How a professional website is created

how a website is created

As active web designers in Nottingham and the East Midlands, we are sometimes asked, surprisingly (!),  “What do you actually do?” Well that’s a reasonable question, so let’s take a look to see what is really involved in the creation of a professional web site.

The first step is the design of the web site.

It is important to determine the best structure for your site. This involves determining the pages, sub-pages, and navigation. We then need to look at how we are going to set up the headers, footers and sidebars. The formatting that we use for  image placement must be also considered, as well as where social media share buttons will be placed,

In the overall design we must think about logos and branding, as well as accessibility, usability, typefaces to be used, type sizes, and even the colours to be used.

As we make these decisions, we have to keep in mind the different screen widths that your website will be viewed on, such as tablets, desktops, and mobile devices. It is important that your Web site looks good and operates correctly on all devices.

Content

If, the content is to be produced by us, then there is research that needs to be done. The content will need to be written and optimised for keywords. Of course, all this will need to be proofread and checked. Our goal here is always to write original content. We strive to write engaging content in order to keep your visitors on your website. At this stage we will also consider the use of source graphics and photos.

Functionality

At this stage we start making decisions as to what happens when you click on a particular button.Although this issue is more important for online shops than other websites, we still want to make sure that your website has proper functionality.

Optimisation

This is where we begin compressing photos, in order to minimise the number of bytes without losing the quality of the image. We compress the code in order for your web pages to quickly load on all devices. This is particularly important for mobile devices on the 3G, because the mobile network runs slower than broadband. Optimisation is also what Google uses when determining where your Web site will be positioned in their search results.

Testing

At this point we test your entire site to ensure it works as expected on a multitude of desktop browsers. We Check desktop operating systems (PC and Mac) using Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera browsers. We also check to see how your website works on tablets (iPad and Android) as well as a variety of smartphones (iPhone and Android). Because there is more to test for online shops, this phase takes a little longer if you have this kind of website.

Time to move to the live stage

In order to make your website live, we upload all the code, videos, graphics, photos, all databases etc. to the live server. At this time we will set up a site map, a method for the collection of statistics, and we will make sure that the entire site is operating correctly and as expected.

This is been a quick high level overview of what is needed for a professional website. As this is just an overview, please do ask, if there are things not mentioned that you feel should be here.

Photo by Halacious on Unsplash

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7 Steps To A Stickier Website

It’s three simple letters that make up SEO, but the reality is that search engine optimization is far from straightforward. It’s takes a brew of equal parts science, art, and algorithm guesswork to make it just right. To make things even more complicated, just when you think you have the perfect mixture, the search engines add new details that send you back to the drawing board.

Further compounding the issue is that there are elements to SEO that aren’t visible right off the bat. Included among those elements is the importance of a sticky website. If you have a website that doesn’t have sticky qualities, your search engine rankings may start to slip. Most businesses simply aren’t aware that their site is about as sticky as greaseproof paper.

What exactly is a “sticky website?”

As the words suggests, a website that is “sticky” is one that has content that will keep the internet user on its pages for an extended period of time. The longer a visitor stays, the stickier the site is considered. It is those types of sites that also bring people back for more.

Stickiness isn’t just important for search engine ranking, it can also be great for your business. The reality is that the longer people hang around on your site, the more likely it is that they will either buy or request more information. The same rules apply with repeat visitors, as they will grow loyal to your business and make your site the only place to go for their purchase needs. The stickiness of your site has a direct impact on your ranking.

How to make your site good and sticky.

  1. Take time to blog, and do it properly. Regular posts are fine, but if they are bland and boring, people just won’t come back for more, no matter how regularly you post. Try to deliver topics that are informative, interesting, and helpful. How-to guides are great, as are tips lists. If you find that visitors have been asking you the same questions over and over, write a blog article that answers those questions.

