Starting a business blog can be difficult. There are many ways to approach blogging, but the biggest question I get is how to do so in the most effective way possible. In other words, how can we blog to increase revenue for my business?
Uplist to follow on starting your business blog:
- Identify the major service or product you want to increase revenue for
- Identify the main commercial/transactional keywords you want to rank for
- Research and identify long-tail commercial and informational keywords to target
- Ensure informational keywords are as close to the bottom of the sales funnel as possible (more on this later)
- Create a content template and schedule to follow
- Produce the content (either yourself, hire a freelance writer, or use a service provider)
- Publish as much as you can, as soon as you can
The Uplist above is the process that I follow. You start with identifying what service or product you want to focus on first. If you are a new business, it is whatever your bread and butter might be. You might also be interested in “low hanging fruits” with low-competition, high-yield services. If you are a growing business, it would be whatever business is the easiest to scale or has the largest potential or highest profit margins. Whatever it may be, it becomes the foundation of your business blogging campaign. Choosing one that complements your business is important.
After that, the next steps to follow pertain to keyword research: finding out what opportunities are available for us to focus on. You can start with a list of 10 or a list of 100. The goal is to eventually build a roadmap that can be followed to the end. Picking and choosing keywords is as simple as using tools to identifying main keywords that will be your keyword clusters, then researching further for longer tail keywords. As a goal, we want to aim for keywords at the lowest parts of the sales funnel. This means that we want to pull traffic from keyword channels where searchers are as close to converting as possible. Here are two examples:
- Orthodontics: how much are braces, orthodontist vs. dentist, can orthodontics fix TMJ
- Cosmetic dentistry: veneers vs crowns, benefits of porcelain veneers, cosmetic surgeon near me
The characteristics of such informative keywords is that though they don’t guarantee visitors will convert, they do generate invaluable traffic that can be sold to. If you pick the right keywords closest to the time when searcher intent is ready to decide on a service or product, then you can generate sales for as long as you rank on that keyword.
One thing overlooked by business blogging is that ranking on information keywords isn’t simply about generating traffic. Improved rankings also provide topical authority for the main commercial and transactional keywords we want to rank for. By performing well on such keywords, providing value to readers, and having positive behavioral page metrics, search engines can better understand that your website is the trusted authority in the space.
One more tidbit: When in doubt and unsure, follow your competitors! By follow, I mean leverage their existing organic search visibility by checking what keywords they are ranking for. That way, you can analyze what keyword channels they are weak at and what keyword channels you can capitalize on.
As long as you produce content that capitalizes on keyword channels, then you can always rest assured that you are in the right direction. Even if you suddenly change plans halfway, it’s never out of the picture that you have contributed to your digital asset (your website domain) both from a sales perspective (an informative partner to readers) and from a lead/sales generation standpoint (capturing multiple keyword channels).
Keep blogging, and always plan ahead. This will ensure your website can work hard for you far into the future!
