This blog post has an 8 minutes read time.
If you want to start a blog on your website to increase your SEO and website traffic but you’re feeling bored and uninspired by the current blogging format, try one of these formats instead.
Introduction
When you think of a blog, is the first thought the “dear diary” personal journals of the early 2000’s? I don’t think you’re alone on this thught process either, and don’t get me wrong there are still some great blogs out there that follow this format, but for you as a business owner with your knowledge on X, Y and Z topic would be better off sharing that topic and knowledge with the world instead of your personal journal.
By sharing your knowledge on these topics via a blog that is easily accessible via your website not only shows your audiene that your have a clear knowledge on those topics and can therfore demonstarte you expertise, but it’s also fantastic for SEO.
This blog marketing strategy allows you to share with search engines that you can help people searching on their search engines, that you can answer their questions on the topics you share. So how can you share this knowledge with your audience that isn’t dear diary format, and something they want to go back to time and time again?
If you want to create more SEO but aren’t excited about writing a blog. Here are four options for you to consider that will make you re-think the traditional blog format and create a new a way for your to share your knowledge and attract more views and clicks to your beautiful website.
Industry Research & News
This type of blog is great for those who work in an industry where you can’t share personal opinions or client reviews. As each industry is different and not all industries allow you to share particular information that might get misconstrude or effect peoples health, so in this case you can share the latest research from industry papers, medical journals or industry media releases to share your knowledge, and updates.
This could be where your businesses blog may thrive, because this type of blog doesn’t mean you can’t add your personality and brand voice, it just means you don’t have to add your opinions or advise.
Beingwell Healthcare does this really well by sharing recent research while answering customer concerns about healthcare. Their blog topics are on the same subject as services they offer at their clinics or can assist interested people with specific conditions. They do this as information only and if the interested person wants to know more information on the subject they should book in a consult with a specialists.
This type of blog post allows you to not only attract people who want to learn more on a subject but also provide a sales funnel to increase sales for your business. Ensure you have a call-to-action within your post so you don’t miss any of these leads.
Newsletter and Business Updates
This type of blog is great for large organisations wanting to share corporate-level information with their stakeholders and other interested parties.
You can share the following:
- annual, quarterly or monthly reports,
- updates to business operations and new staff joining the team,
- weekly round ups of products launches,
- client or charity stories and/or wins (if you organisation is directly connected to a charity).
These types of blogs are great to create so you can further distribute your articles within your email newsletter to spread your message further and be a time-saving exercise for the organsisation as all you have to do to share a link to the post with those who are interested in your organistations news and updates.
Some organisations that do this well are Who Gives a Crap and ASRC both share their organisions updates, wins and answers more in-depth questions their audience want to know more about. For example, when i buy/donate what does my money go towards? This in turn creates a sense of trust, and connection while making their audience feel good about where they’re putting their money.
Think about how you can create a sense of connection and trust with your audience. What information do they ant to know about you? Choose one of the above points to get you started.
Brand-Focused Content
This blog type is the traditional type of posts that share topics that are core to your business or brand. For myself I share regular Webiste Design and SEO blog posts so support my audience and community.
This can be interpretted in different ways so you can also create content thats not specifically about the services you provide but share content that is complimentary to their brand.
A great example of a brand-focussed blog that uses complimentary content to their brand is BedThread.
Their posts have the brand theme of “home” because their business sells products for the home, and styling the home to create a hugge, indulgent feeling which they show this through around their business marketing. You’ll find their blog posts are home style-interviews, the different home aesthetics, interior styling and design. They also discuss cleaning tips for the home and for linen, and then also write round home hobbies like netflix shows and other interests their ideal customers enjoy.
If you have a good understanding of who your brand is (or have hired a branding expert to assist with this task) you will also be able to create a blog like this, that connects with your audience without directly talking about your products or services. These types of brand-focused blogs are great for product-based businesses but are also very possible for established service businesses.
Podcast or Youtube Transcripts
If you have a podcast or Youtube channel and you want to reach more people, don’t stop sharing your content on those seperate platforms, add this content to your website. This will allow search engines like Google be able to index and associate the topics you share on your podcast or Youtube channel with your business and website.
To do this well your blog posts will become transcripts of your podcasts and Youtube episodes. Add the trasnscripts to the blog pages and add your podcast image and the audio link or youtube feed. In addition to this add buttons that link directly to your podcast or youtube channels so you can increase subscribers.
If within your episodes you mention the services you provide, courses, or other useful information be sure to hyperlink or provide a call to action so your audience can find those items easily when visiting your blog post. Not forgetting to link the post in your podcast and youtube shownotes to encourage more people to find you via another avenue.
Remember that people learn in many different ways so if you have piece of content thats audio, having a complimentary written version of the same thing allows your audience to read it in their own time, make notes for their own business, share it to social media, or save this post to refer back to it at a later date.
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Conclusion
Don’t feel like you missed our on the blog trend, make your business blog a space of your own and customise it to your brand, what you are excited to write about, and what your audience enjoy reading, so you create something people come back to time and time again.
No matter what format you use to share you content with your audience make sure it aligns with your business, brand and marketing goals.
Make sure there are calls to action throughout (especially if you’ve mentioned something noteworthy). Upload images that describe or explain the content and allow your audience to enteract with you by leaving a comment, following you on social media or reaching out to you directly via a form or booking link.
Blogs don’t have to be boring but they do need to connect and be useful for your audience. If you’re not sure what to right, talk to your audience and see what they need right now. Start there and write on similar themes until it becomes easy – and don’t forget to add your keywords in there too.
If you found this post useful, and you’re now excited to start creating SEO your website, here’s some resources to help you get started.
I created a FREE Mini Course to make the process of creating more SEO for your small business easier! HERE’S MY NEW SEO MINI COURSE to help you get you started.
Or if you want more tips or advice follow me on Instagram or on most other social media channels via @nataliefaithwebdesigns – I share lots of research, tips and client wins for online business so they can grow their businesses and attarct their dream clients.
