But do you understand what a blog is and how it helps a business?
There are 7 Fundamental Elements of Blogging for Business and when you understand these 7 elements you will truly understand the big picture of blogging for business.
Recently I did a workshop at the first ever Social Media Day Halifax. It was a fabulous event with over 250 people attending and kudos to Anita, Tina and Linda who organized the event. Three local business women who planned, organized and hosted the one-day event. So many folks were impressed with the entire event, the caliber of speakers and it will sell out again next year I am sure.
At the Social Media Day Halifax event, I did a 90-minute workshop on Blogging and several came up to me after and said thanks, a couple mentioned they were not sure it was the right one to attend – there were two other workshops held at the same time – but both said they were so happy they stayed. One indicated it was the best session he went to that day and full of so much information.
Some of the Twitter feed online also indicated to me that all in all it was a helpful session for those who attended. One of the benefits of social media is instant feedback like this, which is always nice to hear as a speaker. Knowing that the time you put into the lessons were worth it and valued.
The lessons were not rocket science, and some were a fundamental blogging knowledge that when you understand it – you will understand how blogging can bring website traffic, new leads and more. So, I thought today I would share one of the most commented on slides from the workshop and use it to explain to everyone exactly what a Blog is.
As long as you understand this short lesson, you will “get” blogging and how it helps boost your online visibility and how this in turn, can help increase website traffic, leads and sales.
Here is the infamous slide I shared…
And here is a little more detail on what this all means…
Here are the 7 Fundamental Elements of Blogging for Business
1. A blog is an article posted online. People can write blogs for a variety of reasons. Some people blog for very passionate reasons, some blog for business and some also blog as a way to reach people with their message, whatever that may be. There are many things that will inspire people to write and blog.2.
2. Every blog you publish is a brand-new page on your website. When you review a published blog, you will note that it has its very own unique URL. Every URL like this is a new page on the website. Here is one of my recent blog articles, so you can see what I mean https://www.pepperitmarketing.com/blogging/critical-blog-element-that-frustrates-everyone. When you click this link, you see it is a stand-alone page (in this case a blog post page) on my website.
3. This new page should have keyword rich and relevant content for your ideal client.You do not have to write every blog to your ideal client, but for most of them, it helps to optimize your website for those specific words and topics.
When it comes to keywords, this article, the Top 7 Areas to include Keywords in your Blogs will help you know what the specific areas are in your blog to place your keywords.
4. This new content should also be related to the main content your website is all about. For example, let’s say you are a career coach and help people with effective resumes and job search plans, like my client, Katherine Burik of the Interview Doctor. For the most part, her content and blogs are about resumes, interviews, career talk and more. If she were to be adding more blogs that were about her trips on her boat, her travels, or other unrelated to career and job search topics, then the search engines would begin to question her content and website and potentially not register and index her pages because now they are no longer related to the main website content.
5. Now, this new content and these new website pages give the search engines more to register and index from your website. This is why blogs are so helpful. If you have a website with only 10 pages, and the content does not change much, there is nothing new there for the search engines to find, it becomes static. But, when you have blogs added regularly, this adds new content and they recognize this, they index these new pages and your website.
6. When the search engines index your content, this means they register the content and the page URL in their memory (I’m trying to keep this simple to understand). Once your site is indexed in their memory, then your website page (in this case your blog) can end up being a match to the searches people enter in online.
7. This is where the magic happens! Once your blogs or website pages begin to show up in online searches, then you know you have gotten the “Nod” from Google (Yeah, okay or Bing or Yahoo and those other lesser used search engines too).
And let me tell you, when you start to show up in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) it is fun to see this happen, yet sometimes confusing. I remember the first time I realized that the reason why one of my blogs was the top result for an online search I did, was because Google was saying that the best answer to my question was ME. Or rather one of my blogs.
It was actually a funny moment because I was mad that Google was not giving me the answer I really wanted until I realized what was going on.
When it comes to blogging, if you can understand these 7 fundamental elements, you will understand how blogging helps your business get found online and know the elements to optimize in your blogs to make certain you get that all-important Nod from Google.
Happy Blogging!
Get more Blogging Basics Lessons!
If you want a ready made content planner that helps you plan out an entire year of content, check out the Pepper It Marketing Content Planner. It will save you a ton of time and has over 500 posts you can copy and paste to use as your own.
Stop Struggling and Start Thriving! My passion is helping to guide people just like you, private practice and service-based business owners, who are often frustrated with all their wasted time spent on marketing that gets you nowhere. You can learn strategies to attract a steady flow of clients and build a thriving and profitable practice. Get started with some of the free resources on my Pepper It Marketing website, especially this Guide to Streamline your Marketing. I also offer several self-study training programs to help you attract more clients so you can Build a rewarding and profitable private practice and still have time to LIVE your LIFE!