As regular readers of this blog will know we firmly believe that every UK Business serious about internet marketing should have a blog.

Blogging is, without doubt, one of the most powerful online channels for a business to interact and engage with existing and potential customers. Regular blogging, as part of an overall content marketing strategy, is all about you providing your readers with good quality content on a regular and frequent basis. The content you publish should add value and knowledge to your readers. Your business blog is also an excellent vehicle for you to demonstrat your own knowledge and expertise and can be used to position yourself as a ‘leading authority’ in your field.

You business blog is not the place for you to try and directly sell your products and services however – that should be the role of your website. When used correctly blogging is a powerful business tool that really can build your online reputation and enhance your brand.

A typical business website is a one way flow of information – your web visitors read your content but there is little interaction. Your blog on the other hand encourages your visitors to interact with you by leaving comments and engaging in a two way interaction.

The big advantage, from a search engine optimisation (SEO) point of view with a blog is that your messages (posts) are broadcast across the entire web very rapidly via RSS (real simple syndication) feeds. Within seconds of your publishing a post it will be syndicated across many blog directories and other feed sites and your new content will be found by the search engines in just a few minutes.

Typically with a website, you usually have to wait for several weeks before your new content is indexed by the search engines. A blog works hand in hand with SEO and every blog post you publish, should be written with a clear SEO objective. It should also be written to appeal to your target market.

We give below a couple of helpful hints to help you to improve the effectiveness of your own business blogging strategy:

Keyword list

Prepare a list of keywords and keyword phrases that are relevant to each of your blog categories. You can then incorporate these keywords into your blog titles, your blog descriptions and of course into the blog post content itself. You should also use keywords phrases as the anchor text for any links you create back to your website from your blog.

Keywords and keyword phrases are the words your customers and prospects use when they search for your products and services on Google.

Competitors Blogs

Search on Google for other blogs related to your industry or sector. See what topics your competitors are blogging about – look especially for those topics that are attracting comments from readers. These are the topics that you need to include on your own blog – in your own words of course! Check what keywords your competitors are using in their blog titles and headlines – this can help you to identify new keywords that you can use in your own blog.

If you would like more information about successful blogging for business please leave a comment below or visit GB Web Marketing – Internet Marketing Services for UK Businesses.