  2. Make everything on your site shareable. Social media has turned the average internet user into a sharing monster, so take advantage of that. On-click share buttons are a great way to engage your audience, as well as tempting them into sharing your info with their network.

  3. Make space for comments. You can get great feedback by allowing users to comment, and you can also make your site very sticky. People love to see if anyone has responded to a comment they left, which means they will return to your site to see what’s being said. That all adds up to you taking time to replay to comments that are left.

  4. In order to make your site more useful, think about adding some helpful tools in there. For example, if you have a site about dieting, think about including a calorie counter.

  5. One great way to keep visitors right where they are is to promote related posts. If the content on a blog is interesting, it becomes easy to get caught up in reading multiple posts. This happens when there is a “related posts” link set up at the bottom of the page.

  6. Multimedia is another great way to engage visitors and get them to stick around. Polls, videos, and all kinds of interactive little tools are often too much for the average user to ignore. Again, people will stay longer and will come back for more.

  7. Title feeds are another thing that can get visitors excited when they arrive at your site. Seeing that a new blog post has just gone live can make them stay longer than they planned to.

Take time to implement these additions to your site and you will have a website that’s stickier than the bubble gum in your kid’s hair.

Photo by nabil boukala on Unsplash

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Top 5 Benefits of Professional Website Design

As the internet becomes something everyone can use, more and more individuals and companies are claiming that web design is something they can do. But this is not always the case. Certainly if you go into Google and type “Web Design Southwell” or “Web Designers Southwell”, you will be overwhelmed by the choice and number of web design companies in Nottinghamshire, all of whom promise to get your website on the web at a price you will like!

If you are in the market for a new website, it’s so important to spend time researching and finding experienced professionals. It may seem expensive, but high quality web design is an investment worth making. When you see the difference, you’ll soon understand why.

Visitors stay longer

When the web design looks professional, people will stay on the page to find out more instead of hitting the back button. You want more than clicks. If people click on the page for just two seconds and leave, it’s clear you’re not offering the visitors what they want. Visitors need to be interested in your offerings, and a professional Nottingham web designer understands that.

Better conversion rates

Professional web design also leads to better conversion rates. Once you get a visitor, you need to turn that person into a customer. You need to give him a reason to buy your product, service or affiliate offering. The quality of the product or service is important, but the layout highly affects the conversion rate. You need to get your message across to people quickly and effectively, and the page design does that for you.

The importance of branding

Quality web designers also understand the importance of branding, and incorporating it on your site. The non-professional designers want your site to look good, but that’s it. The pros want to offer the best impact possible, and really give you an excellent value for money. The design needs to work with the brand you already have, if you have one. Or it needs to help you develop a brand if you don’t. A great web designer will look at current marketing material to work with that.

Stand out from the rest!

You want to stand out against your competitors, too. That is something a pro can do. The non-pros will often use free templates that aren’t easy to change. The pros will spend time crafting templates just for you. When you stand out with a non-generic theme, people stick around and want to find out more. They see that you’re interested in being unique and put effort into your business.

A professional website will work out cheaper

You will save money in the long run. If you scrimp now, you’ll just have to get your pages redone in the future. You won’t be happy, and you’ll soon realise that hiring a professional was the best option in the first place. If you hire the professional straight away, there is no need to pay extra a few years down the line unless the brand really changes. Even then, you’ll only need small revamps not complete redesigns.

Hiring professional web design works out better in the long run. The five reasons above are just a starting point. You soon benefit in many other ways with your investment.

Call Zoom Planet now on 0115 871 4994 for a no-obligation chat to discuss your project.

Photo: Image courtesy of Dave Hallmon on Flickr

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We Love Manchester Emergency Fund

We Love Manchester

Standing in solidarity with Manchester

On Monday evening, 22 people were tragically killed and dozens more injured after a bomb exploded at the Manchester Arena. Many of them were children.

Manchester City Council has launched the We Love Manchester emergency fund, an appeal in partnership with the British Red Cross, to support those affected by the attack and their families.

