Blogs 101

Marni Weinberg - January 10, 2011

So you’ve finally bitten the bullet and added a blog to your website. Good for you! It’s about time!  As you probably know, a blog is an excellent way to add content to your website on a continual basis. In addition, the search engines love websites that have fresh, relevant content; this will help to improve your organic rankings, which is clearly a plus. Now you can begin to contemplate the following: What the heck do I blog about? How often should I blog? How long should my posts be?

Perhaps it might make you feel better to know that you are not alone with these quandaries. They are the most common obstacles clients are faced with when the topic of a blog comes up in conversation. This post will provide some suggestions to get you started on your blogging…

Let’s start with potential blog topics:

Anything Industry Related– This could include timely happenings in your business or niche. For example, if you were a florist, you’d want to be blogging about the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday, as well as ideas on floral arrangements for that special someone.

Upcoming Events – An example would be if you are a hotel and there is a local art fair or concert taking place in your area. You could blog about these upcoming events that people might be searching for, as well as need a place to stay.

Crisis Management – In the event of a tragedy or a natural disaster, a blog is an ideal forum to communicate helpful tips and facts.

New Products or Services – This is a great way to spread the word about any new offerings you may have. An example would be if you now have ecommerce functionality, which allows website visitors to make online purchases, or perhaps you launched a new website. In either circumstance, a blog is a great way to boast about it!

Frequency of posts:

We typically recommend to our clients that they post a minimum of once a week, but more often is certainly preferable. It will depend on internal resources, as well as who will be reading your blog. An option is to have multiple members of your staff take turns posting to the blog. At the end of the day, only you can decide how often your blog will be updated, but in general, if you get into the habit of posting a minimum once a week, I’d say you are in good shape to start.

Length of blog post:

This, too, will depend on certain factors. Sometimes you will have less to say and as a result, will have a shorter blog (think 250 words). Other times you will have more to say and your post will be longer (600 words+). My advice is not to get too caught up in the length of a blog, but rather make sure that it is as relevant (to your business) as possible and the content is keyword rich.

Good luck blogging!