Everywhere you turn it seems like everyone is talking about how important blogging is for small business (and big business) websites. That is true; blogging is good for SEO since adding new posts keeps the website fresh, and more content means that you can get more long tail traffic; blogging is also good for establishing and maintaining good relationship with your customers, and for building your brand. The reasons pro are all good. The cons \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t any. Unless you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing it wrong.<\/p>\n
The only thing worse than not having a blog on your business website is to attempt to blog without really understanding how it should be done. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the mistake many small businesses make. Are you among them? Before you start defending yourself saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hey, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing everything by the book, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing my research, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m interlinking my posts\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t talking here about the technical aspect of blogging, and the mistakes listed below are so common that you may not even realize that they shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be done, since many others are doing them.<\/p>\n
This is by far the most common one. Without even realizing it, many businesses are creating blog posts that are about them \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and not about their customers. Of course, the customers probably do want to know a bit more about the people behind the brand, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t involve the topics such as their pets, the fight with the kindergarten teacher, the plumbing issues \u00e2\u20ac\u201c would you be telling them about that face to face? No? Then don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t write about these things on your business blog either.<\/p>\n
Crafting a good post title is what often makes a difference between whether people will read your post or not. A good title lets them know what the post is about, and invites them to click on it and read the rest at the same time. If you aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t paying attention to your titles, you may as well be creating the most engaging content in the post itself \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a very good chance that no one will know about it.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, if you have mastered the art of crafting the catchy titles that provide a great click through rate, but you aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t delivering in the content, your visitors will probably feel tricked \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and then you can forget about having them leave their email address, or calling for a free consultation. You haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t delivered the first chance you had, why should they bother with you further.<\/p>\n
You should be neither. You should be aware of the fact that your content will be seen and read by the people who are very important to your business \u00e2\u20ac\u201c your potential customers, so do your best to make it worth them while. But don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go overboard and polish it over and over again, so that it takes you two weeks to finish one article. Keep in mind that it will probably never be perfect \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but it needs to be good enough.<\/p>\n
If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care about your content enough to promote it yourself, then why would your readers care to do it? If you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that comments on your posts are worth reading and responding to, then your readers will feel the same. You have to be the first one to show that your latest post is really useful\/entertaining\/engaging \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you are the one person who shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t forget about that piece.<\/p>\n
This post was written ba Andrew Handley, from http:\/\/www.midislandcollision.com\/. If you recognize yourself in one or more of these points, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to stop and re-think your blogging strategy. Then go back and re-do all the posts on your blog \u00e2\u20ac\u201c some of them will probably scream: Delete!<\/p>\n