Wandering Stars guide to successful blogging

Why is blogging important for your business and brand?

• A business that blogs regularly gets significantly more web traffic and leads than a business that doesn’t. But it isn’t always easy and the results can take a while to be seen.
• Informative blogs help to establish you as an expert in your field and maintain your relationship with your customers. They even help to attract potential employees.
• Blogs also help your website to be found in Google organic search results. They enable you to target key words that help new customers to find your website.

How to come up with ideas for blog content

Ideally, blogs shouldn’t be hard-sell. Primarily they need to be informative, but it also helps if they’re engaging or even entertaining.
To come up with potential blog topics, listen to your customers. What questions are they asking most frequently? What are you unearthing in your day-to-day work that you know could add value to your customer? Taking a genuine interest in solving problems for your customers will help you create a genuine and uniquely informative piece. Answer their questions, gift them useful knowledge and give them a plan of action.
Alternatively, look at what is topical. Is there an evolution in your sector or a relevant story in the news that you could help your customers understand? Other options could be a round up of relevant information within a time frame, a comparison of stats to which you add value by incorporating your own insights or an interview with an expert in your field.
Another angle for choosing blog topics is to target key word phrases that potential customers are entering into Google search. There are various online tools for finding these words and phrases – more about these below.
Whatever your topic, make sure it’s something you fully understand. It’s OK to flesh out your research by reading other people blogs, just resist the urge to copy and paste. Google will recognise it is duplicate content and your blog will be penalised in search rankings. It’s best to filter all information with your own unique experience in your own unique words.
Also consider what the purpose of your blog is. Why are you writing it? What do you want your customers to do after reading your blog?

How to write a blog

Once you’ve decided on your blog topic and researched your main ideas, there are three main things to consider:

•  Informational structure
•  Content writing
•  Keywords

Structuring your blog material

Brainstorming and researching around your topic will help you pull out all the relevant material. This isn’t about writing coherently, it’s about organising your ideas into logical sections and refining your central theme. Your outline should include:

• Central theme
• Key points under the theme
• Supporting arguments for each point
• Conclusion and call-to-action

If your structure is getting long and complex, consider breaking the article into several smaller articles and linking them together. It’s best if every blog stays tight-to-topic.

If writing really isn’t your thing, you can stop right there and give your outline to a professional content writer or editor to refine. Wandering Stars have relationships with good copywriters who do this very effectively. Alternatively, if you’re confident in your ability to write and come across as professional, here are some guidelines for writing web blogs.

Writing for web blogs

Think hard about your customer and the language they use. Writing an overly complex, jargon-laden article is inappropriate when writing for a wider audience. If you want them to understand and recall your words, reduce the word count and keep it simple. Conversely, if you only want to communicate with a specific audience who are experts in their field, then technical terminology and industry jargon is perfectly fine.

• Keep the introduction short – 130 words or less.
• The length of the total blog should be 300 words absolute minimum and 750 words as a target. Once you reach 2000 words you should consider reorganising the material into two blogs.
• Make it browsable. Use headings that are valuable to your audience in a quick scan. Bullet lists also allow for quick scanning and help to shorten text.
• Keep the paragraphs to a maximum of six or seven sentences. Reading on a screen is difficult, so keeping your information concise makes your blog easier to read.
• Links between your blogs and links to external sites can help Google discern context and meaning in your blog.
• Text value can be improved by adding transition words that show you are enumerating, comparing, concluding or emphasising. These may be words like: firstly, finally, while, yet, because, therefore, hence, mostly, or especially.
• Don’t forget to edit and proofread. Make sure your tone of voice is consistent.

Include keywords in your blog for maximum SEO effect

Including keywords in your blog will help Google match your article to what people are searching for. A basic way to build a list of keywords is by putting a range of queries into the Google search box and take note of the suggestions in the “People also ask..” list below the search box or the “Related search” list at the bottom of the page. You can do this with your theme and with each of the sections or ideas. Alternatively, there are free keyword resources like GoogleAds Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest, as well as paid keyword resources such as Semrush and Moz.
A keyword can be just a single word, but is usually a phrase called (known as a ‘long-tail keyword’) Gather relevant phrases and place them strategically and relevantly throughout your text. Be sure to place the strongest keywords in your title and subheads, as well as within the first 65 words of your blog.
The aim of a blog should never be solely SEO. The primary aim is to give the reader of your blog a good experience. Too many keywords can result in unnatural text. Google has very sophisticated ways of analysing text and penalises any ‘keyword stuffing’.

How to use images to enhance your blog

Images will add interest to your post. Usually there is one main image that can be used to add meaning, personality and/or impact. At the very least an image should enhance the headline and help to convey the content, but could also be used in contrast to add nuance to the meaning. A compelling image will increase the click-through rate when you link to the blog from your home page or share on social media.
Added images or infographics within the article will break up longer text and assist with readability and scanning. If you combine an infographic with reliable data, the information will be more impactful and memorable. Using alt text to describe the content of an image is a small way to assist SEO.

The quality of your blog images reflects on your business

Just like words, images reflect on your business, so make sure they are also good quality and align with your brand values. Photos can be taken by a professional photographer, purchased from a stock library or you can take your own. Just make sure they are in focus and cropped to match your other blog images. Never distort an image to fit your format; cropping is better. Also, don’t enlarge a small image and expect it to look good.

On-going maintenance of your blog

Make sure you review your blog regularly. If the topic is time sensitive, remove it before it becomes out-of-date. If it isn’t time sensitive, the engagement rates will still drop off over time. You can gain benefits by updating a blog post partially or repurposing the material into other articles, thereby extending its life.
Analytics will tell you which articles are attracting attention and which are not. Sweep through and revisit your keywords and links, then add a new publishing date to give it a new lease of life.

Let Wandering Stars assist

If content creation isn’t your strong point, or you simply don’t have time to do it, we can help. Wandering Stars have relationships with writers who can turn your outline into a fluent and engaging article, including all the keywords and best practices for SEO along the way. We can create or source powerful photos and create infographics that breathe life into your data. Whether you need a little or a lot of assistance, contact us today.