From the first online newspapers in the 1990s to the present day, the Internet has hosted, according to the latest estimates, 600 million blogs. These virtual message boards allow individuals and businesses to communicate regularly and directly with their audiences by publishing blog posts, i.e., articles containing text and/or various multimedia materials (photos, videos, graphics, etc.). In this article, we’ll look at how to create a business blog from scratch and what advantages it can bring to a business, both in terms of brand awareness and audience engagement and conversions. We’ll then explain how to develop an editorial plan with an SEO focus, some strategies for promoting posts through different business channels, and the Key Performance Indicators ( KPIs ) useful for assessing a blog’s performance.
Why create a business blog
Before starting to create a blog from scratch, it’s important to ask yourself whether it’s worth investing in this content marketing activity. As we know, a blog is a section of an institutional website dedicated to the periodic publication of new content (posts) to present the company’s products and services and share news related to the company’s activities or the sector in which it operates.
Thanks to blogs, organizations can establish more direct and spontaneous communication with their audiences, choosing from different types of content: news, buying guides, tutorials, case studies, interviews, and articles of a more or less technical nature. Readers can often comment on posts and share them on their social media channels, thus increasing the company’s online visibility.
And that’s not all: if we look at the most recent statistics, blogging is one of the most effective marketing strategies for SEO, because it allows you to improve the organic positioning of the website and increase traffic to the business platform. In fact, according to DemandMetric, blogs produce a 434% increase in pages indexed by search engines and a 97% increase in indexed links. Meanwhile, a HubSpot study determined that companies that publish more than 16 posts per month receive 3.5 times more traffic than those that publish up to 4 posts per month.
The latest data reveals that blogging also helps increase the conversion rate of e-commerce websites: according to BlogHer, 61% of consumers have made at least one purchase based on a recommendation published in a blog post.
Now let’s look at the advantages for companies that decide to open a blog and use it as part of their marketing strategy.
Improving the company’s reputation
By publishing original, high-quality, and relevant content, an organization can showcase its experience and expertise in a specific sector, building a relationship of trust with its customers and strengthening its market position.
Generating qualified traffic
By developing an SEO editorial plan, where articles are planned based on top user queries related to the company’s industry, you can increase brand visibility and attract qualified leads to your website.
Increased conversion rate
Publishing quality guides, articles, and tutorials can facilitate the conversion process, encouraging visitors to purchase products from your e-commerce store or request services from your company.
Improved organic visibility
As we’ve seen, regularly publishing blog posts helps improve a website’s organic search engine ranking. It also allows you to obtain quality backlinks from prestigious websites, increasing your website’s ranking .
Involvement and loyalty
A blog allows for a more direct and spontaneous dialogue with the public, enhancing the brand experience and offering informative content that helps build customer loyalty.
How to create a business blog
Installing and configuring a blog
If you work for a company that already has a domain and web platform, simply ask the developer or web agency you’re referring to if you can install and configure a blog section within the main website. Otherwise, you’ll need to choose a blogging platform and web hosting provider and purchase a new domain.
Development of an editorial plan with SEO in mind
At this point, it’s necessary to develop an editorial plan that determines the topics to be covered, the content format, and the frequency of posts. An analysis of the most common keywords in search engines can help you discover frequently asked questions and the most relevant topics for your target audience. For this type of analysis, you can use platforms such as SEOZoom, Ubersuggest, or Semrush, which also allow you to view your competitors’ organic rankings and the most successful content. Also, consult Google Search Console to identify the most frequent queries through which users found your website. Finally, it’s important to analyze customer questions and requests received through various business contact points: social media, customer service, etc.
Select informational queries with a high search volume that are relevant to your business, corresponding to searches aimed at obtaining information about a specific topic, product, or service. This way, you’ll avoid the risk of keyword cannibalization between your blog and your website: if a blog post were to rank well for a transactional query, it would run the risk of competing with the corresponding product or service description page and causing your website to lose conversions. Another strategy for achieving good organic ranking with a blog is to choose long-tail keywords, which have lower search volumes but also a lower level of competition compared to other shorter keywords.
Once you’ve completed your search for the most relevant keywords and topics for your “ideal client,” you’ll need to create an editorial calendar that includes:
- The keyword chosen for the post (the main one and related keywords)
- Content type (e.g. tutorials, case histories, product comparisons, interviews, etc.)
- Approximate length in words
- Main objective of the article
- Publication date and deadline for production of the post
- Author
- Category: Blog categories allow you to subdivide articles based on the different topics covered. In practice, by creating each category, you can create a complete SEO-optimized website containing a collection of posts on a specific topic.
- Tags: These are “labels” that allow published articles to be classified independently of categories. These tags can also be indexed by Google and optimized for SEO.
Remember that to be successful, a blog must offer truly useful content to its audience; therefore, focus your efforts on producing posts with clear and tangible informative value.
Writing the content
Once the editorial calendar is finished and submitted for approval, you can start planning the writing of the different posts. If you’re good at web copywriting and SEO and have the time, you can do it yourself; otherwise, it’s better to hire a good copywriter, agreeing in advance on the order of the topics to be covered and the keywords to use.
How to promote your blog
Once you’ve started filling your blog with content, you’ll need to develop a promotional strategy that includes a variety of tools and channels:
- Social media: In addition to sharing the link to the article, you can adapt and modify some of the published content according to the specifics of each platform and its audience. For example, by posting infographics on Pinterest containing the most interesting data, or uploading a video on Facebook and/or YouTube that links to the full article.
- Email marketing: Sending emails and newsletters to a company’s contact lists is another popular method for disseminating blog posts.
- Guest blogging: This practice, which involves inviting other bloggers to write articles on your blog, allows you to offer a wider variety of content and reach new potential customers. This article from Semrush (in Italian) explains all the advantages of guest blogging.
Performance monitoring
To assess the effectiveness of your blog, it’s a good idea to monitor the following performance indicators:
- Monthly traffic
- Traffic sources (where users come from: social networks, advertising campaigns, etc.)
- Average reading time of posts
- The most viewed articles and those that have received the most backlinks
- If the post contains internal links, their effectiveness will need to be assessed in terms of CTR ( click-through rate ).
- Organic positioning of the different pages
- To assess the audience’s engagement rate, in addition to the number of comments under the post, it will be useful to analyze user participation on the different social media platforms (likes, shares, and comments received).
Based on the data collected, it will be possible to examine the effectiveness of different content, planning possible optimization actions for already published posts and publishing new posts in line with the search intent of the “ideal client.”
Creating a blog and gradually developing it is an activity that can bring numerous benefits to companies, both in terms of brand reputation and loyalty, as well as revenue. However, those who choose to invest in a blogging strategy must know how to develop an effective communication plan, focused on producing original, interesting content that is consistent with the company’s identity.
