One of the best ways to help optimize your business website is to begin writing a blog. I know, you are probably saying, “but I do not know how to write,” or “I don’t have the time to write”. Or even some other excuse that makes feel you alright about not doing it. The truth is it’s easy for me to discuss this subject because I enjoy writing, but I honestly tell you it is not as difficult as you may think. Especially if your goal is to have better rankings on search engines (SEO). Now, let me share 10 tips for writing your business blogs.

A Number of Tips For Writing Business Blogs

There are a number of ways to write your blog and optimize it. Do not overthink. Try to keep it simple. These 10 tips will help you when writing your business blogs.

Tip #1 Be Yourself When Writing Blogs:

Be Yourself – Do not try to pretend to be someone else, be genuine. Your audience is smart and will pick up on ‘pretenders’ (not ‘imposter syndrome’). Trying to be something you are not will actually back fire on you. Instead of gaining more in your audience you end up repelling the audience and losing people. Surely, you see the benefits of being genuine and real. Do not attempt to sound smarter, cooler or anything else. Just be YOU!

Tip #2 Write About What You Know

Write About What You Know – Similar to being yourself, this is all about what you know. Again, do not try to impress with a topic you are not comfortable in. Yes, do research to help add depth to the article, but do not make up facts or try to speak above your knowledge level. Making up information or attempting to impress your audience with ill-gotten facts will help you shine for a brief moment. Yet if you are called on it and asked to dig in more deeply by your audience, what will that gain you?

Writing (& speaking) on subjects you know is always the best way to go. Genuineness gets us much further. If you do know much on a topic you want to write about, then take the time to do the research and be honest in your article. Tell them what you know and what you did not know (before writing the article). Your audience will appreciate the honestly and the fact that you took them on exploration with you.

Tip #3 Speak To Your Target Audience:

Speak TO Your Target Audience – There are a number of goals when writing a blog. One of the goals is to reach your target audience or ‘buyer persona’*. In other words, if you had company from another Country and you could speak their native tongue you could speak to them in their language. Writing articles on blog platform is very similar, you simply speak your target audience’s language.

*”A buyer persona is a detailed description of someone who represents your target audience. This is not a real customer, but a fictional person who embodies the characteristics of your best potential customers. You’ll give this customer persona a name, demographic details, interests, and behavioral traits.”

–Christina Newberry of Hootsuite

WHY? The reason we want to speak to our target audience is because this is how our ‘buyer personas’ (target audience) will enter words into a search engine. Today’s search engines have come so far that we have voice activation searches. Although most people type in specific questions and watch the magic algorithms from Google, Bing, and others go to work to bring us multiple possible answers.

One of the best ways to speak your ideal client’s language is to write blogs that answer questions your prospective clients ask. I keep a digital notebook (in OneNote) with questions and discussions that clients & prospective clients ask to help me with ideas and topics for articles.

Tip #4 Share Your Journey

Share your Journey – People want to hear your journey! Your ideal client wants to hear how you arrived where are today. Those who are not at the level you are in business want to learn and understand how you did it. Just as you read many business articles and other’s blogs because you want to glean from others’ experience, so does your audience. They want tips, how to articles, and ways to continue to move their forward.

Remember, we all love to hear a good story. Make your articles interesting and informative, as well as, mixed tales of your journey. Tell your story, sharing both victories and mistakes. Do not give the highlights only. Share the hard times in your blog as well as the good. Lastly, be truthful. Do not embellish just to make it more entertaining. Better to be transparent for the truth almost always comes out.

Tip #5 How Much Should I Write:

Word Count – We often get caught up in word counts. Both minimum and maximum. Since I’ve been in business (more than 13 years) the ideal count has gone up and down and all over. Most agree that the very minimum word count for a blog article should be no less than 350 words, although I think it should be closer to 500 – 750 today. While the maximum word count can go from 1,200 to up over over 3,000 words. If the count is more than 1,500, however, I would recommend splitting the article up into parts. Make a series out of it and then you can also create an eBook from the series.

There has long been many discussions over which is better – long or a short blogs. There are so many different schools of thought. I, however, will give the opinion of a well known digital marketer. I truly love what he, Neil Patel, has to say about word count:

“There’s one thing I always want to make clear regarding word count. It only matters if the content is good. Word count is not a standalone ranking factor. Word count only has merit if the content quality is high!”

-Neil Patel

This year’s school of thought seems to lean more toward a long word count. Although as Mr. Patel says, make sure it is good content (really why bother if not, right?). Therefore writing over 1,000 words minimum may work well for most businesses. Truthfully, however, it is best to write a variety of lengths and see which your audience prefers.

