Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook enjoy huge popularity, but blogs are still an important tool for small business marketing.
Jennifer Bourn, Owner and Creative Director for Sacramento WordPress Web design and branding firm, Bourn Creative, claimed they are “no longer optional for small businesses” in a recent guest post at The Sacremento Business Journal.
So if you don’t yet have a blog – start one. And if you do have one, apply the blog improvement steps below to kick it up a notch.
10 Simple Blog Improvement Steps
Make Things More Personal ~ Huffington Post
Publishing a blog for your business is great, says tech writer Drew Hendricks. But sometimes business blogs can get a bit too…well, business-y. Instead, Hendricks suggests adopting a more personal approach by letting readers know more about the people behind the blog. Here are some of Hendrick’s specific suggestions.
Choose a Monetization Strategy ~ Remarkablogger
Say you start a blog to promote your freelance services. Wouldn’t it be great to diversify a bit and find other ways your blog could generate revenue for your business? One option suggested by blogging consultant Michael Martine is the use of affiliate marketing, which can deliver more steady income even when other aspects of your business are in a dry spell.
Build a Powerful Network ~ MyWifeQuitHerJob
Blogger Tom Ewer insists the two secrets to creating a successful blog are to create great content and to create a network or community of like-minded people who will happily share that content for you. Ewer shows you what building relationships can do for your blog and a simple strategy for creating those relationships.
Grab the Reader’s Attention ~ ProBlogger
SEO and marketing copywriter Belinda Weaver insists a great opening for your blog post is the key to getting readers to give your post their attention and return to your blog week after week for more. Weaver says great blog openings begin with a great title and go on to intrigue, startle and touch readers on a personal level. Here is her recipe for success.
Recruit Some Guest Bloggers ~ Ms. Ileane Speaks
Ileane Smith, owner of Basic Blog Tips, shares her personal experience opening her site to guest bloggers. She says the process gave new and seasoned bloggers a chance to promote themselves and share their writing while also promoting her blog’s community. But Smith says blog owners need to take steps to vet guest bloggers to make sure they and their content are right for the blog.
Don’t Overdo the Keywords ~ Search Engine Roundtable
Industry observer Barry Schwartz shares the advice of Google Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller to a site owner on a forum. The site owner was confused about why his seven year old site was failing to rank for its keyword. Mueller explained the site currently contains over 1000 mentions of a single keyword. That’s too much of a good thing for Google. Don’t overdo it on keywords, Mueller says.
Use Vine and Instagram ~ Chris Brogan
As a way of enhancing your message on your blog and other social media, Chris Brogan suggests participating with what he calls “outlier social media tools” like Vine and Instagram. Check out these tools as a way of being a bit more human and creating what Brogan calls “bitesize” content. All the while you’re boosting your blog’s brand and building more community.
Set Up Google Authorship ~ Trafficado
Rob Parsons suggests some tips for improving the SEO and effectiveness of your blog. Among those suggestions is taking advantage of Google Authorship. The process involves verifying your identity with Google as the author of specific posts. The idea is that Google will favor authors who regularly create quality content, allow your image to appear next to content in search and thus improve click through.
Make Your Blog More Mobile Friendly ~ Lo Cost Marketing
Blogger Scott Dudley writes about the increasing popularity of mobile devices and the need to be sure you make your blog mobile friendly. With a growing number of potential readers using mobile devices, Dudley says making your blog mobile friendly is a simple way to grow your audience. Dudley also offers some simple options for making your blog accessible to readers interested in accessing your site through a mobile device
Start Allowing Online Payments ~ Famous Bloggers
If your blog promotes products or services offered by your business, it’s time to make sure customers visiting your business blog 24/7 will be able to pay online for those products or services. Blogger Laura Burkley offers benefits for accepting online payments on your blog. She also suggests some simple ways set up online payments for your business.
Blog Photo via Shutterstock
What I liked about “Don’t Overdo the Keywords” is how Google says that overusing a keyword makes it hard to “recognize what’s really unique & compelling.” Yes, your blog needs to be optimized for SEO to make sure your content is getting crawled and indexed. However, your blog also needs to be easy to read. If you are continually creating posts that say the same thing over and over again, have no hook, and are clearly written to feature one keyword – your readers will stop reading. The traffic to your blog is a huge factor in your sites overall SEO, not just your keyword strategy.
Copi Valdivieiz
The Overdo with keyword stuff is what the Google Penguin was focused to and the sites who engaged into that had to suffer as a result of that. Blog have emerged as a major traffic builder for any website. Being an expert blogger is what is required to make the followers subscribe to your blog feeds. One doesn’t have to be promoting all the time but one can be informative and create a compelling content for the visitors to love and keep coming again to see if anything new has popped out on ones web log.
Blogging is really a way to connect with our customers/customers-to-be on an ongoing basis, in a somewhat personalized way. With quality content, we can build respect and trust, and stay top of mind for when they find themselves in need of our particular products and services. It can’t be overestimated!
Shawn,
Thanks for a great compilation of tips on how to improve your blog. I will go through it and incorporate some of these ideas in my blogging. I have been blogging 11 years, but I am still learning… 😉
dominic
Thanks for the information i my problem is using social media for my blog its not really working as i expected but i am still trying and working out new ideas as the day goes by
Alexandra
Great tips here! For monetization strategies, I’d like to add that video and display advertising are also efficient ways to boost the revenue stream.
I’d go further to suggest native ads, which have the potential of generating more revenue, while also improving the visitors’ experience on page. Native focuses on making the experience as contextually relevant as possible, which is essential in an age where most audiences are tired of being sold stuff.
video intelligence SSP offers various ad placement options for publishers, with “vi stories” being the star of the show – a native ad unit that offers premium video ads.
The personal touch in the blog gives more attention than the blog with no face involve. The blogging patterns show the bloggers who are famous has the common trait behind their success. They all use their face to engage users. I think people love to read the post which has personal experience. People are excited to know more about your experience with certain things or product. They somehow start connecting with you and share their thoughts in the comment section.
I truly believe blogging is not for the marketing it is for relationship building.
Thank you
Great steps mentioned here for blog improvement. A blog should be looked at as a labor of love to the creator. If one does not consider their blog a labor of love + following up on some of the steps mentioned here, then one may experience burn out more often than not. The key is to love helping and being of value to others. Thank you so much for this great post. 🙂
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