Please donate now to help those bereaved or injured.

In the aftermath of the attack, we saw people coming together, supporting and helping each other. Red Cross volunteers are offering emotional support to affected families.

You can show the people of Manchester they are not alone by donating today.

The Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Eddy Newman, said: “The We Love Manchester Emergency Fund has been established to swiftly provide funds to the families of victims of the attack at the Manchester Arena, to help them to cope at this incredibly difficult time.”

Why Blog? The Benefits of Blogging for Business

The increasing popularity of the internet has transformed the world we live in. Because of the internet, it has become commonplace to connect with individuals in any part of the world, gain in-depth knowledge on the human mind and, above all, watch hours and hours of movies online.

For organisations, the advent of the internet gave them an alternative approach to sell goods and services, as well as connect with clients everywhere around the globe.

What is a blog?

Basically, a blog is a webpage or site that is updated with fresh content on a routine basis, usually managed by one person or a few team of individuals that is designed and composed in a conversational or casual manner.

Websites such as BlogSpot, Tumblr, and WordPress provide individuals with the platform necessary to build their own personal blog or website where they can express their feelings or ideas on any subject they fancy. Over the past couple of years, we’ve witnessed the increasing popularity of food bloggers, fashion bloggers, lifestyle bloggers, finance bloggers, travel bloggers, beauty bloggers and so on. There are bloggers writing for virtually any specialty industry you can imagine.

So, why should I own one?

If you own a website, blogs are a great way to increase its value. They provide you with an avenue to interact directly with your existing and prospective customers and define your brand image. There are additionally various advantages to your SEO: As your posts are routinely indexed by web crawlers, it is considered to be more up-to-date, more pertinent and as such accorded higher ranking position by Google and other search engines. Higher rank positioning leads to increased publicity, which yields more sales!

Also, blogging helps you become established as an “expert” in your chosen field. The most ideal performing blog post is useful or potentially informational to your target audience, creating trust and giving them cause to explore further, or return at some point in future.

Blogging directs people to your site.

Do you want more visitors to visit your website? I do too.

Now, consider the ways through which visitors discover your site:

  • They could key in your name directly into their browser, but that is a client you have already gained. They already know about you and your business, but that doesn’t increase your website traffic in any way.
  • You could buy an email list for and blast them for increased traffic (don’t do it!), praying a few individuals are curious enough to open and click through the messages. This is however quite costly and as you are well aware, unlawful.
  • You could seek increased traffic by setting up a huge number of paid promotions, which is legal though very costly. What’s more, the moment you stop investing money into it, your traffic dwindles, as well.

Hence, how can you increase traffic to your site? Answer: blogging, online networking, and web indexes. Here’s how to do it.

Consider the number of webpages your website. Obviously not that much, I presume? Now, consider how frequently you add fresh content to those pages. Obviously not that often, I presume? (How frequently can you actually refresh your About Us page?)

All things considered, blogging has the answer to both issues.

Each time you compose a blog entry, it’s one more indexed webpage for your site, meaning its one step higher for you to appear in web searches and direct people to your site through organic search results.

Blogging additionally helps with increasing your visibility through social media networking. Each time you compose a blog entry, you’re making content that individuals can share on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and so much more – which increases the visibility of your business to other potential customers who were previously unaware of your existence.

What should I blog about?

Your blog content ought to be dependent on what really matters to you, and subjects you are really knowledgeable on. This ought to ideally be the business you operate!

In the event that you can provide viable solution to a visitor’s problem, or furnish them with data on a subject they find interesting, they are significantly more inclined to become clients and, above all, to become returning clients.

In the event that you can expertly discuss certain problems influencing your business, your clients or your target market, they will become attracted to your brand and consider you an expert on the services or products you are offering them. Endeavour to always link your contents to the services or products you are offering clients to successfully convert them to paying customers, and expertise into inquiries.

