Because there is a big push to move over to the digital world, numerous business owners are finding themselves in a dilemma. They may have run their business for many years without the help of the World Wide Web, but now more and more people are inquiring about their website. If you are one of these business owners, you may recognize your need to be online, but you may have more questions compared to what you already know. It can be confusing if you are not familiar with how a web presence works. Here, you will find answers to your very important questions.
What is a Blog? Do People Even Read it?
Some people may be unclear on just what a blog is. The word blog is short for “web log”. Essentially, it is like a journal of sorts. Businesses use blogs to provide helpful, educational information, to announce new products or services, and to give business news updates. Blogs can include information about virtually anything, but for the purpose of your business, it should be directly related to your company in some manner. Blogs can include links back to your website and can be a great way to draw in traffic.
Even if you know what a blog is, you may not realize just how important it is. In fact, people do read blogs and they turn to blogs more than anything to gain information about what they are searching for. That means a blog needs to be truly useful and needs to be easy to find through search engine optimization.
How Do I Make My Website SEO Friendly?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an extremely important tool. Without proper SEO, your website will not rank very high in search engine results. Since most people depend on search engines to find sites, this low ranking could be detrimental. Including SEO in your website is easy:
- Find out keywords that are most searched. (Tools like Google Adwords can help with this)
- Include those keywords (sparingly) in all of your web content. That includes the blog, the website, guest blogs, guest posts, and social media sites.
- Have a professional writer create your web content so that it is well written, properly SEO friendly, and in compliance with current search engine standards.
How Do I Get More People on My Site?
There are many ways to drive traffic to your website. Of course, SEO as mentioned above, is an important tool. The higher you rank in search engines, the more people will be able to find you. There are other things you can do to get traffic to your site:
- Create social media pages that link back to your site and keep them updated.
- Hire a professional writer to keep your blog up to date and SEO friendly.
- Have guest blogs written to be posted on other sites and linked back to you.
- Always link back to your site in web content, whether it is a blog, a comment on a post, or a social media profile.
- Always include quality content so more people will be willing to link to your site and so that you will not be penalized by the search engines.
Do I Really Need a Web Presence?
There is no way to say yes enough times to answer that question. People depend on the web more than anything else, and without a web presence, you will not be found. You need to ensure that you have the following:
- A well written and designed website
- A blog that is kept up to date and useful
- Social media pages that are kept up to date
- Guest blogs to get more attention for your site
In order to have a shot at success, you need to keep up with the competition and go online with your business. Even if you are not web savvy, the answers above will help you understand what you need online and how important it is for your business.
About the Author
Valerie Mellema is the owner of Words You Want and has over 7 years experience in the SEO writing industry. Read about what Words You Want has to offer and learn some great content marketing tips at blog.wordsyouwant.com.