Consistency is Key to Effective Business Blogging

To succeed at effective business blogging, you need to bear in mind that consistency is going to be the key to driving steady traffic to your website, but also as a way of engaging with your readers.

People will come to expect a certain style from you from your writing and even down to the font and colours that you are using (although with WordPress that will be pretty much set and consistent for you already).

Business Blogging ‘Look and Feel’

Hopefully your website will be created using WordPress and so your blog will have the same look and feel already as your website. If that isn’t the case – and it’s not the end of the world – make sure that your blog reflects the impression that you want to give for your business and of that which you are ‘putting out’ with your website design.

I recommend to all of my clients, no matter what blog niche they will build, that adding one in as a standalone WordPress installation is fine with links back to the main website, and I also recommend a link on the navigation bar of the main website that says something like ‘blog’ or ‘news’. That way visitors to your website will also have an easy way of getting to your blog (and vice versa).

On that basis, although the design of your blog doesn’t have to be a perfect match to your website, it helps if you can have something that is consistent with what the reader will be expecting. And the same would apply for those people who find your blog first and then click through to your website.

I’m not a branding expert so you won’t be finding any technical or psychological reasons on here from me! It’s common sense though isn’t it, to have a consistent image wherever people find you so that they can link your profiles and activity straightaway.

Ensure consistency when blogging

The same applies to your writing and to what you are putting out on the social media platforms. You may already know that I talk a lot about authenticity within your marketing. I am pleased when I meet people for the first time and they say that I am exactly as they were expecting from everything they have seen and heard from me online. That’s the way it should be.

There is some debate about how focused your business blogging should be to make it effective. Effective business blogging is all about getting traffic to your blog/website (via the search engines, social media and direct) and then engaging with those visitors once they read your blog.

On that basis you should always be writing for both audiences, getting a balance between a search engine optimized piece of writing (deliberate american spelling of optimised there for that reason!) and an entertaining or educational one (preferably both!). And to do that you need to be writing ‘on message’ for the majority of the time.

Business Blogging is often ineffective

The search engines won’t see your site and blogs as authority web pages if you are all over the place, and your visitors won’t key in to what you are talking about either if your blogs are completely random! Obviously I’m exaggerating for effect but much of the business blogging that I see, whilst entertaining in many cases, isn’t working for those businesses in getting visitors or customers. And on that basis should be viewed as a waste of time – unless the business owner just likes writing and wants to indulge themselves (and has the time to do so!).

So it’s ok to add some personal flair, but do remember that your business blogging needs to be ‘on message’ in the main.

If you are using other writers on your blog – e.g. I invite guest bloggers on here – make sure you have some editorial guidelines that explain what you are trying to achieve and how you want the writing to be presented. Obviously you don’t want to be too prescriptive as that would stifle the writers but some parameters for them to work within ensures that your business blogging stays consistent, whilst offering value to your readers.

Consistency and authenticity in your effective business blogging promotes trust in you and your business, which can only be of benefit to you.

Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels