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Will blogging really help my website and online visibility

Are you a small business with limited time on your hands, or do you feel like paying someone to create and publish blog content is like burning cash? The good news is, blogging does help your website and online visibility, so it’s worth a go.

You might be open to the idea of blogging, but are not sure whether the time you spend, will provide you with a return. And, other burning question, what on earth do you write about? … writers block anyone?

 

Is blogging worth the effort…

If you feel like you can relate to any of these then you are in the correct place. So, should you be asking one of your staff members to do blogging – the answer is yes. If you are a one-man band should you stay up till midnight writing or creating blog content instead of all the other jobs you’re balancing? Well, this really is up to you, but we can confirm that blogging does have huge benefits to your online visibility. So it might be worthwhile reaching for that mug of coffee!

We advise that your website has a place where you can add blog content regularly. If, you do not have a website, then you should, definitely, speak to your web design company and ask them to incorporate a place for your writing.

Free or not?

It’s well known that there are several free sites that provide great blogging spaces. You can upgrade on these sites and have a ‘www.business.com’ domain name instead of one that is tagged with the likes of ‘WordPress’. The issue here is not the clarity of domain name, but is more to do with your blog content being associated with your website. If you are trying to draw as many people as possible to your website, then the best place for them to land is on your website and not on a random blogging site. Makes sense right?

 

Long tail search queries

In most cases you or your web designer will have developed your site around keywords and specific search terms. But, its well known that we don’t always search for robotic terms like ‘decorator london’. We might instead, search for ‘experiences decorators who know how to deal with damp in London’. The more conversational search is called long-tail search queries.

The best way for google to find your website, in response to these search queries, is through blogging. For example, the decorator may have written a blog on ‘the best ways to manage damp issues’ or ‘the best paint products in 2019’.

If these questions are searched, then the likelihood that your site will pop up is much greater. This is compared to only having information on your website and homepage. If you are struggling to think of content, it might be useful for you to consider the questions your customers have asked you in the past and write about them. Create blogs around the answers to their questions.

In summary the more content that you produce – the less likely your website will appear stagnant and the more likely you will rank better.

Humanise yourself and show off your expertise

In an ever growing and rather over crowed market, especially online, it can be difficult to stand out. Everyone is claiming to be and do wonderful things for you, and it can hard to identify whether companies really know their onions, or whether they are substandard. Through blogging you can reach out to you potential customers and speak to them- humanising yourself. But, also you can demonstrate your expertise and knowledge, which is another positive to consider.

So, you are helping search engine users find you with your blogging, and you are showing them your human side as well as sharing your expertise. The next reason for really considering blogging is, Google. Yep, you heard me right. Google have a lot of authority when it comes to its users using the search engine. Google rewards you with greater ranking and visibility when you publish new and fresh material.

Finally…

We think, it is fair to say, that blogging has few negative sides, apart from perhaps the time, creativity and money it may require you to invest. But blogging cannot be ignored as being a new age nonsense. It is one of the best ways to increase online visibility and help with your SEO.  All we would suggest is that it is something that you do at least a few times a month, preferable weekly. Momentum is an important factor in blogging. Creating content once a year isn’t going to have much impact and may in fact make your website appear dormant. Refreshing and publishing regularly is quite a commitment but will provide you with a real return.

If you have any questions, we would love to chat.

Let’s talk at www.proactivemarketing.solutions

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If SEO blows your mind: Read this!

Now is the time to start thinking about your search engine optimization (SEO)

Even if you feel like running to the hills and hiding away from the subject, you shouldn’t. It can be hard to get your head around if you are unfamiliar with SEO but hopefully our friendly introduction will get you focussed and more confident with an understanding of how to build a happy relationship with your website visitors and search engines.

Keywords

Firstly, an important thing to note is that Google has unleashed an ‘over-optimization penalty’ which is targeting websites that use too many keywords (relevant words and phrases used to help people find your site) on each web page. So, the moral of the story is – don’t be greedy and don’t be a hoarder- Metaphorically speaking anyway! Keep your keywords simple and use a maximum of five per page. If you need some help and inspiration with finding the right keywords you could use Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This tool will help you to find relevant and up to date words inline with todays trends. Alternatively, get in contact to discuss you needs with our expert team.

Content

Try to make interesting content which your visitors will enjoy and find useful. Not only do you want to keep visitors looking at your site for more than 3 seconds, you also want to please the search engines… as dull as that might sound this is a great way to become more visible. The more content you produce of a high standard the more likely search engines will add more of your pages to their search indexes.

And, of course, we aren’t just a pretty face, we also share great ideas of what kind of content to create…

  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Posting industry blogs
  • Reviews
  • Graphics

We hear you- creating quality content is hard work! You can come face to face with plenty of creative road blocks if you are trying to juggle many tasks by yourself. There are a few things you can do, hire a pro. This can come at a cost, however, it is worth it in the long run. Let’s be honest, building a successful business is playing the long game, success doesn’t show its face overnight. But in the meantime, keep your eyes on the idea that producing good quality content will engage visitors and impress those ‘oh-so’ important search engines.

Link building

The basic concept here is to get other websites linked to your own. If you consider these linked sites as your friends and you are running in a popularity contest, then you are far more likely to win if you have more friends than everyone else- Link building is a similar idea to this.

Ideally, you want to create quality links known as white hat techniques as this approach is considered more ethical. Google are also taking action on websites that use black hat techniques (yep, you’ve got it, the opposite to white hat) such as spamming. Avoid over using keywords and over posting the same content. If you are giving the time to improve business, then you might as well do it on good merit.

You could produce a blog and post it on some blogging websites, maybe even reach out to relevant industries for instance, if you have a restaurant business you might like to link up with food brands you use or sell. Probably best you don’t link with your direct competitors… just a suggestion!

Sponsorship is another way to engage companies and charities, this will help to develop positive links, however, we would suggest you actually engage, and not just make it about a financial transaction. Attend events, write up about them, link up on social media and show interest across all your platforms. This will help to build you an audience in an organic way.

Social Media

While your links to social media profiles may not always count towards your search engine rankings they will get you some attention and will help to drive visitors to your website which in turn is still useful to you.

Finally

Finally, this has been a brief look at SEO, my goodness there is a lot more to it, but hopefully you feel like you have had a friendly handshake with the concept and feel a bit more at ease. Click here if you would like further support from our team.

We’ll leave you with one last thought, and that is, the importance of tracking and monitoring your SEO progress. You can do this in many ways – one way is to use Google Analytics. Through Google Analytics you can learn about who your visitors are, how much time they are spending with you and the type of keywords they are using to find you. This can then feed back into the types of keywords you are using on your pages.

We wish you good luck and if you need a hand- do get in touch!