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 One of the biggest mistakes you”ll see in business blogs these days is off-topic content. This not only hurts the site in terms of SEO value, but gives the readers information that they frankly probably couldn”t care less about. This is an important suggestion for any blog, but it”s especially relevant for business blogs. Depending on your niche, it can be easy to stray off the main topic, but time and time again we see that focused, niche-oriented blogs, perform the best.
Why is that the case? Think about it from your readers” points of view. People want a guarantee of what they will find when they go back to a website. If you go to Inc.com, what will you find? Business tips and entrepreneurial news. If you go to food.com, you get recipes. These websites have a formula and it hinges around staying focused on their main niche. If Inc suddenly started posting recipes, you”d probably lose interest pretty fast, as would most of their readership. The point isn”t necessarily that those readers don”t like recipes; it”s just that they don”t go to Inc to get them.
Your blog should be laser targeted on a single niche, and every post needs to bring something new to the table regarding that niche. We”ve talked before on how to introduce variety, but how can you do that while still keeping the same focus on your blog?
#1- Figure Out Your Goal For Your Blog
Before doing anything, figure out what exactly you expect to get out of blogging. Is it to bring in more sales? To increase your brand exposure? To educate people on what you do? Something that seems plain cut on the outside can have multiple different angles once you dig deeper. Write down some different goals and then figure out what your main focus is.
#2- Research Keywords
Once you have your goal figured out, do some research on specific keywords that people may be using to find that information that you plan to provide. Keywords are obviously important for SEO, but they can serve to help you stay focused with your posts. Anytime you think of a new post, review your keywords to see if it matches with your original goals. If throwing the keywords in would make it awkward, it”s probably not the best post for your blog.
#3- Figure Out a Specific Topic In Your Industry
Try to pinpoint a specific topic or skill set within your industry that you know a lot about. Let”s say your company sells and installs AC units, but you know quite a bit about changing out filters and which types of filters work well in various units. You can run with that and turn your blog into a go-to source for filter changing advice. That”s a specific example, but you can apply the same logic to any type of industry.
#4- Give Your Audience What They Want
Finally, focus on what your audience wants to read. Use your market research here and figure out what type of people you want to attract to your blog. What would these people search for when they want information? And, what will ultimately take them to your products/services page to make a purchase?
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