Blogs.... are they necessary?

[Poppylong]

Hi All

I have a facebook, instagram, gonna start twitter, website...

I have a wordpress blog, but never really blog..

Is it worth starting? I can see the point of adding weekly news etc, but I don't understand how the blog would be found/read. With the free version of Wordpress... is there a way to tag images so I appear in google images searches (for example)?

Thank you

 

[Poppylong]

Also, does it matter what I name the wordpress site? is it better to use my company name, or what I sell? Thank you

 

[jamesbaldock]

Hello Poppy,

It really depends what your business is, if you're intending to sell anything through your web site, how much time / money / effort you want to put into your marketing.

We run quite a few web sites for people who work in various industries. Some of them blog, others don't and this is based on lots of things such as how much time they can commit to doing it each week, whether they can write well or not, whether their industry is interesting enough to blog about or not.

If you could let us know what you do and what the purpose of the blog is, we might be able to give some more detailed guidance.

Kind regards


James

 

[Poppylong]

thanks James, i have a few businesses... this is for a bespoke wedding dress company

 

[Mark_Taylor_]

Blogs are very useful for many businesses (but not all), make sure you incorporate your blog into your main domain i.e www. domainname. co.uk/blog

most of the time you want to combine the page rank and juice to your main domain.

Then make sure your blog post link directly to the relevant products pages.

With images:
Make sure you name the actual filenames to something semantic and meaningful (not 0001.jpg)
Optimise the images so they are not to large in file size (remove meta data via smushit and compress, re-size).
Give all images a good descriptive alt tag
Submit a dedicated image sitemap (via XML or CSV) to Google via webmaster tools

 

[Mark_Taylor_]

Also consider Google Shopping feeds

 

[jamesbaldock]

Hi Poppy,

Then my advice would be yes.

The blog posts need to be of a good length - I'd suggest at least 500 words but aim for more like 1,200. They also need to be interesting and unique. Lots of pictures help, in particular with the wedding sector.

We've run web sites for a couple of bridal shops in the past. One was a standard shop, one was for a 'boutique' shop which offered a more involved service e.g. the bride and mother would spend the afternoon trying on addresses, sipping Champagne and generally having a fun and relaxed afternoon with the shop closed to everyone else whilst they were there.

Blog posts certainly did help with their marketing but it was also combined with SEO and Facebook marketing.

 

[NiceCat]

I would blog if you can regularly write content that is relevant to your market and interesting. You then feed the blog out through all your social media channels. Maybe throw in some insider tips relevant to weddings or a couple of give away's (and get people to subscribe)!

 

[arnydnxluk]

It's best to have the blog directly on your own website, in which case it's definitely worth having one as the content can help increase your search engine rankings. You can then use the blog to post both announcements for your customers and more general content, e.g. articles on choosing the right wedding dress, etc. Post quality content on a frequent basis to help increase your search rankings.

 

[Adam-Smith]

Blog is essential for your website to make your website ranked in google other than the SEO perspective. Blogs promote your offering and your product in the public and the most important factor of blogs is that you can share it on all social media channels which bring a huge amount of traffic towards your website. According to me, it is the best source of marketing.

 

[fisicx]

Rubbish.

Sorry @Adam-Smith but that is so wrong. A blog is NOT essential for anything. Content is important but the method of delivery isn't. You can publish your content however you want and putting it on a series of pages is fine. And sharing on SM channels will not bring in a huge amount of traffic. It's more likely it won't bring in any traffic at all.

If you enjoy writing then you can post on a blog but it's never a necessary part of your marketing.

 

[Petr Gogolin]

Internet is full of ugly blogs on 'wrong' domains but with huge following, because the content is just so good. And also a lot of blogs setup by SEO experts for a companies who post nothing, nonsense or just a fluff and nobody cares about them.

From our experience blog is only good idea when you can sit down and come up with at least ten articles within your expertise which you can imagine your audience to be able to read and think: "This is what I wanted to know!" If you have this, the rest are relatively secondary execution details which can be helped by any good online marketer.

