Tips for Starting Your Own External Business Blog
Starting a blog for you business offers many advantages for all types of companies. A blog for your business can help to establish a better reputation for your brand as well as promote awareness about your business. An external blog, however, can achieve that and more. These types of blogs help to increase the amount visitors to your website by way of valuable content marketing and better search engine optimization (SEO).
Before we get too enthralled by the benefits of external blogging, let’s observe the fundamentals of what actually constitutes an “external business blog.”
External Business Blogs: Defined
An external blog is a content publishing website that is a separate domain from the actual website of a business. Where an internal blog is a part of a website’s domain (“http://www.yourbusiness.com/yourblog”), an blogs that are external are their own entity (“http://www.yourblog.com”).
Blogs for businesses often target a specific niche or topic that relates to the company in some way. Additionally, some external business blogs are even designed to include similar brand elements of the business. There many ways to start an external blog for your business, but what is truly important for almost any type of blog is having a very distinct focus that captures the interests of a very targeted audience.
Focus Your Blog’s Theme
Most broad-based blogs that cover many different subjects fail to retain a consistent readership and a loyal following. This signifies the importance to really carve a niche for your blog and really narrow the overall theme of the blog’s content.
For example, if law firm is developing a blog for its legal practice, the topic should be focused on a specific area of law. In a legal context, this concept could be taken to great extremes, for a business law firm could create a blog dedicated solely to bankruptcy litigation or creditor’s rights law.
The key is to understand the nature of the target audience and they type of content they find value in reading. Before launching any type of blog, take some time to absorb who and what the content will emphasize. Does the target audience appear large enough? Can valuable content be produced that will generate interest? Does the idea behind the blog offer sustainable value?
A general tip to remember before getting started is always create a blog with a purpose and only publish content that offers value.
Develop Goals for Your Blog
All blogs, both internal and external, should have a goal. One of the most common goals for business blogs is to attract relevant readers (with compelling content) and funnel those readers to the business’s website. This practice is known as content marketing, and it helps to establish credibility and trust in a business so the readers will react more positively when considering the company as a solution to their needs.
Another common goal for external business blogs centers on the practices of search engine optimization. The success of a SEO campaign often hinges on the popularity and credibility of a website. This is where an external business blog can help.
In SEO, links pointing to a website are like votes of popularity. A well optimized website with quality links directing to its webpages will often be recognized as popular to the search engines, and thus deserving of a higher ranking. Building links from an external blog is one of the easiest and highly effective techniques to generate “link popularity” for SEO and achieved greater rankings in the search engine results.
A blog for a business can also serve as a solid tool for branding and building more awareness in the market. This idea coincides with content marketing; however the difference is having less call to action and more interaction. Unlike marketing-focused blogs that seek to inform and direct readers to take action, blogs for branding can be fun retreats for Internet users while offering creative and enlightening content.
Blog On, Dude
While developing a blog for your business, don’t be afraid to exploit some creativity and enjoyment. If you are truly passionate about your profession, you will love managing your blog and sharing ideas and information with your readers. Just remember to build your blog with a purpose (and with goals,) and keep your content fresh, valuable, and focused on your niche.
