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What on earth do I blog about?

So you’ve got a website. You’ve set up your social media accounts, done a few posts (or someone is managing that for you). You’re ready to see those customers flocking in and watch those clicks sky rocket. Well, not just like that I’m afraid!

The visibility of your website is dependent on a lot of different factors that as a whole contribute to your websites authority or “likeability” from a search engine perspective.

Having a technically sound website is important, that’s where SEO comes in. But that’s not the be all and end all of it. Search engines like to “crawl” well structured websites with quality content, it’s true. But one of Googles key ranking factors is how “fresh” a website is. Google prefers websites that are updated regularly with new, quality content. Now that’s fine if you have an e-commerce site where you are constantly updating product ranges. What about if you have a specific range of services and are unlikely to change these on a regular basis?

Your website is not just an information portal. It’s also a really powerful weapon in attracting new customers and therefore new business. Your website is the instrument with which you can really engage with the people who want what you’re selling! An excellent way to achieve both a regularly updated website and engage with potential customers is through a blog. It’s proven time and time again that blogging is one of the most efficient ways to boost your SEO and hence improve your chances of ranking higher.

So what do I blog about?

There are a couple of things to bear in mind when first approaching blogging. The key questions really are:

  • What am I trying to achieve? What is the end result I am looking for?
  • Who am I catering my content for? Who is my target audience?

With the answers to these questions you should have a good start in terms of what are the types of things to blog about. Remember, blogging is about engaging with your potential customers so what might they be looking for. Here are some suggestions:

Interesting content

You’re trying to attract people to your website and hopefully keep them there a while so they can see what you’re all about. So to keep them engaged your content needs to be relevant to what they’re searching for, informative and insightful and ideally provoke a reaction i.e. them clicking on a page/product with the intent to learn more or even buy. If they’re searching for something and your content is listed in the search page then your content needs to be authoritative. You’re the expert on what they’re looking for. Show them that and tell them here’s the key things they should be thinking about.

This is also one of the key ranking factors that Google and other search engines look for. What AUTHORITY your website has, the level of EXPERTISE indicated by your content and how TRUSTWORTHY it is, how many people like or share your content.

What do I blog about?

It’s not just your products/services

Maintaining a blog regularly is important, not only from the ranking factor perspective, it helps build your followership. Research has shown that the most effective blogs are those that try to capture users at different stages of the buying cycle. It’s not just about targeting people looking for “mechanic in your location”. These people are probably ready to purchase. Trouble is, this is the smallest audience of people that search on the internet. The much larger audience is looking for ideas, researching or browsing for something they are interested in. If you can target this audience that’s a lot more potential customers.

Think about interesting things associated with your sector. What’s the latest news impacting what they’re searching for? What are the up and coming trends you can introduce them to? How can you help them find more information? These are great topics that allow you to engage with a wider base of people but also give you the opportunity to become more AUTHORATITIVE and TRUSTWORTHY as a result.

Not a question but an answer

And before you start, yes I know, the title of this blog is a question! But that gives me the opportunity to highlight why this is not a good idea. Consider which is the more likely listing for you to click on:

Top 10 things to blog about for your sector

Or

What do I blog about?

It’s likely that you’ll get a better click rate from the top one. Generally, people are looking for answers not more questions. It’s about building your reputation for EXPERTISE.

So as a small business looking to improve how your website ranks on search engines (and let’s face it Google is the top one), you now have some ideas on what to blog. But how much do you need to blog?

There is no clear answer, it depends on the topic but as a bare minimum you should look to write at least 300 words. The longer your blog posts the more likely they are to rank. Indeed, the average length of a blog that features on the first page of Google in 2020 is 4500 words long! Long posts require excellent writing skills and not every writer can write reader friendly blogs of more than 1000 words. Not to mention the time taken to do it! That’s why businesses like Up The Rankings provide blog writing services for their small business customers. We’ve the experience and skills to dedicate to writing blogs for your website. We tailor them with the aim of improving your reputation for EXPERTISE, AUTHORITY and TRUSTWORTHINESS, thus improving how your website ranks. Why not get in contact with us today.