Have you ever wondered how websites have such amazing content? With blog posts that are updated regularly – as in weekly, not yearly, and yet the writing is always interesting and varied? If you run a website yourself you know just how time consuming it can be maintaining updates and keeping the basic relevant information current, without adding in interesting, SEO rich, content on a frequent schedule.
Tricks of the Trade
One of the ways to ensure that you always have regular updated content is to hire a full or part-time writer. However, can you justify salary for a blog post a week? Can you find a brilliant writer who would be willing to work for only a few hours each week in order to get a weekly blog post up on your site?
Another option is to contract gifted writers to generate blog content. If you head down this route, you remove much of the stress and worry that comes from having an in-house writer. Look for a company that will verify the originality and quality of the content like Quality Guest Posts (qualityguestposts.com).
Why Blog at All?
Or maybe you’re thinking of the third option – just not bothering with a blog at all. It is a valid option. However, there are a couple of reasons why this is not your best option:
Your Clients
We humans love being kept in the loop. We love to know what the latest trends are, what law changes might affect us, what new releases are about to come out. No matter what industry you’re in, your blog can be full of information that keeps your customers coming back to your site week after week – and clients that are coming back to your website are also seeing new products and services each time.
Your Search Ranking
This one is quite important for both new and repeat business. Just because you’ve got clients that order from you regularly, don’t think that they can always remember your business name, and they are highly unlikely to remember your phone number – but they will use a search engine to look you up. If would be unfortunate if they found your competitor instead.
Search Engine Optimization
Otherwise known as SEO – this simply means creating content that search engines love. The idea may be simple, but implementation can be more difficult. This is partially because search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo are constantly updating their software to try to improve the search results that they feed you (click here for search engine information). They use a range of methods in order to give you unique results that they think you will want. Modern search engines are able to scan the content of a website and determine what it is about based on the contents of keywords. They also look at your browsing history to determine your location and general preferences based on which sites you frequent. They can then take your search term and produce relevant results. This is why if your vegan friend who lives in Seattle searches for “best restaurant” they will get very different results compared to your BBQ Rib loving friend who lives in France.
In order to make sure that you reach your target audience you need to ensure that your content uses the right keywords in the correct manner. If you are a global company, you will have different writing needs than that of a local niche store.
Using Guest Posts
There are several reasons why you will want to seriously consider using an external writer to create guest posts for you.
Obviously, people who write blog posts are aware of SEO techniques, they are also aware of the methods to avoid that if used can cause search engines to disregard your website completely.
The writers are also able to supply original content that keeps your website fresh and relevant. This is particularly important if you are in an industry that has constant changes – which in the modern world really is most industries.
Although the writing will keep within a theme to stay relevant to your business, there will also be greater variation of actual topics and voice than if you or someone currently on your team was 100% responsible for the writing.
Blogs are a great tool to create engagement – but you need to make sure that the content does not become stale or you risk damaging that all important first impression.