I have been speaking to my clients a lot about blogging in the last week.
Are you blogging for your small business yet?
You see blogging can be overlooked by us small business owners as we dash towards Twitter, Facebook and all the other shiny new social media platforms but blogging has so many great benefits to offer.
Blogging is an incredibly valuable online marketing tool and can help to:
- Build your business brand personality, reputation and credibility
- Improve your search engine rankings and increase quality visitors to your site
- Assist your audience in fully understanding your business and what you offer
- Create two-way and open conversations with potential customers and strengthen relationships with your existing customers
So I wanted to put together a 10 point Blog Post Checklist of how to get your blog posts right and ensure they have maximum impact for your small business.
So here goes…
Your Blog Post Checklist
1. Headlines
Ensure they are keyword rich and interesting to your ideal customer (your target audience). These are very important for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and reader appeal in equal measure!
2. Post content
Again focus on your theme that is most relevant to your ideal customer and use the right keywords. Make sure you include links to other content pages on your blog.
3. Layout and length
I think that around 300-500 words is an optimal length. Think a quick read over a cup of tea! Make sure you use text formatting to draw attention to your most important message points, use plenty of white space and include a relevant image.
4. Spelling
Always a key one to watch. Make sure you check for tpyos (typos!) 🙂
5. Take time to tag and categorise
Vital for the SEO benefits and yes it can take time and might seem like a drag but it will pay off, I promise you!
6. Meta description is a must
Take the time to think about and write a tailored Meta Description for each blog post (around 140-160 characters). Plugins like WordPressSEO (Yoast) help you do this easily.
7. Perfect Preview
Do take the time to Preview your post before publishing and have one final read through or ask your virtual assistant to check it for you. A fresh pair of eyes always helps.
8. Sassy scheduling
Schedule your post to go live at the best time for your ideal customer to read.
9. Be social and share
Create links to your social media profiles, bookmarking sites and community pages. Look at how you can re-work the blog post to use as content again or on other blog sites.
10. Monitor and respond
Make sure you respond to any comments on your blog posts and also review how the blog post performed in your Google Analytics each month, so you can work out what topics work best and you can then refine your blogging approach over time.
Happy Blogging!