As Director of Online Marketing for The Worx Company, one of the topics my clients are most concerned about is blogging. How often should I blog? How many keywords should I include in a blog? How long should my blog be? What should my topic be? Business owners often look at me with a sense of hopelessness in their eyes, not knowing where to begin or how to proceed. But I can assure you; it is not as hard as many of you are making it out to be.
The only thing that required of you is some ability to write. If you have no ability at all, recruit someone in your company to blog for you or hire The Worx Company to blog for you. If you only need a little help with grammar, spelling, and punctuation, use a tool like Grammarly which corrects major issues and makes recommendations to make your writing better and more coherent. Most people are capable of blogging; they only lack the self-esteem or the time to do so.
Does it take a long time to write a blog? Not usually! When you are writing about something you know about, it doesn’t take that long at all. If you stick with a few simple guidelines I mention in this blog, it will make blogging simple and the time you spend writing minimal. Let’s take a look at the most frequently asked questions.
How Many Words Should My Blog Have?
ONE MILLION.
I’m joking. You don’t need one million words in your blog, folks. Look, the key to an excellent blog is to write about what your customers want to read. If you write a great blog that is 500 words you will make your reader happy. If you write a fantastic blog that is 1500 words, you will make your reader happy. Please do not get to hung up on how many words your blog needs to have to succeed. The search engines are looking to see if your visitors are finding the answers to the questions they are seeking. So, if your reader is happy, Google is happy.
While I don’t want you to get to hung up on the length of your blog, I do not feel you can adequately cover most topics in less than a few paragraphs. Don’t cheat your topic or your reader. Be sure to give the subject the attention and time it deserves. Your readers will appreciate you and the search engines will reward you for offering full content.
What Should I Blog About?
This question seems to bring the most amount of fear with it. It is also one of my favorite questions to answer because the answer is so, so simple. When choosing topics to blog about, make a list of all of the issues your customers ask on a regular basis. Is there one question you receive a phone call for every day? Is there one question every single person who walks through the door seems to ask? Is there an issue which someone always asks in the month of June or when the weather turns cold? Take those questions and answer them! Those are blogs!
When choosing a title for that blog, don’t get crazy and experimental. Stick with what the subject of the blog is about. What do you want someone to type into Google to find that blog? That should be your blog title.
Should I Use Images?
People love pictures, so if you have photos, screenshots or other images that apply to your topic then use them! However, you should only use images that you legally have a right to use. You can take photos yourself, purchase a license to a photo through a site like Shutterstock or you can use public domain images from sites like Pixabay. In any situation where you are using photos that you did not take yourself, be sure to check the fine print to be sure you are not using the photo in a way that would violate the terms of service or end with you receiving a bill from the photographer’s lawyer for unlawful use.
How Often Should I Blog?
I’m a believer in blogging and the benefits it can have on your website. So for me, I say the more you can blog, the better. That said, I know that isn’t always possible. Also, if you are blogging just for the sake of blogging and you aren’t providing unique, interesting or useful content, you’re just filling the internet with noise. So here it is - blog when you have something to say. Blog when you have a question to answer. Blog when you have a message to get out. Blog when you want to share a solution to a problem. Your goal should be to blog on a regular basis, and you should have topics to blog about to do this. Your biggest obstacle to overcome will be time.
