What To Put On Your Blog?
What do I write about? That's got to be one of the most common questions I hear in response to my admonition to clients to start blogging. Nothing like starting out with writer's block.
SEOmoz has a post up on their blog about client based keyword research. It's fantastic and, I thought, perfectly applicable to the "what to blog about" question.
I confess. I took 1960's secretary picture from the SEOmoz blog post. It perfectly illustrates (stereotyping aside) one of the answers I most often give to clients: What have people asked for when they call you?
Every conversation with a customer or potential client is blog material. The moz article makes the broader point that these conversations reveal valuable, specific keywords you should be using in page titles and anchor text. I love their example.
Let's say you work for an auto garage. One of the most popular services you offer is tire balancing - it noticeably helps improve a vehicle's driving experience, but it's not too expensive (though it has good margins). The page on your website is well targeted towards 'tire balancing' and ranks fairly well in your area, but doesn't receive many visits or have a great conversion rate.
You head down to the garage and ask the mechanic how many tire balancings he's done recently.
"We've had three in just this morning", replies the helpful greasemonkey.
"And they all came here because they know we do tire balancing?" you ask, naively.
"Aw, no - all three just said their steering wheel was vibrating when they were on the freeway, so it had to be the balance was off," he replies.
You've heard what you needed to, and without another word you race back to the office, and update the page. The new title reads "Steering wheel vibrating? We'll fix it in 1 hour with tire balancing" and the rest of the page is updated too. You not only start to receive more traffic, but it converts better as well.
Please, do heed their advice about updating the page. Additionally, turn that conversation in to a blog post.
- 3 Signs It's Time To Get Your Tires Balanced
- How To Know Your Tires Need Balancing
- Tire Balancing: The Difference Between Pamela Anderson And Your Car
Ok, that last one was a bit slimy but you get the idea. Customer conversations, whether phone, Facebook, or email, provide most of the material you need for your whole website, not just your blog. They are telling you what they want to know when they come to your site. You need to make sure Google knows your site answers their questions. Be strategic with your content. Make it one of your top marketing priorities, online and off. Make sure whoever it is in your organization that's answering questions or fielding customer service issues is taking good notes.