How often should I update my blog?

A great many people normally work on a week by week cycle. If you look at TV programs, bin collections, the lottery and the work week, the lives of a vast majority of individuals are organised around weekly schedules, so based on how much engagement you are looking to generate, weekly blog posts are often great.

Once in two weeks or Monthly blog posts are also great, provided you set a schedule so your audience know when to visit and what to expect.

How frequent your blog or news area is updated with fresh content will likewise be based on how long and deep you make your blog entry. In the event that you are just blog once every month, your readers will anticipate your posts to be lengthy, thoroughly researched article or you may lose audience very fast.

Though it is easy to put together a personal article or journal post within minutes, a thoroughly researched article, with references, relevant links, and so on can require many hours thereby making the quality versus quantity argument the most important factor.

The objective of our blog is to post intriguing and valuable articles on SEO, copywriting, and the internet in general. Our goal is not just to help individuals fully comprehend the internet but to likewise redirect people to our webpage and increase our website rank positioning for selected keywords, such as ‘Website Design Dallas’

How do I make time for this?

We’re happy you asked. We fully understand the stress and time required to operate a business is enormous without having to add extra work to the plate, so why not allow us to help you create an amazing content strategy to assist you with accomplishing every one of the plans you have for promoting your business on the internet? We will like to become more acquainted with your business, get you started on crafting awesome content as soon as possible, and surpassing your expectations on the internet.

Photo Credit: Blogging Research Wordle” (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) by Kristina B

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10 Content Ideas for Your Blog

I am often asked, where do my ideas, for content, come from when I am writing my blog. Most of the time the inspirations just flow, they really do take care of themselves for the most part. However on occasion, just like everyone else, I will experience good old writers block. When the ideas are not freely flowing, I refer to a list of content ideas to give me the kick-start I need. By reading through my list of content ideas, I can always come up with a new idea for my blog. This method is very reliable and works over and over again.

If you need help getting your creative juices flowing, take a look at my list of 10 content ideas. They are sure to help.

  1. Take a look at how to articles. You can find an almost endless supply of these online and they always prove to be helpful and popular.
  2. Advice from others. People are always willing to talk about their jobs and this can be a good source of material. You can prod them with a list of questions or take each piece of their advice and expand on it separately.
  3. Interviewing someone can provide not only interesting reading but it may strengthen your relationships with online partners, which could lead to back links to your site. This of course would improve your SEO.
  4. Do a book review. As you have most likely noticed, on occasion I will review a book related to web design, online marketing, search engine optimization, or other Internet related topics. I do this partly because I wish to share the valuable information and resources with everyone who reads my blog. This of course is a major reason for writing the blog, but it also allows me to come up with related content that I have gleaned from books I have read. Book reviewing can often provide extremely valuable content.
  5. Along with book reviews, reviewing popular online tools can also provide content. Because there are so many free online tools available, it is often difficult for the average Internet user to pick out the most valuable and useful tools for their needs. By reviewing these tools you cannot only get good content for your blog, but you get to show off a little of your expertise as well.
  6. Answer questions on your blog. By creating your own FAQ series, you are able to release a new question to your blog whenever necessary. Industry forums are a good source of these questions.
  7. If you actually work in the industry, it is easy to write about personal anecdotes that occur to you during the week. When something special happens write it down as a reminder and write about it later in your blog.
  8. People always want to know what is the best this or that. By creating a “best of list”, you will have the ability to peak your readers’ interest. People are always looking for advice and general resources that will help them with their situation. Most Internet users appreciate your opinion on the topic they are researching. By providing a list for your Internet blog readers, you will be helping your readers out and they will continue to return to your blog.
  9. Commenting on the news for your industry can provide a multitude of blog articles. Within every industry there is always some new newsworthy piece of information that comes along. By giving your opinion on this news you will not only keep your readers involved but they will appreciate the further coverage of the event.
  10. Industry statistics. By reviewing the statistics for your particular industry you can provide your readers with up-to-date information regarding your industry. Many readers are interested in the statistical information that you can provide about your industry. It turns out that people really love statistics, whether it be medical research or online shopping people like to look at percentages and numbers.

Here is a little extra handy hint. The basic ideas that I have given you here are of course important tools to have in your blogging toolbox. An even better idea is to have a content schedule ready to go, that will keep you blogging on a regular basis. This will improve your SEO, which in turn improves your readership. I have found that, if I occasionally sit down and brainstorm a series of ideas, that are based on my wanted keywords, I can create a large list of future blogging topics. By having this list of ideas I am assured, that I will always have a topic for my blog. In this way when my inspiration may be a bit lacking I am still able to provide good content for my readers.

Photo Credit: “003/365 – I’m blogging this.” (CC BY 2.0) by antigone78

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Is It a Good Idea to Pay for Website Links?

If you want your website to be higher up in the search engine rankings, you will need to have good back links. One option that you may think about is simply to pay for the links. However, you need to be careful as there are both good and bad ways to go about paying for links. The real question is: should you do it all?

Buying links indiscriminately, just for the sake of having the links built, is a bad way to go about getting links. Using this method, it is possible for you to be penalised by the search engines causing a massive drop in your rankings. There are a great deal of SEO companies that are still using this bad “link farm” method to create back links. Nowadays, this method will not get the desired results in the search engines. Google’s new algorithms have advanced to a stage where they recognise these bad links. If this method is used, it is likely that your website will receive a penalty and in order to get this corrected, you will need to disavow your links by going through Google Webmaster Tools; this can be a lot of trouble.

Another poor way to purchase links is through the use of “link swaps.” These pages are located on websites and are hidden from the public’s view, but they are crawlable by the search engines. Usually, these pages consist of just long lists of links, which have been traded for a similar page of links on a different website. As stated before, Google’s algorithms have caught on to these exchanges and when they are found by the algorithm, your site will be penalised for using them.

The good news is, there are acceptable ways to purchase links. Like most things that are good, it will take a little bit of time, investment, and effort. When your site has good back links, it helps with SEO. This will generate significant traffic back to your website and, in turn, this traffic helps with SEO.

The first thing you will need to figure out is who, in your industry, are the main online influencers. This should be accomplished by researching online magazines, blogs and websites that discuss your industry. These are the locations where your possible customers are most likely doing their research before they make a purchase. Only after you have accomplished this should you start looking for areas to purchase a back link.

There are a multitude of websites that are willing to sell a back link to you. At times, the price may be quite substantial, so you will need to spend time making sure whether the purchase will be worth it to you or not. These websites will provide you with information regarding their traffic; it’s your job to sift through this information so you will know exactly what you will be getting. You should check in social media to see the popularity of their website and you should check their page rank as well. In general, you will receive greater SEO benefits from a website that has a higher page ranking.

If you locate the right website, and pay for a link, you may well receive a greater amount of relevant traffic and this, of course, will have a positive impact on your SEO. However, you must be certain of what you are getting before you make the purchase.

Photo: Image courtesy of stockmonkeys.com

Choosing the Right Domain Name for Your Business

Your domain name can make or break your new business and once you have one established, changing it means reprinting all of your marketing materials and redirecting existing customers to your new home. That could be costly, so it’s important to choose the right domain name from the beginning.

Because choosing the right domain name is so critical, here are some things to keep in mind as you consider your options.

Brand or Description?

Some businesses choose a domain that matches their brand, while others choose something that describes what they’re all about and what they do, or where they’re located in order to give them a bit of a boost in search engine rankings. Your choice will depend on your message. Of course, if your business name is descriptive, you can do both, but that isn’t the case for many businesses.

