Are you considering adding a blog to your custom web design? We’re all for it! If you’ve seen other businesses doing so and are weighing the benefits, we’d like to help you by offering some insights into how they work and what they might do for your online presence. Blogs are a very helpful tool that can direct more and more folks to your website, help you build and define your brand, and score big points with Google! Although there are countless articles on the web advising people to add a blog to help their small business, these are a relatively underutilized way of helping grow your work. If you’re wondering why, we think the answer lies in the fact that many people don’t know exactly how to blog and why it is so beneficial. It may seem like a big task with unknown results, so let’s clarify some of the impacts that this tool can have on your audience and your work and how you can best approach maintaining a blog on your website.

Google, Google, Google!

Google is all about finding its customers the right answers. And the businesses that consistently present answers to their audience’s questions get to move up to the front of the line (i.e. the top of the Google search results). How do you do that? By writing a blog! Google sees blogs as fresh, authoritative content and the more you blog, the better chance you have of getting your content (and business) in front of the right audience. In the most recent Google algorithm update, blogs were given 26% weight in how your site is ranked. That’s a huge percentage! In our opinion, that means adding a blog to your custom web design is an excellent investment which is sure to pay off.

Educating your audience

Have you ever taken a phone call from a potential client asking for a service you don’t offer? Or have you noticed that you get the same questions over and over again from customers? This is a great opportunity to provide information and answers in a blog post. Creating content that potential clients can read ahead of time makes your job easier. Offer them useful knowledge about your work so they come to you fully prepared with many of their questions already answered. Want another perk? If your blog answers questions that aren’t specific only to your business but occur frequently in your industry, you’re bound to draw more customers to your custom web design as they are likely googling the same query already. Win-Win!

Answering the calls to action

If you’ve established a goal to grow your email list or get more likes on Facebook, you can drive home these messages through consistent blogging. After all, if your blog is providing helpful information to your audience, they’ll naturally want to engage with you more. Signing up to receive reminder emails when a new post goes live or following your work on social media will be of interest to them. Craft your blogs to work for you and help you achieve your business goals.

Don’t like writing? Hire a pro!

Adding a blog to your website is a commitment of sorts. If you’re feeling excited to get started with your blogging journey, that’s great! But make sure you’re ready for the long haul. It’s important that you keep your blog active with consistent material. If a potential client visits your site and sees a blog that hasn’t been updated in a few months (or, yikes, a few years!), they are bound to think you might not still be in business or have nothing new to tell them about your work. On the other hand, if a potential client comes to your website and sees a blog that’s been updated the day before with consistent posts dating back a while, they’ll think you’re engaged, involved with your audience, and that you have a good, authoritative handle on topics in your industry. Excellent!

All this to say, if writing isn’t your thing but you still want to take advantage of the excellent benefits of having a blog on your business website, it’s a great idea to hire a writer. You can work with your team to develop a strategy and set some goals for what you’d like your blog to do for you. And then, sit back, and watch the posts roll in!

But how do I do it?

We’re glad you asked. The first place to start is by establishing your goals. Are you looking to draw in clients for a specific type of work you offer? Are you interested in doing more consulting work and want to establish yourself as an authority on a certain subject? Are you growing your audience and looking to gain more social media followers? You don’t have to stick to just one but it’s helpful to create a progression of goals.

Once your goals are set, it’s time to brainstorm topics. It’s important that you choose these with intention and find things to write about that work directly toward your goals. The more you’re interested in these topics, the better! Your writing is bound to be more engaging if you’re truly invested in the ideas and concepts in your blog.

Now it’s time to write! Ideally, blog posts should be around 1,000 words long. If you’re warming up to this practice, it’s okay to start a little shorter and build momentum but keep working toward a higher word count. Google likes blogs to be nice and long so if you find yourself having lots to say about a topic, that’s excellent! When you’re feeling finished, read over what you’ve written checking for spelling and grammatical errors and take a critical look at your content. Is it engaging? Does it achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself? Would you enjoy reading it? Once you’ve answered these questions for yourself, you’re ready to post!

Pro tip: Make an achievable blog schedule and stick to it. It’s much better to commit to writing one blog a month and consistently meet that goal than to plan to write one each week and get burnt out after a short time. Choose a schedule that will work for you in the long run and plan out topics in advance.

We hope you’ve found this article to be helpful and encouraging as you get started with your blog. As ever, we’re always here to answer any questions you may have and offer guidance with developing your marketing plan or building a custom web design. We love helping people out, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at any time!