 

[arnydnxluk]

Internet is full of ugly blogs on 'wrong' domains but with huge following, because the content is just so good.

Right, but the vast majority of blogs don't attract the kind of following which can be used to funnel significant amounts of traffic into another website. Most publisher's posts are interesting but not interesting enough for people to hang on every word. As such, for most people, a blog is an SEO tool ‒ an excuse to publish frequent content on their website ‒ and therefore having it hosted on the actual website they want to rank well is important.

Also worth keeping in mind the ranking of blog posts has a general effect on the entire domain and can give that domain more authority for certain keywords/industries.

 

[fisicx]

But it doesn't need to be a blog. It just has to be published content. A blog is just one of many methods of publishing content. The key to success is the content not the method of delivery and very few people have the skills and talent to write engaging content. Those that do will see an improvement in ranking because it's the sort of content Google likes. Everyone else will see little or no benefit.

 

[columbo]

Blogs are important for 4 reasons:

Credibility - shows you are knowledgable.
Passion - shows you are passionate about what you do. You can be the coffee distributor who talks about your recent trip to Columbia etc.
Buzz- It has always been my belief that an aura of "buzz" is vital around any business. Ever been to a town with 5 restaurants and only two are really busy. Usually down to the "buzz" effect. Your blog has to create a buzz around your business. It provides "social proof" to potential customers that your business is busy and they are making the right choice in calling you.

And more important with so many "long tail" searches being done on Google - a blog gives you great scope to promote niche product or services e.g. "Volvo penta engines Plymouth" or "wedding photography cheddar gorge". Saves you a lot of money on Google Adwords.

 

[Dan Izzard]

A blog is just a vehicle for content that should provide value to your audience. By packaging it as a 'blog' all you are saying is that it is personal (normally), regular (should be) and published on your site.

If you have an e-commerce site for example, other longer form content on your site (a blog, an article or whatever you call it) provides an area to show proof that you are knowledgeable in the area of product you are selling. It will help with SEO (if done correctly) but in its first instance should be engaging to someone who is sat infront of it.

 

[Ian J]

A blog is just a vehicle for content that should provide value to your audience. By packaging it as a 'blog' all you are saying is that it is personal (normally), regular (should be) and published on your site.

It will help with SEO (if done correctly) but in its first instance should be engaging to someone who is sat infront of it.

I wish that you'd tell my competitors that. They have all jumped onto the blogging bandwagon and are busily churning out loads of rubbish designed to add bulk to their websites but with limited value to the reader. I've noticed that since they started blogging, their websites haven't moved up the rankings at all for any search terms of value and that is hardly surprising when a couple of dozen (or more) brokers are all blogging about the difference between factoring and invoice discounting

 

[Dan Izzard]

I wish that you'd tell my competitors that.

We had to tell our clients that once (about 7 years ago too!)

I have been looking at Facebook instant articles recently, although in two minds whether driving traffic there (with links through to the website embedded in the articles) would be worth a test.

 

[Gecko001]

I hate to be on a downer here since many people here seem spend a lot of your time producing blogs and promoting them as a marketing tool etc. but speaking as a consumer, I cannot remember the last time I looked at a blog, never mind buying something as a result of looking at a one. I think it was some time in the last century in fact. I am not joking I remember looking at one when I first heard the word "blog" and since then nothing. I know they are not always called "blogs" on the website and are often just content which is updated regularly, but still I cannot remember reading any of it even if I stumble upon it.

 

[fisicx]

And more important with so many "long tail" searches being done on Google - a blog gives you great scope to promote niche product or services e.g. "Volvo penta engines Plymouth" or "wedding photography cheddar gorge". Saves you a lot of money on Google Adwords.

You don't need to blog to do this. You just need to publish the content on your site. And a normal page is great for this - it also has the advantage of permanence, something Goole likes.

If you have an e-commerce site for example, other longer form content on your site (a blog, an article or whatever you call it) provides an area to show proof that you are knowledgeable in the area of product you are selling.

