized

No one is going to find your blog if it’s not optimized for search engines. Identify a focus keyword for all marketing content you produce, and ensure it’s prominently featured in page titles, headers, alt tags and images. By doing this, you’re increasing your opportunity to rank higher in search engines significantly. How important is a high ranking? Incredibly, considering that according to Marketshare, 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. Be sure to link to other relevant content in your posts as well, as this helps to drive traffic to other areas of importance as it relates to your marketing goals.

10. Identify Your Blog Authors

You have a unique voice in your industry, ensure this is on full display by including a name and even a face to go with each blog you publish.

This helps to establish your credibility as an industry thought leader and also builds trust with your audience.

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