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Tips for Choosing Blog Topics

Light bulb moment! Like the saying, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes,” I don’t always take the time to write my own blog posts – because I’m busy coming up with blog topics and blogging for my clients. While I truly enjoy writing, I always do my clients’ work before writing for myself.

This week I have enough room in my schedule to at least start a blog post and thought, “What should I write about?” then proceeded to turn to Google about what makes a good blog post. WAIT! I know what makes a good blog post, I don’t need to Google that! <The truth is, it was late and I was taking the easy way out…and a bit curious about what others had to say on the subject.> And from there the idea for this post was born.  Here are ideas and examples for choosing the best blog topics for your business. Read on!

  • Make Your Blog Topics Relevant to Your Business
  • Blogs Should be Interesting to Your Readers
  • Blogging Can Help You Get Found Online
  • Blog Topics Can Help Extend Your Social Media Reach
  • Blog Topics Tell Google Your Site is Authentic

Make Your Blog Topics Relevant to Your Business

Generally speaking, your blog is an extension of the value and knowledge your business can provide to your customers. In most cases you’ll want to capitalize on that by sharing information and your personal experience. “You want me to give away my secrets?” you ask? Of course not. You can write a thorough and useful blog post that demonstrates your expertise without giving away the store.

Here’s an example from the owner of a tax planning firm, How You Can Pay Less Tax This Year. She tells me WHY I might want to hire an accountant but doesn’t tell me how to file my taxes…big difference! She has established her credibility, which might make me want to call her if I have tax questions in the future.

Of course, there are exceptions to the relevant-to-your-business guideline. For example, you may have an opinion you’d like to share about something that is going on in your community. That’s a perfectly acceptable topic and one that your local readers may like to know more about. And, it establishes you as a local authority which could be important to your business.

Blogs Should be Interesting to Your Readers

Don’t take this personally, but not everyone is anxiously waiting for your next blog post. Choose topics that your customers want to know about. A good place to start is thinking about the questions you get from customers and prospects. What are the questions that come in via social media? To your call center? What do you wish your customers knew more about? If you sell widgets, you can review a new product or showcase a line of related products. Write something that takes the mystery out of a process and would help someone be more comfortable doing business with you. Blog about trends in your industry, or recap speakers from a trade show you attended. Educate your readers and you will help them feel more in-the-know and more comfortable doing business with you.

Here’s an example from Triton’s Realm, a company that caters to aspiring and experienced SCUBA divers. Their posts are educational and informative, and answer questions that divers might have about the logistics of taking a diving vacation. Triton’s Realm also has a robust YouTube Channel. Video blogs are another good way to approach blogging – I’ll save that topic for a future post!

Blogging Can Help You Get Found Online

For some businesses, this is the only reason they blog. I’m sure you’ve read posts that seem so jammed with keywords it barely makes sense. There’s some finesse to using your blog to get found online, which means finding the balance between your posts having just enough keywords to tell Google what your article is about, and not enough – or, alternatively, too many, which makes your blog post sound spammy.

Think about what happens when you search for something online. Chances are the first page of results are pretty close to what you are looking for, right? As you scroll through page after page of results (just kidding, does anyone really do that?!) the results become less relevant. When your blog post has the right number of keywords related to the topic, it has a better chance of showing up higher in search results. Note there are plenty of other factors that influence how well your post shows up in search results, but writing a blog with the right amount of keywords is a good start.

Blog Topics Can Help Extend Your Social Media Reach

Just as you are not going to buy a stunning new outfit and let it sit in your closet, you’re not going to write your blog and not let anyone see it. Promote it on your social media channels and get some mileage out of it. How? The answer depends upon which social media platform works best for your business.

As an example, Qwoted is a platform that helps media professionals connect with expert sources. Their best prospects are found on LinkedIn. Their posts should be shared by their executives, their sales team, and from the company’s page…even to LinkedIn groups. Additionally, including a few hashtags at the end of your post can help your post get found by professionals that are searching that hashtag. Social Media Today says the jury is still out on the success of using hashtags on LinkedIn. Hashtags are much more important on Instagram. Let me know if you need help with a hashtag strategy.

Blog Topics Tell Google Your Site is Authentic

Plain and simple, posting blogs regularly tells search engines that your site is legit and looked after by humans, not a bot. Once you establish a library of posts that are relevant to your business, the more likely you are to show up in search results and draw readers to your site. Once you attract visitors to your site, there’s almost no limit to the ways you can nurture those leads and keep them coming back.

You can see that a blog can be the hub of your web site and appeal to visitors that may not have found you through advertising. It pays to make your blog the best it can be!

Conclusion

Blog posts should be planned carefully. When done right, blog posts can be an ideal public relations tool, help your web traffic, attract new customers, and provide social media content. Even if you don’t like to write, you know your business best and the buying habits of your ideal customers. If you need help establishing a blog, get in touch. It will be easier than you imagined.

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