Step 13 - Using Your Blog

Subject: 

Uhh yeah, so what do I do with this blog thingy?

Blog: 

Alright in the last lesson we talked about the ways you can incorporate a blog into your site.  If you aren't interested in blogging, then you can ignore this lesson.  The future lessons will get you back on the track on how to promote your traditional site.  This lesson is how people can best use their blog to attract customers.  These tips work whether the blog is on your main site, or hosted elsewhere (wordpress.com for example).

The key to a blog is updating it properly.  I will discuss two techniques you can use.

1. Brand yourself as an expert.  Use your blog to answer questions about your industry.  Think of a huge list of questions people might have about your service or product.  Each question can be one "post" on your blog.  You might even start to rank in Google for these questions, attracting potential leads when they search for answers.

2. Use your original keywords.  Remember you made a huge list of local search terms in one of the first steps?  You used some of these keywords on your website already but you probably a have a large list remaining.  Here is where you can use them.  Each keyword is the title of your post!

***NOTE*** If using Wordpress.com set your permalinks (in settings menu) to Custom: /%postname%/ .  This will ensure that the URL of each of your posts has the post title in the address.  Which means, you will also have keywords in your URL.  A definite bonus in Google's eyes.

Now you can make a post a day, or a week or whatever.  They key is to stay active and somewhat regular.  No huge delays in between posts.  Once you have a huge list of questions to answer, in combination with your existing keyword list, start making posts.  You can even make a bunch of small posts one day, and schedule them to show up on your blog at future dates.

As for the posts themselves, I think you can keep it simple.  I would suggest to aim for +250 words.  You can add a picture if you want, but it isn't necessary.  If your blog is offsite, remember to include a link to your main website.

In conclusion:  The best bet is a website built with WordPress.  The second best option is to have your blog offsite but linking to your site.  Make regular blog posts using keyword terms and industry specific news/questions.  Keep the posts in the 250 word range.

I would also suggest looking up as much info as you can about the importance of blogging to business.  That is another course entirely and well worth the time invested.