But is still doesn't need to be a blog. You can publish that expert knowledge on the category page or a supporting page or whatever.

 

[Dan Izzard]

@Gecko001 I probably read 1% of what I see "blog" wise - especially B2B etc. It's the content that isn't blocks of text, or just streams of consciousness about vague subject areas. That's just poor content, blog or otherwise.

It's about stuff you read that builds up brand value by association, personality, even humour. Do I want to read your blog? Eurgh, no. Do I want to see a step by step on how you got 100 retweets on your tweet by strategically playing Twitters algorithm? Yeah, maybe I do. Oh, you sell a social media scheduling tool.

But is still doesn't need to be a blog. You can publish that expert knowledge on the category page or a supporting page or whatever.

Yep, category pages could be the ideal place to put it. If your /blog is a wasteland, why not inject it right to the conversion page.

I guess people just get hung up on the idea of a 'blog' same as vlog.

 

[HazelC]

Blogs are very useful for many businesses (but not all), make sure you incorporate your blog into your main domain i.e www. domainname. co.uk/blog

most of the time you want to combine the page rank and juice to your main domain.

Then make sure your blog post link directly to the relevant products pages.

With images:
Make sure you name the actual filenames to something semantic and meaningful (not 0001.jpg)
Optimise the images so they are not to large in file size (remove meta data via smushit and compress, re-size).
Give all images a good descriptive alt tag
Submit a dedicated image sitemap (via XML or CSV) to Google via webmaster tools

I would say exactly that; connect the blog to your website otherwise you are sending people somewhere else to get to you (risk of loosing visitors on journey) and all the SEO benefits of a blog would be wasted on a site that isn't your business website.

 

[fisicx]

Blogs are very useful for many businesses (but not all), make sure you incorporate your blog into your main domain i.e www. domainname. co.uk/blog

I would say exactly that; connect the blog to your website...

Even better, don't even make it look like a blog. Fully integrate the posts into the site so they look like part of the main content. I should be able to visit the page and not consider it to be anything else than part of the site.

So for example if you have a page about holidays you can link to other pages where you can write about places you visited and link from there to pages where you write about the best way to upgrade your room and so on. They could be pages or posts or galleries or whatever - the visitor doesn't care. They just want to seamlessly move from one part of the site to another.

So don't put it in a 'blog' folder. Don't have a navigation link called 'blog'. Don't even change the layout - it should look just like every other page on the site.

 

[columbo]

You don't need to blog to do this. You just need to publish the content on your site. And a normal page is great for this - it also has the advantage of permanence, something Goole likes.

But is still doesn't need to be a blog. You can publish that expert knowledge on the category page or a supporting page or whatever.

A blog is permanent too!

The great thing about a blog is that...it offers a certain neatness to your site. My personal opinion is that sites crammed with too much content confuses people. A blog affords a business a blank sheet for rich content without cluttering up the actual "call to action" / main part of your website which - IMHO - should be clean and neat.

A blog also offers a sense of freshness. If your write about, lets say about how, for example, electric cars are better for urban driving, on the main section of your website. You might have written this content 5 years ago. But when its on a blog, written lets say 6 months ago, the information just seems fresher and more up-to-date.

 

[RedApple]

Precisely creating a blog is important to any business for the following reasons:

1. It creates an opportunity for your audience to share your blog to others
2. It connects you with your target and potential customers to know your brand
3. It can leverage and increase your visibility on search engine results pages

 

[rf-harris]

Having a blog for almost any kind of business is really helpful as it provides you great opportunity to offer something new to your website visitors.

 

[fisicx]

You are all still missing the point. It's content that matters not the means of delivery.

Newness is not important either. Google rewards longevity. And with good internal linking you can boost stable content. Google cares not one jot if it is a page, product or blog post as long as it can link to the content. This is why a blog post can be less permanent. Once it's gone from the recent posts list the links can go. Which means you have to do more work to give google access to the content, thereby adding more clutter to the site.

