Blogs have many super powers to help drive organic traffic to your website.
Starting an online business is exciting! You get to be in charge of building your company from the ground up. You choose your platform, template and theme. You have your products and pretty photographs, you have the email subscriber box and a “blogs” tab.
You hit the launch button. You are like a kid at Christmas. You do an actual happy dance at your first sale. It may have been your mum, but she paid real money and now you have a business!
Fast forward 12 months and your online store is stalling, your friend network is exhausted, you never got around to writing a blog and you have no email subscribers. Needless to say, you need to find some new customers!
What should you do?
You could, fork out a bucket load of money to a big shot web developer for the freshest, shiniest, most user friendly website. But your analytics won’t change.
It does not matter how whiz bang your website is, if the content isn’t right your traffic flow will stall.
Increasing organic (read “unpaid”) traffic to your website is as easy as writing a few blogs.
Search engines send out their web crawlers to collect information based on questions users might need the answer to. This is where your blogs become super useful.
But your blogs need a few secret ingredients before the omnipresent Google God delights upon you.
Write for a person, not an algorithm
Firstly, you need to write for your reader, not a search engine. Whilst it is important to consider your SEOs (Search Engine Optimization), ultimately a search engine doesn’t buy from you. Would you rather read an article that sounds robotic, or one that connects with you?
As better algorithms are developed, on the daily, search engines are becoming aware of content written specifically to be found by search engines.
Create a relationship
Just like in a bricks and mortar storefront, you need to connect with your customers. By building a relationship you are more likely to get repeat business, word of mouth recommendations and more sales. Harder to do online, as your winning personality isn’t always on show.
So you need to create an online community for your product. Not just sell it. You need to show off your expertise.
Blogs are your best friend. Hawking some kitchen utensils? Ready some recipes. A clothes vendor? Sling a style guide. Propagating plants? Prepare a guide to planting seasons.
Your style guide demonstrates your clothes are on fleek. Your recipes suggest you are a bit of a chef. Your planting advice shows off your horticultural knowledge. You have now built in a level of trust. You clearly know your product. Your website visitors might not be ready to buy yet, but are more likely to remember you, and, be back later with their credit cards at the ready.
Write longer posts with headings
Headings help to get you noticed by a search engine. But what about the “writing for a person” point? Headings are also super helpful for your reader, especially for longer articles. They break up your writing and point readers in the direction of specific information.
Longer content also helps get your noticed by a search engine. Content of around 1000 words is favoured by the search engine gods and goddesses. By allowing yourself to write longer articles you are more likely to fully answer the question a user may have. Yet another feature the search engine’s algorithm is hunting for, depth of an answer.
Let’s be real, not many people are going to read every single word of your 1000+ word blog. By using headings it makes it easier for your readers and potential customers to skim and scan.
Build in links throughout your blogs
By linking to other websites throughout your blog it can help your ranking. This is not a proven method, but can be reasoned.
Google is searching for web pages that most completely answers the search query. By providing links to other, or more information, your page is most likely providing the most in depth response with the added authority that comes with a researched article.
A better way to use links throughout your blog, that is proven to appease the gods and goddesses, is to link back to your own content. Internal linking.
By linking your pages together, the web crawlers used by search engines have a way to navigate around your site.
Think of your site as though it were a triangle. The web crawler enters at point A. It can easily follow the road from point A to point B, from B to C and from C to A.
How do you do this in your blog? Link to another of your pages within your post.
Write an article on the hottest accessories you just can’t go without this summer. Within that post, link to your category of sweet tops that will so totally match this summer’s must haves. You have now created a path for that web crawler to investigate your site more, convincing it of your website’s ability to fully answer the search query.
Use pictures and images
Using pictures throughout your content has a few advantages. Your pictures enhance your readers’ experience. Images grab people’s attention, the message of your article can be conveyed and a difficult concept illustrated.
Your pictures can appear in an image search, increasing your exposure.
By using pictures in your posts you can link back to other content, internally or externally.
Images are easily shared via social media platforms. What business wouldn’t love a share on Instagram?
You just need to be mindful that some images are copyrighted or require some form of acknowledgement within your blog.
Hire a copywriter
You have a business to run. Your products won’t design and photograph themselves. Your online store may not be your only job. How will you find the time to write all these posts?
Outsource! Outsourcing is the new do it yourself.
Not only will it save you time, it will ensure you have quality content.
Quality content should never be underestimated.
Posting poorly written blogs detracts from your reader’s experience. It erodes your customer relationships. And will never suffice as an offering for the search engine gods and goddesses.
By hiring a copywriting, you will save time, be provided with content that is of quality, and uses all of the above mentioned points to gain you organic website traffic.