Blogging for Your Business

As a professional writer one of the services I offer is blogging. While I’m happy to blog for individuals who just want to have their own personal blog site, I also write for companies wanting to use blogging as a means of marketing. If you own a business with an online presence don’t underestimate this tool as a means of driving traffic to your website. Search engines like Google and Bing love blogs that are relevant and well written.

From a marketing standpoint a blog is a way to keep current customers up-to-date with what’s happening within your company. It’s also a way to develop a rapport to make those customers feel like they are part of your “business family.” As for potential new customers, a blog leaves an electronic paper trail allowing them to see your business as legitimate rather than a fly-by-night organization just looking to earn some quick money and move on.

Tips for Effective Blogging

An effective company blog is one that deals with topics relevant to your business on a more personal level than a white paper or a press release. It is more opinion oriented than a news story as well. That means the secret to a good blog entry is to write in a way that appeals to your customers as people, rather than just unknown entities you’re looking to buy your products or services. The best way to think of it is to write your blog as though you were talking to a friend or relative about your company.

The most important tip for writing an effective blog is to make sure your content is relevant. In other words, if your company is one that provides landscaping services your blog should talk about topics relevant to landscaping. That would include how-to articles, industry related news, cutting-edge landscaping techniques, etc. The point here is to make sure your customers think of your website whenever they have questions or curiosities about landscaping.

When a blog post is not relevant it has a negative effect on your Google page ranking. If you string enough irrelevant posts together you could actually be punished by search engines with a lower page ranking than you would normally receive. If you’re having trouble finding relevancy for your blog, that’s where a professional writer like me comes in. I specialize in finding and writing about relevant topics you may not think of.

Other Things to Consider

A couple of other things to consider with your company blog include creating links, guest posting on other sites, and making sure to pay attention to grammar and spelling. Let’s break these down and talk about them one at a the time:

• Creating Links – Search engines love it when your blog contains one or two links to other reputable sites dealing with the same subject matter. For example, I  may create a link in a blog post to one of the companies I regularly work with: Carmen Online Content Publishing. This is a UK company I do a great deal of work for. Using the previously mentioned landscaping business as another example, you could link to a local, regional, or national company as long as it has a good reputation. You might click the link in the previous sentence to see what I mean. As a general rule two links per 500 words is about right.

• Guest Posting – There are a lot of websites that allow other writers to guest post blogs. They do so as a means of generating free content for their sites. The payoff is that it allows you to link back to your own site either in the text of the blog or in a writer bio at the bottom. This is a great way to advertise your site as well as generate search engine friendly links.

• Spelling and Grammar – Lastly, it is imperative that your blog post be top-notch when it comes to spelling and grammar. Nothing will destroy the reputation of your business faster than a poorly written blog with misspellings and grammar errors. Again, this may be an area where a professional writer comes in handy. If your language skills aren’t the best you might be better off hiring someone like me.

If you’d like to start blogging for your business it’s a great way to drive traffic to your site and keep your customers engaged. I offer very reasonable rates based on a per-word model. I promise each and every client that I will produce work you’re happy with it or you don’t pay a dime. Furthermore, I do all the research necessary to make sure your blog posts are relevant, factual, and able to present your business in the most positive light. Contact me today if I can help you with your blog.