Do I Need a Blog? What is the Value?
These are questions commonly asked by our clients. Is it helpful? If so what type of content is good to develop?
When search engines do their job and crawl the Internet, they look for and generally reward new, unique and relevant content. The more frequently you update or create new content, the more often search engines will crawl your website which, in turn gives you the opportunity to rank higher. This new and or updated content also presents opportunities to run keyword optimization steps and include more pertinent keywords and phrases in your marketing content.
I’m a Small Business Owner…..What Should I Say on My Blog?
What do your customers often ask you? Think about your blog as being a resource for visitors, where you provide information and answers to questions that you are best positioned to answer as an experienced professional in your field. If a potential customer was sitting in front of you, what would you say? These topics will be both of interest to visitors and easier for you to write.
Content that provides good information is more likely to be engaged with and lead to having visitors spend more time on your web site, which lowers your bounce rate and is an important signal to Google’s algorithm that determines organic visibility in search.
Don’t think about it as having to write ‘white papers,’ rather speak to potential clients/patients as you would in-person. What would you find of interest if you were searching online? Also, why not ask some of your existing customers what they would like you to blog about?
Value of ‘Long-Tail’ Keyword Targeting
Blogs should look to answer the ‘how who what & why” questions that often make up a large portion of searched phrases for your targeted audiences. There are niche or ‘long tail’ search phrases that may only represent a small portion of the overall traffic, but also generally have lower numbers of competing web sites for that traffic.
Example – One of our chiropractic clients specializes in sports injuries and rehab, which isn’t always an association people make with chiropractic care. So a tier one phase, that is also highly competitive, would be ‘sports rehab chiropractor,’ but a long-tail phrase could be ‘how to rehab from swimming shoulder injuries.’ Not all phrases need to be a direct connect with your offerings, but these phrases can be thought of as a ‘bank shot’ where you answer a question, and then searchers can view additional information on your site and see that you may be someone they want to contact to learn more or to get treatment.
Example of ‘Bad’ Blog Content – Not Unique and Reused Content on Many Other Sites
If you are writing content, make sure it’s unique. Carbon copy content that is reused verbatim on many other web sites tell Google that what you are offering in terms of content is not unique, and as such you should not be shown prominently in organic search results. It takes more time, but speak (or write) in your own words.
Not sure if your content is unique? Do a plagiarism check.
Share your Blog Posts
After you’ve posted on your blog, share that post on social platforms, and also promote on your outbound emails as well. Spread the word!
So blog from the heart, and after a consistent effort, you will see results in your online visibility.