Google has made several adjustments to their algorithms in recent years, and the algorithms no longer place as much emphasis on URLs as they once did. However, you may still want to choose a domain name that makes it clear exactly what your business does and where you are located. While it may not help your search engine rankings as much, you can still use your domain to help you communicate your message to potential customers.

If you want to create a strong brand and have it be easily recognised, you may want to choose a domain that matches your brand. It will make it easier for potential customers who want to learn about you to find your internet presence.

Help! The Domain I Want is Already Taken!

It happens to a lot of businesses. You finally settle on the perfect domain name, only to find it’s already in use. If this happens, you don’t have to start over. Take a look at your domain and decide whether you can make a minor change. Maybe you can settle for a different ending, such as .net or .com in place of .co.uk, or add your location. If your domain has more than one word you can add a hyphen. Maybe you can substitute a number, such as 2 for to, or 4 instead of for, if your chosen domain has any words like this. Whatever you do, keep it short and easy to remember. You will also want to be careful that you don’t choose a domain that is too close to a popular company, especially one that is in the same business as you.

.com? .co.uk? Something Else?

Choosing between .com and .co.uk makes little difference. If you are strictly a local company and you don’t intend to do international business, .co.uk can accentuate your local nature. .com is a more neutral choice and may be better if you operate internationally or intend to do so at some point in the future. You could even buy both, if they are available, and have your web developers redirect from the secondary domain to your main site.

When you first begin establishing the online presence for your business, you have a lot of options. Spend a little time considering them and be sure to keep things as easy for your customers as possible. This will help them to remember you and make it easier to find you.

Photo: Image courtesy of The Booklight on Flickr

How To Choose A Website Domain Name

As you start your new business, you may be thinking that it will be a no-brainer in regards to choosing a domain name for your website. You may be thinking as long as the domain name reflects my company name, it will be fine. Although, this seems like a fair assessment, in actuality there are several things you need to think about before you give your web design agency the go-ahead to register a domain name.

Ensure that your domain name is unique

One of the worst things that can happen, is that your website name is easily confused with someone else’s. If you find that there is a similar domain name, that already exists, you should avoid using a plural or hyphenated version of that name. This could become very confusing for your visitors.

Start researching keywords

If the domain name you prefer has already been taken, or if your business is just getting started and doesn’t yet have a name, you can start your search for a domain name by researching keywords. By using several terms that best describe your business, just add suffixes or prefixes to these terms, to come up with a viable domain name.

Choose something that is easy to remember

Be careful with your use of acronyms, make your domain name easy to remember. Your goal should be to make your website and domain name easily remembered. Also you should keep in mind that if your company has a long name, the use of an acronym may not be the best choice. If the acronyms you choose is something like, TBCWE, it might be easier for your customers to remember and type the longer version, “The Best Car Wash Ever,” than for them to try to remember the acronym. In this case you would be better off using the longer versions for your domain name.

Short and obvious is best

You should keep your domain names obvious as to what you do and it should be kept short, if possible. It is much easier for your customers to remember shorter names and shorter names make it easier for branding among all available markets.  For example, webuyanycar.com is a bit long but it is fairly obvious from the domain name what the company does.  On the other hand, an obscure moniker can be a bit of a problem in building brand, even though it may be short and unique. For example, at this point in time, everyone is aware of eBay. However, although they now enjoy a huge international presence, when they first launched they would’ve had a more difficult task at branding and conveying what their company actually did just because of their name

No Numbers or hyphens please!

The use of numbers and hyphens in domain names can cause problems and, therefore, you should not use either, when possible. In conversation, when somebody is told your numbered website address, they won’t know if your domain has a number in it (7) or a word (seven). Similarly, dashes and hyphens should not be used as they can be missed out or put in the wrong place. If you do need to use a number in your domain name, make sure your register all possible variations to ensure you don’t lose your customers.

dot co uk or dot com?

