X
WHAT DO YOU NEED?
YOUR DETAILS
* Required Fields
Your personal information will only be used to service your enquiry.
We will only contact you with relevant information. For further information view our full Privacy Policy.
THANK YOU for contacting us

We endeavour to answer all enquiries within 1 business day, so you’ll be hearing from us shortly.

In the meantime we’d love you to get social with us
or perhaps you’d like to sign up to our newsletter?
You’ll receive FREE actionable tips and insights to improve your website

REQUEST A QUOTErope

BLOG

Should I Have A Blog on My Website?

2 Apr 2012
0 Comments

This is a common conundrum so the aim of this column is to put forward the case as to why having a blog on your website is important to your business.

A blog provides you and your business with an opportunity to share your expertise and knowledge of your industry and your product/service. It is a good way to gain and enhance your trustworthiness and credibility to existing and potential customers.  It can also be used as a way of providing news about your company or general news about your industry.

Blogging really is a great way to interact and engage with your customer s and potential customers online.  If you send out newsletters a good idea is to add some introduction text to your blog topic and then link to your website so that it can be read in full.  Allow for the ability for people to add comments to your blog as this just increases customer engagement.

The other reason why it is important to have a blog on your site is because it helps with the visibility of your website in the Search Engines e.g. Google.  The Search Engines love fresh content on a site and monitor the frequency of content updates so having a blog is a great way to have regular, new content showing on your site.

Having quality informative blog entries also means that you increase your likelihood of building backlinks to the blog itself too, which from a Search Engine Optimisation perspective is an all important part of helping to make your site visible in the Search Engines.

Here are some tips to blogging:

  • It is important to blog regularly – once a month at a minimum.  Rather than take on the task yourself why not ask other staff members to contribute to the blog as well.  
  • When writing a blog try and remember to include keywords i.e. the words that people are likely to use when looking for your product or service in the Search Engines. This will help with allowing your blog to show in search results for relevant search queries.
  • Try not to include too much jargon or industry terminology particularly if your target audience is not likely to understand what you are talking about. Writing for your audience is very important.
  • If you include reference to your products or services then you should include a link to the relevant section of your website so readers can find out more.
  • Avoid linking out to other websites (unless they are your own) in your blog.  The idea is to keep people on your site and not invite them to leave!
  • Try and personalise your blogs where possible.  If you are blogging about a new product in your industry you could add your own personal comment or where appropriate write in an informal style. The idea is to show some personality as it makes your blogs so much more interesting to read.  Adding a short author bio to the bottom of each blog also helps with personalisation. This bio should link to your team page (Yes, you should have one!).
  • Encourage people to sign up to your blog so that they automatically receive each new blog into their inbox.
  • Let people share your blogs. They might know others who would be interested in reading what you have to say. You can do this easily by adding social media share buttons. Google likes to see social media sharing on a website so this will also help with your website visibility in the Search Engines.
  • As an alternative or addition to your own blog consider being a guest blogger. There are blog sites that focus on particular topics/industries so find the most popular one for your industry and ask if you can be a guest blogger.  Not only is this a great way to drive people to your own site and but also it demonstrates your authority on your topic.
  • Make sure that your blog content is easily digestible by the reader. This is done by having clear headings, sub headings, bullet points and several paragraphs instead of blocks of content.   Try and include pictures and diagrams to add interest and variety.

If you do decide to have a blog on your site and follow the above tips the results will speak for themselves.

Written by
Based in our Christchurch office, Suzanne is our Business Development Manager and has been with Limelight Online since early 2009. Suzanne brings a wealth of web-related knowledge and experience to the company and works closely with our clients to identify smart web solutions that satisfy their needs and present their business in the best possible light online.

Leave a comment

Fields marked * are required