16 Best Practices for your Business Blog

When you are blogging for business, it is important to educate yourself with best practices for blogging. After some research, I want to recommend the following 16 best practices obtained from different blogging experts.  If you follow best practice consistently, you will see great results over time.

1. Write compelling headlines. Your headline is how people decide if they’re going to read your blog post of not.

2. Capture your reader’s attention in the first paragraph. Your first paragraph should draw in your reader and entice them to keep reading.

3. Keep sentences short. Short sentences stand out, are simple to read and balance out longer sentences.

4. Use keywords throughout your post. To help the search engines find your posts, sprinkle important keywords throughout the body and in the title.

5. Use white space. Using plenty of white space throughout your post makes it easier to read. When your readers are faced with a page of dense, black text, they’ll literally give up before they even begin.

6. Make use of lists. Bulleted or numbered lists make your posts simple to scan. And, since so many of your readers are “scan readers” this strategy ensures that they stick with you ‘til the bitter end.

7. Use bold text and italics. When you want to emphasis a certain point or draw attention to an important word, use bold text or italics.

8. Link like crazy. Link externally to other relevant blogs and link internally to their own past blog posts. In addition, links help Google determine what your post is about.

9. Keep your posts short. We’re living in a world packed with people who have short attention spans and overloaded lives. Aim for posts that are 300 – 500 words. Short, sweet and to the point.

10. Talk directly to your reader. As you write your post, imagine that you’re talking to one person in a face-to-face conversation. Your goal is to make the reader feel as if you’re having a conversation with them and only them.

11. Solve your readers’ problem. One of the main purposes of your blog is to provide solutions to your readers most pressing problems. This is how you position yourself as an expert.

12. Proofread. Even though your blog posts can break some of the strict rules of grammar, you still need to adhere to some of the basics. Make sure that you don’t have glaring typos, misspellings or jumbled sentences.

13. Let your personality shine. Your personality should be a part of every single post that you write. Be authentic and make sure that the “real you” is shining through each and every post.

14. Voice your opinions. Don’t be afraid to have opinions when you blog. Let your readers know what makes you happy, what makes you sad and what drives you crazy.

15. Interact with your readers. Since blogging is a social platform, it’s natural to interact with your audience. Use your blog as a way to connect with your prospects by encouraging comments and replying to comments.

16. Provide closure. Wrap up your blog posts with a short conclusion that signals to your reader that you have finished.

Remember that Blogs lead to better Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and that’s why blogs can be abbreviated as:

“Better Listings On Google”

I am constantly trying to improve my blogging by implementing best practices like these. Are you?

Please leave a comment to share what other best practices also works for you.

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RESOURCE: Top Ten Steps to starting a Business Blog