I'm not suggesting you don't blog. I'm just suggesting it's not necessary as there are other (often better) ways to publish great content.

 

[JamesM]

It depends on your end goal.

If you're offering a guttering service for local home owners and landlords, then probably not.

But if you're selling digital information products, then it's probably an important way to pixel your audience.

 

[Amy POPContent]

I agree it completely depends on your goal - and a blog isn't the only method of delivering content on your website, but it's often a logical place to put articles.

If you're selling bespoke wedding dresses, I think it's definitely worth blogging about. Not only is it an interesting niche, but it's high end enough that people would be more likely to research their options a lot online before making a purchase.

They key really is to ensure you research your topics first to make sure people are actually searching for the information you're putting out AND if you have any chance of competing with whoever's already ranking well in search for those terms. Also, you'll need to consider how much time you can dedicate to marketing your blog, as just writing good articles doesn't often lead to instant success - promotion is very important too.

If you do manage to create a following with your articles, if it's done well, the other advantage in search is that the whole of your website should get a boost too.

It can be pricey and take a great deal of time - but if it's done well and you have the right type of business where you'll see the returns, I would highly recommend giving it a go.

 

[fisicx]

I agree it completely depends on your goal - and a blog isn't the only method of delivering content on your website, but it's often a logical place to put articles.

But you don't have to make it look like a blog. If fully integrated with the site the links to and from the article should be seamless. On a site selling bespoke wedding dresses the articles could be about the weddings with photo galleries and testimonials and feel good stories. You can add these to the money pages with a few lines of code so they look like an extension of the page.

Don't think of it being a blog - just use it a repository of content. Once you get out of the mindset of it being a 'blog' you can unlock a whole load of new marketing avenues

 

[Amy POPContent]

I agree @fisicx - it's best to think of each 'article' as simply a new webpage, and think what people would really respond to in terms of content and the subject matter. It certainly doesn't need to be reams of text and nothing else every time.

When you're selling something like bespoke wedding dresses, images and video will be a huge selling point. I'd just bear in mind that Google tends to like pages filled with text, as it has a tough time 'reading' what an images subject matter is (although of course it can read the image details).

If you do fill a page with lots of great images, just remember to add some useful stories/information to the page as well if you can to help Google figure out what the page is about. I'd always recommend writing for your customer then editing for Google - so don't write content solely for Google's interests.

Hope that's helpful

 

[UKSBD]

Don't think of it being a blog

Why not?

just use it a repository of content. Once you get out of the mindset of it being a 'blog' you can unlock a whole load of new marketing avenues

Why not do both?

Somebody in the wedding industry who goes to regular wedding fairs, meets dress designers, meets new brides, visits venues, etc., etc. is the perfect type of person to blog, (if they write well and enjoy writing that is)

 

[fisicx]

Don't call it a blog. Call it 'wedding news'. It's like a mental switch that focus the mind on the stories you want to tell.

I've got a plumber's site I'm working on and he wanted a blog. I asked him what he was going to use it for and he wasn't really sure. I changed the name to 'Recent Projects' and it now fits better to the purpose of the site: which is to showcase his work. A line of code in the theme files and when you land on the 'kitchens' page you see featured images of all his recent kitchen work with links to the posts. Yes, they are blog posts but they are no integrated into the site rather than being a 'blog'.

Which one is more likely to attract clicks: 'sock blog' or something called 'sock technology'?

 

[UKSBD]

Don't call it a blog. Call it 'wedding news'. It's like a mental switch that focus the mind on the stories you want to tell.

Again, why not do both?

You can have a news section and also a blog section.

I wouldn't call it a blog though, I would call it a diary - A dress makers diary - and use it how blogs were initially intended for.

The OP goes to a wedding fair and they can write about it in a marketing way, a news way and also in a diary like way.

Don't get wrapped up with the word "Blog" that it makes you think they are a bad thing.

 

[webgeek]

Personally, I like to keep the editorial content away from the glossy brochure side of the site.

