Is your business blog getting traffic? All too many businesses overlook the importance of their blogs as a means to share valuable information with their target markets, build their reputations, and boost their businesses. Some businesses have blogs but hide them away, leaving no menu that allows site visitors to navigate there. They think blogging is all about SEO. It certainly helps, but that’s not all there is to it. Here’s how to make the most of your business blog by attracting readers.
Table of Contents
1. Put Your Best Foot Forward
Attractive imagery is a drawcard. Choose something relevant and not too cluttered or use a bg remover to lift objects from other images and place them on a background of your own. Superimposing text onto your featured image can also help to draw attention to your topic.
Break up blocks of text with images. Most people don’t want to read big chunks of text. It looks like hard work. Use headers and white space to make reading easier, with images as an extra way to draw readers in.
As for the text, keep sentences short, paragraphs short, and vocabulary easy – or at least as easy as your field permits it to be.
2. Choose Topics Your Customers Want to Know More About
It may seem that sharing some of your “trade secrets” will lead your customers to DIY instead of choosing you, but that’s not necessarily true. The beauty of sharing information about your skills is that it highlights your expertise. It’s expertise your readers don’t have yet, and once they see what goes into a task, a great many of them will decide that it’s better to hire you after all, even if they were thinking of going it alone.
Apart from offering how-tos, feature new ways to use your products and services, case-history stories, and any information that may help people to get the most out of whatever they purchase from you. Keep it interesting, readable, helpful, and as inspiring as you can make it.
3. Optimise
Search engine optimisation helps search engine software to spot your content and classify it, offering it to people based on several factors which include ease of reading and the inclusion of relevant vocabulary. Organic rankings take quite a long time to build, but optimisation also helps you to promote your information with paid rankings in search. More traffic means more prospective customers reading your calls to action, and possibly deciding to support your business.
4. Cross-Pollinate
If you’re excited about what you do in your line of business, it should be relatively easy to get excited about the content you post about it too. Once you’re satisfied that you’ve published a post to be proud of, showcase it!
The smart thing to do is to harmonise themes across all communications: your newsletter, your social media, and your blog. Your main aim is to drive traffic to your website or blog where you will have visitors’ undivided attention – at least for a minute or two. It’s your chance to grab their interest and turn what would have been a quick glance into a deep dive that boosts awareness and might win you leads, enquiries, or even out-and-out sales.
If Nobody Reads Your Blog, You Aren’t Doing it Right
Even if you keep your blog alive primarily because new content is good for SEO, the content you publish should be a pleasure to read. If it does make for a good read, then it absolutely should be read. If it doesn’t, you need to rethink blogging. A job worth doing is worth doing well. A shoddy job, even if your business has nothing to do with content writing, won’t add to your professional image. Keep it interesting. Keep it a pleasure to read. Readers can become customers, and that’s your main reason for blogging.
