Creating a blog for your business is exciting, and a worthwhile content marketing effort. Content marketing can be summarized as the content used for social media, email marketing, blogs, articles, infographics and more.

You’ve seen the rise in business blogging in recent years with the uprise of social media marketing and digital advertisements. Blogging is the perfect way to bring in more web traffic, place your business as an authority and to become the “go-to” expert in your field.

Virtually any industry can benefit from blogging because every type of consumer is online at some point. From beauty brands to shoe companies and real estate agents. Every industry can benefit from consistent blogging.

Now there are 3 key points that make a good business blog article. So, here is the answer to your question, “What makes a good business blog article?”

Captivating Headlines Draw Readers In

Why did you click on this article? It’s probably because you want to learn how to create a successful business blog article.

That headline up there made you want to read this blog. If you are blogging and have not researched keywords that people in your industry are using or at least thought about what type of content your consumers need from you your blog will fail.

The digital age makes people like us lazy. So, your consumers want to skim through headlines to see what your blog post is all about. Business blogging can bring massive web traffic to your website so you better think twice (actually more than that) about the headlines you’re going to create.

One simple way to see the type of content your ideal customers and clients need is to do a skim through social media and Google. Sites like Quora have hundreds of industry related questions that you can make blog headlines around.

When you begin to hire a freelance writer for your business or if you learn to create business blogs effectively, tools like Sem Rush will help you maximize your blog article topics for popular keywords.

This brings us to the next important aspect of business blogging.

SEO Matters for Business Blog Articles

If you’re not familiar with the term SEO it is short for search engine optimization. A simple way to look at SEO is the keywords your audience is searching for that will lead them to your blog and website.

Now, let’s pretend you’re searching for a new vegan restaurant in your area. You’ll search for this restaurant using terms like “vegan restaurants near me,” or even, “vegan restaurants that are kid-friendly.”

The listings that pop up at the top of Google are using excellent SEO and probably hired a professional to help them get more brand notoriety. Consistent blogging helps with SEO tremendously.

I’m not just talking about 3 blogs per month. Let me show you some statistics:

• 77% of internet users read blogs regularly via 99 Firms

Now take a look at what Forbes had to say about consistent blogging for your business and the content your company produces:

“With that being said, a recent study from HubSpot shows that B2B companies that publish 16-plus blog posts per month receive 3.5 times the amount of traffic as companies that publish only 0-4 posts per month. The story is similar for B2C companies: those that post 16-plus entries a month enjoy 4.5 times the amount of traffic as those that upload only 0-4 posts.

But you can’t just think in terms of immediate traffic benefits. According to another HubSpot study, 75 percent of their blog views — and 90 percent of blog leads — came from older posts. This shows that relevant and sticky content can actually gain value over time.”

So you see the more you write on your business blog the better. Why? Simply because your website traffic will increase which turns into better SEO rankings and visibility. Learning how to create effective business blog articles is key.

Only Relevant Topics Please

Let’s say you’re a realtor. Your audience should not see posts about the latest hair care trend and vise versa.

If you want an audience to consistently come to your blog for real estate tips and tricks you’re going to have to create consistent content in the real estate field.

A business blog with no focus defeats the entire purpose of learning how to create effective business blog articles.

Similar to the headlines for your blog. After figuring out what your ideal clients and customers want to see and have questions about creating blog topics in this area. There are blog topic generator’s online if you need more inspiration.

Never copy someone else’s post. This may seem like a no-brainer but you’ll be surprised at how many people copy someone else’s blog article outlines to create their own. There’s no issue if you use your research in the industry to create topics no one has covered yet.

Get those creative juices flowing to create unique business blog articles. You can always hire a freelance b2b blogger to create content for you so your website will have fresh relevant ideas.

Formatting (Now we’re getting serious)

Drafting your business blog article is more complex than you may think. Most people search google and find your business on their smartphone. Which means your content should be mobile friendly.

If you’re wondering why these “paragraphs” in this article are only a few sentences (or less) it’s for this reason. You’re probably reading from your phone right now and if I were to create this article with huge blocks of text you wouldn’t like that very much.

No one wants to see huge blocks of text, in fact, most people will leave your site completely if it’s not optimized correctly.

Let’s add images into the equation too. Finding websites that have stock images and creating your own content using a service like Canva is crucial.

Think about a recent blog article you’ve read. Were their images high-quality? If they weren’t are you going to go back to that website? Probably not. Having captivating images that are on point with your brand is essential.

When people see your blog posts and images they should know the article is from your brand.

How Long Should My Business Blog Article Be?

Now, this depends upon your industry. Keeping your customer in mind, are they going to want to see in depth, long form, articles or short snappy blogs with actionable tips.

I’ll give you two scenarios:

Let’s say you are the CEO in charge of Dana’s Hair Care (I just made that up) and you want to start using 6 blogs per month in your content marketing strategy. The audience who is interested in hair products typically will want to see infographics for hairstyles and short-form content with hair care tips and trends.

Now imagine you’re the CEO of B&B International (I made this one up too) which is a business to business company focused on selling medical supplies to hospitals.

Your target audience for this company is going to need long-form blog posts (over 1,000 words)

How long is long form?

I’m glad you asked. SEO Hacker has an awesome post about using long form and short form content. Most B2B companies (like the fictitious one mentioned above) need blog articles also known as in-depth guides anywhere from 1500 to 3000 words.

Here’s my recommendation according to each industry. The following industries need short blog articles:

• skin care companies
• hair companies
• makeup brands
• clothing lines
• some wellness brands

Again, think about the people who are reading these blogs. They’re probably younger audiences who are looking for quick unique tips to use in their everyday life. We’re going to move on to see which companies need long blog articles.

• Technology companies
• Medical institutions
• Software companies (SAAS)
• Research heavy science companies

Your business blog article length really depends on the industry you are in. If you keep the target audience in mind you’ll have no problem figuring out how long your blog posts should be.

Blogging Will Yield Amazing Results for Your Business

As you can see, creating a good business blog post is essential to bringing new web traffic to your company and expanding your online presence. Take these tips and implement them in your content strategy.

If you have not hired a freelance writer or business blogger to increase your visibility you can visit my website so we can chat about expanding your content efforts.

Having the writing skill set to create engaging posts is important to keep your website as a high-quality authority. Practice your blog and article writing or find a professional to take some of the pressure off of you.

Remember, the more you blog and create content on your website the more website traffic you will get. You can create good quality blog posts while a freelance writer creates a few blog posts too.

This way your website never runs out of premium blog articles and you get the attention your business needs to connect with your ideal client.

For more digital marketing and content creation tips visit my blog. Happy writing!