How do I create a business blog?

Here at T&S, we’re big fans of blogging. While we weren’t nearly as good at it back then, we’ve been blogging for our agency since 2008. And our longest continuous blog for a client has been running since 2011.

Blogging is great for SEO, connecting with current and potential clients, and demonstrating your expertise and approachability. But how do you actually create a business blog?

Create your strategy

The first thing you want to do is come up with your strategy. Why do you want to blog in the first place? That will help determine how often you blog, how long your blogs are, and even the topics you focus on.

Here are some reasons you might consider blogging:

• Show up higher in search engines for services you offer
• Demonstrate your expertise to clients that currently only buy one thing from you
• Have original content you can repurpose on social media
• Have something you can email your list of customers and potential customers

Add blog functionality to your website

Next up, you’ll want to add the ability to blog to your current website. If your existing website is on WordPress, it’s pretty straightforward: 

1. Create a blank page with a title like “Blog” or “News.”
2. In Settings > Reading, set the “Posts Page” dropdown to your new blank page.
3. Go to Posts > Add New, and write and publish your first blog.
4. Go to Appearance > Menus, and add the new Posts Page to the menu.

That fourth step may vary based on your website’s setup.

If your website isn’t WordPress, you may still have blog functionality built in, but you’ll want to consult with your support team.

If you do NOT have blog functionality built in, you may be able to set up a WordPress website using a blog subdomain or an entirely new domain. For instance, if your website is example.com, you can set up WordPress at blog.example.com, and your blog can live there. It’s not as good for SEO as being on your website, but it can work.

Of course, if you’re one of our clients, you likely have managed hosting from us, which means we can do this for you. Just reach out!

Brainstorm and write

Now it’s time to get writing! I recommend brainstorming a year’s worth of blog topics, then writing the first month.

If you’re blogging partially for SEO, start searching by on Google for words and phrases you think people might use when searching for your products or services. Then you can use three things to come up with topics:

1. The auto-complete suggestions
2. The “People also ask” section
3. The “Related searches” section

Of course, you can also pick up a copy of Tim’s book, Blog a Week. It has 52 different ways to come up with blog topics.

Then once you’ve come up with your idea, write your first month’s worth of blogs! The blogs should be as long as it needs to be but shoot for a minimum of 300 words.

Get the word out

Finally, you want to have some way to share your new blog articles with the world. Sure, Google will eventually find them, and they’ll show up in searches, but you shouldn’t rely on Google alone.

Some ideas include:

• Post them on social media through your company pages.
• Post them on social media through your profile.
• Starting an email newsletter to deliver them through Mailchimp or HubSpot
• Share them in groups on Facebook or LinkedIn.
• Share them on link-sharing websites like Reddit.
• Share photos from the article with links on Pinterest.
• Answer questions on Quora related to them with an excerpt and link.
• Make a TikTok about the new blog.

Of course, that’s just a few ideas. The sky is the limit! The key is to get the word out and not just assume people will find it.

Hopefully, you can see that a blog can be beneficial, but it takes some work. Of course, many of our clients have us write their blogs for them, often based on monthly interviews, so their expertise and personality shine through.

If that sounds appealing to you, we’d love to talk. Or, if you want to blog on your own, why wait? Get started!