Creating a website and launching it is just the first step in your website’s evolution. To be a success, it must rank highly in its respective niche, and a great way to help your website achieve this is by having an onsite blog.
A blog is a great way to add content, keep your visitors informed, and also shows Google that your site is active and providing new experiences and information to your viewers – helping push your site up the ranks. Below are a few tips for setting up your blog and how to get the best results from it…
1/ Unique content – All content should be unique to the blog and not copied from other sources. If using quotes, refrain from posting large chunks, and keep to smaller snippets to get your point across. If linking to outside sites, make sure the link opens a new tab rather than leading away from your site, and make sure it is a no-follow link.
2/ Onsite versus Offsite – your main aim is to make your site an authority in the niche and give relevant information to your visitors, so to get the most out of any blog it should be hosted onsite and integrated within the site itself. You will get the most benefit from the blog content being posted directly on your URL, rather than being posted on an outside blog with a few links leading to your site. This is not to say outside blogs do not have their place, but if deciding between the two, an onsite blog is your priority.
3/ Proper navigation – put simply the site should allow visitors to browse the blog itself but also lead back to the main part of the website. The way our blog is setup is a good example of a well designed blog; it enables visitors to view its content but also navigates to the main part of the website if they so desire.
The top of the blog is the menu navigation for the whole website, allowing visitors, once they have viewed our blog post, to find out more about our services. Should they wish to read more blogs they can browse through the recent posts on the right or in the archives. Also, for added integration, use hyperlinks to other parts of your site if applicable; for example, we have linked Blogging & Content Writing Services to our main site should the reader want to enquire about our services.
4/ Frequency and length -The more your post the better the outcome, but obviously you do not have unlimited time, so aim for at least once a week. Keep the post to around 500 words, as too many can cause reader fatigue and you might lose your audience. If the topic you’re blogging about requires more than 500 words, consider covering the topic over several posts.
5/ Promotion – Once you post the blog on your site, let your clients know about the post via Social Media, ie Facebook, Twitter (aka X), Google + & Linked In etc. It is no use writing great content if no one knows about it.
This is obviously just a brief introduction to making the most out of your website’s blog; for more in-depth knowledge and advice contact your local SEO specialist.
