What to blog about on your company website

Aug. 29, 2014 –
Many businesses are discovering the immense power of having
a blog on their company website. Here are some tips on how to engage
your customers.

Aug. 29, 2014 –
Many businesses are discovering the immense power of having
a blog on their company website. Here are some tips on how to engage
your customers.

Having a company blog can be extremely beneficial to your
business in many ways. As high-quality, informative content becomes an
increasingly important factor in determining how sites will rank in search
results, many businesses are discovering the immense power of having a blog on
their company website to increase rankings, increase traffic, expand brand
awareness and drive conversions.

We are going to take a look into what kind of content
businesses should blog about and how to establish themselves as industry
leaders.

First, the absolute golden rule of blogging on your business
site….

It’s about them, not you

It is a very common misunderstanding amongst businesses that
having a blog is a place to flaunt how awesome the company is, convince readers
to convert, talk up services, or inveigle their audience with “101 Reasons Why
You’ll Love Our Products” posts. If you think your company blog is all about
self-promotion, you are missing the point.

It’s not about you, your products, or trying to prove
anything to potential customers. It’s about providing information and value to
people who are searching within your industry for answers, advice, and
information.

It just so happens that these people are going to be your
most qualified leads as well.

An example in the home renovation niche

Let’s use John’s Awesome Plumbing as an example.

Newlyweds Tim and Tonya just moved into a house and want to
make some renovations to their bathroom. They know there is a lot of work to be
done, but want to do as much of it as possible themselves to save some money.
So they get online and search for “How To Caulk a Bathtub Yourself”.

John’s Awesome Plumbing understands the need to cater to
people who are looking for helpful information in the plumbing industry. Let’s
say they have a post on their blog entitled “How To Caulk A Bathroom By
Yourself In 5 Easy Steps” – Tim and Tonya end up finding this blog entry on
John’s Awesome Plumbing’s website and learn how to caulk their bathtub
DIY-style. At the bottom of the article, they find a link to another post on
John’s Awesome Plumbing’s website – “How To Diagnose Water Leakage Under Your
Bathroom Sink” – perfect! That’s one of the things on their bathroom to-do
list.

Eventually, Tim says to Tonya, “Gosh, these guys at John’s
Awesome Plumbing sure know what they’re talking about, don’t they, honey? Maybe
we should get in touch with them to do the pipe work underneath the house
because I’m not quite so sure we can do that on our own.”

But if they’re searching for information on how to caulk a
bathtub and all John’s Awesome Plumbing talks about in their blog is how
amazing all of their plumbers are, how they’ve plumbed fancy hotels and
convention centers, why people need to choose them over the other plumbers in
the area, etc., people like Tim and Tonya will never derive value from what
they’re posting.

What would you search for?

Think about when you search for helpful information online.
You don’t want to be inundated with a bunch of self-promotional garbage about
how awesome one company is over the other. That’s what an About Us page is for.
Not your blog. Your blog is a place to compile interesting, informative
information within your industry in such a way that establishes your company as
an industry authority and, at the same time, provides helpful, valuable
information in response to the human needs behind the search query.

So what kind of content should you be posting on your
company blog?

Answers to industry questions

People search the internet for solutions to their problems.
If you can credibly establish yourself as an industry authority, you gain the
trust of those asking the questions and when it comes time for them to make a
purchase, you’ll be their obvious first choice. 

How-to guides

Informative content that that educates and empowers readers
is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field. If you can
teach someone how to tackle smaller projects on their own and establish
yourself as an industry expert, when it comes time to hire someone for the
bigger projects, you’ll again be the obvious choice.

In-depth, informative, educational content

Notice a theme here? Having a company blog that provides
educational, informative information to your readers is invaluable for creating
trust and authority. You are most likely an expert in your own field, as you
should be. Share this expertise with those who are searching for it and they’ll
trust it when they need it beyond their own capacity to get the job done.

An industry glossary

Your potential customers may be perplexed by something
related to your industry and searching for a definition for a specific term or
acronym. We see this a lot in the world of SEO and internet marketing (PPC,
CPC, GA, GWT, DF, NF, SEM, KPI, 301 Redirects, etc.). Industry glossaries are a
great way to drive traffic and pique interest in your site over a competitor’s.

Share industry news

Blogging about newsworthy topics within your industry is a
great way to attract potential customers who are conducting research. For
example, you may have a real estate website where you can publish news
regarding new housing laws in your area or post weekly roundups of open houses
in a particular neighborhood.

Or, in our case, we always make an effort to blog about the
latest Google algorithm updates.

On May 19, 2014, Google began implementing the Panda 4.0
update. Immediately, our CEO Chuck Aikens posted this article, which garnered a
722% increase in website traffic over the next two days, as there were many
website owners who saw fluctuations in rankings and wanted to research news in
the industry. Those are exactly the kind of people we want reading this blog.
But if all we posted on our blog was self-promotional fluff, they never would
have visited our site.

There are many, many topics that you can blog about on your
company blog that provide informative value to your readers and don’t come
across as overly self-promotional.

Keep in mind, it’s alright to talk yourself up a little bit.
Just don’t write your entire blog as a bragging outlet. That being said, if you
would like to take your business to the next level, our content marketing
specialists here at Volume Nine would love to help you get started today!

Nyk Zukowski (nzukowski@seo.com ) is an SEO Account Manager
with Volume Nine (http://www.v9seo.com ), an Internet marketing company  located in Denver, Colorado that was founded
in 2006 by Chuck Aikens. With a team of more than 25 Internet marketing
experts, the company's primary focus is on SEO and growing organic traffic,
which has made Volume Nine one of the fastest growing companies in Denver.