Create a blog for your business

A blog is an online publication where articles on a specific topic are shared, it can be written by one or several authors and with frequent regularity. It is usually very interactive, with links to other related web content and with all kinds of materials: text, images, videos, podcasts, etcetera. It may or may not be open to debate (readers' comments).

It is a widely used resource nowadays, since you generally do not need technical knowledge to produce it. The tools are intuitive and allow it to be created and maintained quickly and easily, which has contributed to its great popularity.

There are as many blogs as there are topics, and they can be of different types. For example: personal blogs, educational blogs, user blogs, community blogs, micro blogs, and business or organizational blogs. Here we will refer to the latter and how we can use it to grow.

Of course there are many options of platforms to create blogs. Your choice will depend on your type of business, your needs and the goals you set for yourself. The one that is able to provide you with all the tools you will need and that fits you like a glove. Aspects to take into account can be:

• Good technical support

• Features of the content editor

• Level of customization they allow

• The commenting functionalities

• Whether it contains SEO functions and tools

• Whether it allows multimedia content and editing

• Whether it is easy to use or requires advanced knowledge

• Statistics tools

• Possibilities of responsive web design.

There are free options with possibilities to upgrade to their premium packages if you start growing. Among the most popular are Wordpress, Drupal, Blogger, Webnode, SiteW, Joomla, Weebly, Pyro among many others. Your blog can be part of your website, or not.

If you decide to publish a blog for your business it will be an essential part of your marketing strategy and with a commercial objective, it is better that it is part of your site.

The subject of the blog must be related to your company, your products and services. The main objective is to increase visibility and persuade readers to become customers.

Benefits of publishing a blog

It is a very efficient asset to attract leads and drive organic traffic to your site. It increases your online visibility and consequently can increase your sales.

It is a very effective way to keep users informed of everything that is happening in your company. It intensifies the user's experience, because having so many possibilities and being so interactive, not only informs and learns, but also entertains.

Over time, it can become a knowledge bank and be used, for example, as educational materials or in the development of books. It sets your company apart from the competition.

If all SEO is done correctly, the more content you create, the more you increase your chances of ranking well in search engines. It gives you the opportunity to dialogue not only with interested users but also with your peers in the industry.

You can take advantage of the audience's opinions to analyze your work and improve your management, products and services. You can gain authority status by explaining in depth topics related to your products/services or industry trends.

It serves as a basis for creativity and innovation. With so much research and self-preparation, new ideas that benefit your business are bound to emerge.

Boost your reach through inbound links. If they find your content appealing, other sites can reference you. In addition, readers can share some of your content on social media.

You can use the content on your other social channels. You can use links and promote the most important things in a way that multiplies your reach. It facilitates the creation of an email database. You get to create your own community, united by related interests.

Aspects to take into account to create your blog

Be clear about your objectives and your target audience: choose a topic with a wide range of possibilities for development and define the content based on your audience. Help search engines to narrow the scope and find out about trends and the most sought-after topics.

Organize the content well and plan the work: create categories, with the same approximate number of articles and intersperse them so that it is dynamic and not boring. Create a calendar with publication dates and deadlines.

Encourage users to share: to post their comments. This creates a sense of community and builds reader loyalty.

Post regularly: you should post at least twice a week and keep track of comments. A long period of inactivity discourages the audience and leaves an unprofessional image.

Be sure of what you write: it is best to write from knowledge and experience. You have to be very well informed on the subject or include useful links that expand or reinforce your point.

Do not leave doubts unresolved: if you do not have the answer, redirect the user to where he/she can find a quality solution, even if it is the competition, he/she will still find it without you.

Take care of the visual impact: If you only use text your readers may lose interest, you need to include visual stimuli every 200 words or so. E.g.: photos, videos, infographics, graphics, etc.

Invite others to write: they can be authors of other blogs or qualified members of your company. This way, if something unexpected happens, the continuity does not depend on just one person.

Avoid excessive self-promotion: writing only about the wonders of your company is boring for the reader and may scare him away or arouse his suspicion. Each article should have a value and contain useful information for the user so that they will want to share it.

Keep the content updated: especially the articles with more interactions. What you write today may be irrelevant in a couple of years. Also try to include topics that have not been addressed much, the audience will appreciate it.

Take advantage of the flexibility of this format: you don't have to use the practical or more sober tone that you might use on your website. Here you can use a more natural style that emphasizes your personality and brand values, that brings you closer to your readers and invites them to participate.

Ensure accessibility: make your web design accessible to everyone. Remember that mobile technology accounts for more than half of online traffic.

How to optimize your blog for visibility?

Surely you want to attract as many people as possible. The most common way for people to find an answer online is to ask a search engine and it is usually enough for them to access the first results that appear.

You need to be positioned among the first on that topic and a good SEO is essential to achieve it. Not only the content has to be of quality but also the way you structure it. These are three fundamental aspects that you must take into account to position your blog:

• Register it in the Google Search Console (GSC) so that Google indexes it and takes it into account.
• The use of links is one of the most important tools for positioning. You must have a clear strategy when creating and managing your link network (links).

Whether they are:

• Internal links: between pages within your own domain, they facilitate the permanence in your site and therefore the search engine crawling. It must be done in a meaningful way so as not to lose relevance. It allows the text not to be so long as you can link it to other articles or to your website.
• External links: those you make to other resources (sites) outside your domain. The important thing is that it is quality content and preferably to sites with authority.
• Inbound links: the links that others make to your site. They are not under your control but they still benefit you by generating traffic to you and it is an indicator for the search engine that your content has value. The more authority the referring page has the better.

Use keywords and phrases to help people find you. Think about the terms in which your target audience would search for the topic you are going to touch and what phrases or words they would commonly use. You can help yourself with the free tools available (e.g. Semrush). You can do it even before writing so you can adapt the content around it. You can also allocate a space that fits your products and services. Blogging platforms can include the SEO section and have a function that facilitates this task.