Corporate blogging used to be far simpler than it was a few years ago. Posting a few tips or advice related to your niche was generally enough to increase traffic to your product or service website. Now it’s a lot more competitive.
To produce quality content, it’s often best to have a real understanding of the industry you’re writing about. Having that inside look is important for creating a unique edge and standing above the crowd of casual writers.
Corporate Blogging What Not to Do
Ignore SEO & Updates
Google is constantly making subtle and not-so-subtle changes to what they deem worthy of first page results vs what belongs somewhere in the ether. One mistake some businesses make when writing a blog, is wasting all that great content on another website, its own website, or a subdomain.
If that content isn’t on the main business website under its own link, it won’t get the same ranking credit as if were. Google will not associate the blog with your business as well or as easily if it’s not directly on your main website.
YES mybusiness.com/blog NO blog.mybusiness.com | randomwebsiteforblog.com
No Content / Keyword Strategy
As discussed in the previous 
corporate blogging post, having a keyword strategy is vital, not only for choosing pertinent topics to write about, but for knowing exactly what phrases people are searching online to include in the blog (and they may surprise you).
Letting Old Content Expire
Some old content, such as news related articles, will expire and that will be it. There are some that will remain relevant however, such as how-to articles and informational topics. Edit these once in awhile with industry changes, new key phrases, and any new details.
Failure to Promote
If you’re producing quality, share-worthy content, no one will find it for months unless you promote it.
Social Media – free and paid
Use social media to your advantage. Build communities on the major channels and post your content regularly. This is free, but there are also fantastic paid options.
Paid social ads are great for any business to utilize for consistent branding, increased sales, and sharing your products/services with new audiences with very specific targeting tools.
Collecting website visitor’s email addresses is a popular strategy for building a list of relevant potential leads.
- Do a guest blog once in awhile. This isn’t as popular as it once was, but there is still an opportunity to get in front of a large audience, or at least more people, if you build relationships with the right influencers.
Writing Irrelevant or Uninteresting Posts
People are not just going to automatically start reading the blog you spend hours and hours slaving over just because. This needs to be relevant to what they’re looking for, or at the very least, interesting.
Google also looks at how long your content is. BUT don’t write a bunch of filler. Make it long, make it valuable and make it accurate. Based on a study done with content ranking on Google, if you’re going to write something considered long-form, push for the 2,000 word barrier. Give your readers a really valuable article, and you’ll be much more likely to gain backlinks, which is a big factor in search ranking as well.
Remember one thing: content is a long term strategy – don’t give up too soon. Build your audience in the first year, by year two you should have a steady stream of traffic, and then by year three you should be generating business and quality leads.