Tip #6 Writing Plan For Business Blogs:

Set Up A Writing Plan – You may be wondering, at this point in the article, ‘how on earth can I write over 1,000 words on consistent basis?”, (whether weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly). The best course of action, especially if you are a planner, is create a content marketing plan.

Set up an excel worksheet, Airtable chart, or a content calendar on your scheduler and begin to plan! Something as simple as the following table can be helpful (you should add in the final blog url as well & date published).

Example:

Decide at least one day of the week to set aside time to write. Schedule it on your Calendar and keep it just as you would any other appointment. The number of blogs you wish to publish each month will determine how much time you take per month, week or day to set apart on your calendar. You can also have a personalized writing plan done for you at the Writing Practice on Joe Bunting’s website. You will have to share your email and answer a few harmless questions about your goals for writing and then it is evaluated and sent via email to you.

Tip #7 Outlines and Lists For A Blog Topics:

Outline and Lists – Can be very helpful especially when you are stuck or cannot find a topic to write about. To help yourself later, start by listing some tips then categorize them into topics. When sitting down to write it is helpful to outline your topic. This helps get the main points out and on the screen (or paper, if old school).

If you have difficulty coming up with topics or enough words to be a blog create a list of tips, bullet points, or turning it into an infographic can be very helpful for you and the reader.

Breaking up the visuals is very important as most reader only really skim most articles. After writing the list, take one of the item on the list and write that about it. Then list out things that you could say about that particular topic. Before you know it it you will have created a full outline.

Tip #8 Research Your Topics

Research – Once you have a blog (content) plan in place with various topics, titles, and keywords listed, it is important to do research. Yes, it should be a topic you know, however, your readers want to know you also conducted research and can back up your opinions, journey, fact, and thoughts with other well-known references and quotes. Research helps all writers but especially for those who want to begin building readership and followers.

Research helps you do the following:

1. Build Credibility
2. Reinforces Your Expertise (as you show your thoughts that are backed up by the experts)
3. Create Trustworthiness
4. Build Backlinks (which helps your SEO)

Site your quotes or any thoughts taken from other articles or resources but do not use too many other links in your blog. Try to keep it to 1 – 2 outside links and 1 – 3 internal links. Packing it with backlinks is not rewarded and can in fact make it worse, so be balanced in your approach.

Tip #9 Genuine Voice

Genuine Voice – Always show your genuine true voice in your writing. As you continue to write, genuinely, on a regular basis, you will begin to attract readers and followers. This will also begin to further establish your credibility & expertise in the industry with your target market. Potential clients are looking for great, trustworthy information from credible sources. As you continue to grow in knowledge, research your topics, and share your experiences – in a genuine, transparent voice – you create an environment of trust.

Tip #10 Use Keyword In Your Business Blogs

Keywords – We have already discussed that blogging will help with Search Engine Optimization. This means that Google, Bing and all other search engines will be able to find your website by recognizing keywords used in the articles. It is also helpful, as we discussed, to write articles that answer questions your target market will be asking in those search engines. Keeping in mind, as well, that it is best to use longtail keywords.

“It is especially helpful when the writer practices using long-tail keywords within the article and in the backend SEO tools (I recommend Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress). This can attract even more readers and followers to your audience.”

-Tammy Durden of Fearless Business Boss blog

Lastly, complete the backend SEO for your blogs. Enter the keyword(s), meta description, category and hashtags within the backend of the blog. As I mention above (in the quote), one of my favorite tools for this is Yoast, a free plugin (there is a paid plan as well). This will help guide you through your backend SEO. It will even make you a better writer as it directs and grades the content and gives pointer to help you improve.

In Summary, the most important things to remember in writing your business blogs is to:

• Be Consistent
• Use Your Genuine Voice
• Share Tips, How To Explanations, and Infographics
• Be Yourself
• Speak To Your Audience
• Write What You Know
• Use Yoast SEO Plugin

Then Have Fun with it!

I genuinely hope these tips help you as you read through them today. Be sure to let me know how they change your blogging!

If you are still struggling to write blogs you can always hire someone or a company to help you, including our Strategic Partners. If you would like to connect with them please email me so I can send you a personal virtual introduction. I would love to see you connect you with a great team to help your website’s SEO, build content and benefit your business. Just reach out when you are ready.

I hope you know how grateful I am for you & your reading through my article. Please reach out if you need a Business & Marketing Coach.

To Your Continued Success!

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