A fantastic way to help any SEO campaign is to write your own company blog. It is easy to do and provides a great means for people to find your site and purchase the products they’re looking for. The links that take people from your blog to your company website will be seen by Google as positive and it will increase its trust in your website, thus helping you to rank better.
The Connect Blog is available for £199, or is included free within the Standard and Extended SEO Service plans.
What is a Blog?
A blog (derived from web-log) is a website which is regularly updated by a user or users, in the form of posts including commentary, descriptions, news, videos or pictures.
Examples of blogs:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors
And store site blogs:
http://blog.furniture123.co.uk
http://www.promotionalgiftsblog.co.uk
Why is it Useful?
Blogs are frequently updated with new posts, and therefore search engines put a high weight on them because of the continuous fresh content. Not only can the blog inform potential customers of new products or news within your company, it also provides the perfect opportunity to build links from the blog to your website. Therefore you can direct traffic straight to your website, increasing the numbers of sales.
What do I write in a Blog?
A blog can simply be used to talk about the kind of products you sell. Perhaps you’re offering a brand new product and want people to know about it. Then create a post on the blog, making sure you provide as much information as possible about it. You could be more diverse, talking about your company; history, location, people – whatever you can think of. Be honest and light-hearted, it helps customers feel comfortable about the business and buying from you. Drop in pictures, or even a brief video guiding the customer around the shop. Be creative!
Ok, i’m interested. Where do I start?
We now offer a service in which we integrate a blog into your website. This set up is very beneficial because any link value you obtain through the blog will be passed on to the rest of your website, increasing the authority of your site in search engines such as Google.
The blog is free when a Standard or Extended SEO service is purchased. Otherwise the cost is £199.
This price covers the set up of the blog, the design, as well as the configuration. The blog will sit on the main URL, eg: www.example.com/blog. The design fee covers changes to reflect the look of the main site, but we are not committing to doing an exact copy. If additional design work is required, then this can be purchased by the hour. We also provide 2 complimentary help sheets: One is how to write a blog post and the other about optimising your blog for search engines.
How much time will I need to spend on this?
You don’t have to write it on your own. Get other people within your company involved if you can; it provides a more varied series of posts and makes it easier to create new content quickly.
What do I write in my first Blog post?
The first post is always the trickiest as it’s hard to know how to approach it. The best thing to do is just introduce yourself. Follow these suggestions:
Who you are, and what your business is. Why you are blogging. What you’re blogging about. Whether the reader can get involved- can they leave comments?
How often do I have to write in it?
You don’t need to post every day- it is better to write less often and provide posts of higher quality; once every couple of weeks could well be enough.
But do not post blog entries that are too long and involve a lot of scrolling down the page. An individual blog entry of around 250-300 words is plenty.
Further help:
Click on the following URL: http://www.problogger.net to find out more about blogging. It has a wealth of articles and help for beginners.
We will provide you with a helpsheet on how to write a blog post. When you have a blog set up, you will be able to login and find more help with the general use of the blog- just click on ‘help’ in the top-right of the page.
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