The approach I've tried to consistently use is to have the product/service pages, and relevant details, all on the relatively static side of the site, referred to as the glossy brochure part of the site. Here, the voice is quite corporate, but benefit driven, explains products, what they'll do for people, what they cost, and why they're an ideal choice for a given demographic.

The blog side of the site is great for editorial. Its voice can vary, have multiple authors, go into detail about particular aspects of a product (that would otherwise be too wordy on the glossy brochure side). The blog is good for colourful background, histories, use cases or case studies, and can be targeted much tighter than the glossy side, where you're trying to appeal to the wider audience.

The blog benefits from the Google Fresh algorithm boosts, so that when you post something new, it quickly ranks, and then fades if it isn't good enough to hold its ground. It can link back to key pages on the brochure side, target long tail phrases, and becomes a funnel that pulls traffic in and pushes it to where you want (often CTA's for further down the sales/marketing funnel).

As fisicx said, it doesn't have to be called a blog - it could be a category on the glossy side of the site - really the two are indistinguishable to Google and humans. The key is slotting it in so it doesn't distract from moving people through the sales funnel, making sure it pulls in traffic and then helps direct those prospects where you want them to go.

For us, the blog gets people to download best practice guides, manager guides and occasionally view product demos or trials. Once we've got their details, then it's a series of drip fed emails to nurture them into buyer ready states. This drip nurturing is done using marketing automation software we built for ourselves in-house, though any store bought MA tool could do the same for anyone else. Drip campaigns keep you front of mind. If they're any good, they keep you front of wallet.

As far as social goes, whenever I post on the blog, I mention it socially, getting a backlink, some added page views, and validation to Google. It has a minor SEO benefit, a minor sales impact - but it only takes a couple of minutes, so it's a small expense with a variable return.

 

[webgeek]

For brides, why not have the Dress Success Blog - with pics showcasing happy brides you've outfitted?

You could easily have that as a section, in a more general - Bridal Success Blog, with a category about planning and timescales, other important purchases (where you could trade advertising space with complementary service providers), dress pics, etc.

 

[UKSBD]

For brides, why not have the Dress Success Blog - with pics showcasing happy brides you've outfitted?

Blogs for wedding sites can be great tools.

You build up relationships with photographers by featuring their work (with their permission)

The bride/groom/bridesmaids/guests spread news on their social networks/own blogs/etc. if they are in a "blog/article/feature/diary/news" (whatever you want to call it) post.

You build up relationships with other providers; cake maker/florist/stationary providers/hairdressers/etc.

A great section on some of the good wedding dress designers websites I've seen are what they refer to as The Real Brides sections

Done well I wouldn't mind betting these could attract dozens of natural links and also a great way of connecting with the local wedding providers where the wedding was held.

 

[Petr Gogolin]

Also worth keeping in mind the ranking of blog posts has a general effect on the entire domain and can give that domain more authority for certain keywords/industries.

I'm all up for having the blog on the main domain I want to support. My point was that all this thinking comes as secondary after @Poppylong makes a decision if it makes sense at all from the point of being able to come up with some relevant content.

 

[fisicx]

Done well I wouldn't mind betting these could attract dozens of natural links and also a great way of connecting with the local wedding providers where the wedding was held.

They do. Same for most lifestyle, fashion and similar sites.

It's the trick I've been telling clients for years. Tell stories on your site and you can pick up traffic and links from all sorts of places.

But call them stories, news, tips and hints, projects or what's new. Just don't call it 'blog'. Giving it a name that describes what it is gives a sense of purpose (and helps Google).

 

[Ian J]

Which one is more likely to attract clicks: 'sock blog' or something called 'sock technology'?

I have a blog dedicated to my thoughts on various aspects of factoring. It's called Factoring Blog and comes top of the Google rankings for that term but in all honesty who is ever going to search that term?

I don't think that in my years of Googling for various things I've ever searched for anything called XXX blog unless I am looking for a particular site but have forgotten the url