Your next consideration needs to be whether you should use dot co dot uk or dot com. If your business will only be dealing only within the UK, you may want to consider a local domain name. There are customers who absolutely prefer and want to work with local businesses. On the other hand, if you have international clients or possibly may be dealing in the future, on an international level, the dot com version may well be a better option.

Avoid copyright infringement

Nothing can destroy a new business and domain name faster than this. It is imperative that you check online or ask your web designer to check for you, in order to make sure that your domain name does not infringe upon the copyright of anyone else.

Although your domain name may seem like the proper choice for you, be diligent to carry out your research first. I am sure you want your business and domain name to remain for a long time to come. You should stay away from names that seem to be a fad. Remember you want your website domain name to be an extension of your business and your brand values.

Move fast

Domain names sell quickly, especially the good ones. Luckily they are also relatively inexpensive, so it’s advisable to register all of the domain names that you might want to use as quickly as possible. Even if you have a project in mind for a couple of years from now, it might be worth buying the domain name today, whilst it is still available.

Zoom Planet can sort out domain name registration for you. Or,  if you’re having difficulty choosing a domain name, you can contact us for help. We will also be able to guide you with any other questions you may have regarding the setting up of your website.

Call Zoom Planet now on 0115 871 4994 for a no-obligation chat to discuss your project.

Photo Credit: “”What’s in a name?”” (CC BY 2.0) by jack dorsey

Why Your Business Needs A Blog

Why Your Business Needs A Blog

When it comes to your Internet business, having a blog can be a crucial part to your search engine optimisation campaign. A blog is an important marketing tool that all businesses should implement in order to meet their marketing goals.

3 Key Reasons Your Site Needs A Blog

When you have a website, an SEO company is liable to tell a blog can help your business in three big ways:

  • It can boost the keyword density on the website
  • It can assist Internet users in reading your website
  • It’s a great way to provide a constant source of up-to-date content

Still, while these are true statements, blogs can do far more than anyone gives them credit for. Of course, you need to put forth some effort to ensure the boost pays off for you. You want the blog to be a significant support source for your business’ marketing campaign.  How so?

1 – It Can Give Support To All Social Media Activity

When it comes to social media, it can be extremely difficult in getting seen, more so in the beginning. If you want people to notice you, you have to start interacting with them.  Still, a blog is another big way for people to learn who you are and about your business. A blog will ensure you have more followers in a short amount of time.

Now, if you find yourself lacking time to do things manually, consider feeding the blog through your social media networks.   Keep in mind that doing things manually looks much better.

2 – It Provides Support To Your Press Releases

Many companies still use press releases to spread the word about their business and products/services. However, a basic press release is often ignored. Use the blog to announce any business-related news.

3 – It Can Endorse Your Website’s Resources

One way people try to attain links for their website is to download free things to get attention. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done to the website, use the blog to promote the change.

4 – It Can Help With Promoting Products or Services

Use the blog to promote your products/services. Highlight a product/service benefits.  You may think that just including a product’s manufacturing description is best, but readers want honest reviews about a product. Honest reviews can only help with your marketing and SEO plans.  Fresh material on your blog will ensure you stay ahead of the competition because this is what search engines are looking for.

One additional way to increase awareness of your product is through consumer reviews. Have your readers write and post their own details about the product/service.  With this method, you get free, relevant material that can bring you closer to your customer and spread the word about your business.

Special Note: Condense Technical Data

Now, you understand how a blog can better help your business’ SEO and marketing campaign. But, when it comes to your blog, you certainly don’t want to appear “overly technical”.  The majority of Internet users do not readily understand white papers, business reports, legal information, research reports, etc.  You want the blog to be something that’s easy for them to read. Therefore, summarize the information using easy-to-understand language for those interested in the topic.

Here’s how you should look at blogging:  it needs to be a key support source within your marketing campaign. It doesn’t matter if you’re going after links or just promoting your product, a blog needs to be implemented within your company’s plans.

Photo Credit: “Web Marketing Scrabble” (CC BY 2.0) by therichbrooks