B2B Blogging Strategies to Ramp Up Your SEO Strategy
B2B blogging fundamentals
In a marketing landscape shrouded by easily-digested 15-word testimonials and 30-second videos, B2B blogging is essential to build your brand’s SEO, as well as nurture customer relations.
As with many things – you get in what you put out. That means if you’re churning out posts in 15 minutes without digging and doing research, your blog probably won’t amount to much. Moz said it perfectly: “Good, unique content needs to die,” because your bar should be so much higher than “good” and “unique.”
Here’s what the expert content specialists at Into the Blue recommend for successful B2B blogging practices:
GRAB READERS’ ATTENTION WITH HEADLINES.
Maybe not with aggressive all caps, but you get the point. You can write the most magnificent, creative content that climbs up to top rankings on Google, but it’s pointless if nobody clicks on it. The headline alone can make a post become up to 500 percent more visible. B2B blogging is a competitive landscape, since all of our areas of expertise in marketing overlap like Venn diagrams – which makes headlines especially crucial.
When brainstorming a flashy headline, here are some general guidelines to follow:
Keep them at 60 characters, which is around 12 words.
Make your keyword the focus of the headline, but elaborate on it. What element of business blogging are you writing about?
Don’t be misleading. If your headline promises a comprehensive guide, don’t write a 200 word post.
When crafting headlines, head to Upworthy or The Onion for inspiration. The latter may seem like a silly comparison, but their satirical “news” stories go viral solely based on their headlines.
Break it down with subheadings
If you don’t want to scare leads away, then you need subheadings. The harsh reality is: online readers love to bounce. That means that once your headline grabs people’s attention, you need to find a way to keep them scrolling. That’s where subheadings come in. Your subheadings should add value to your copy, and motivate the reader to continue reading.
Not only does adding subheadings make your blog post easier to understand, it also helps your SEO. Google is a lot like an average reader – it skims. So when Google sees your keyword(s) in your subheadings, it usually gives you a boost. Try not to exceed 150 words under your subheadings.
B2B blogging takes time
Don’t just treat your blog as a SEO machine (even though it can be). Most business blogs take 2+ hours to properly craft, while more detailed blogs take as many as over four. Although it’s true that quality trumps quantity (especially when it comes to writing), long-form articles often perform better than short with minimal content value. Long-form is usually considered over 1,000 words.
Just because many bloggers type away for over four hours isn’t because they’re slow-moving or unmotivated. Conducting research, sifting through data, and reading reviews is time-consuming, but ultimately worth it. When you write about something, as knowledgeable as you are on a topic, it’s unwise to limit the article to exclusively your voice. Find other quotes, voices, and studies to include so readers know they’re not just reading an opinion. Here are excellent secondary sites to visit for your B2B blogging research:
It’s not a sin to create copy-heavy blog posts. However, readers want something they can interact with. Even the most experienced copywriters will admit that the written word can’t convey everything (same with visual media).
Create original photos, info-graphics, videos, slideshows, and even audio to compliment the latest how-to on your blog. This is especially useful when you’re walking the reader through tutorials.
Avoid stock photos in order to communicate your business’ authenticity. Produce original pictures for all the articles you can to represent the subject and your brand.
Be mindful of your writing format
Using business jargon might be alright in conversation with another B2B expert, but not your blog. Overly complex words and phrases don’t sit well with Google and SEO. Explain your complicated subjects in terms that marketing beginners can comprehend.
Readability also matters. Making your content digestible can boost your search engine ranking. Improve readability by:
Using an active voice
Place transition words in your copy
Avoid keyword stuffing
Keep paragraphs at 3-4 sentences max
What’s your strategy?
Blogging should have a well-organized calendar of topics that cover the latest news updates of your company to highlights of services, and educational topics that position you as an authority. If you establish a well organized schedule of topics and predictable schedule of posting, and you’ll build followers.
Be original
Don’t plagiarize. We all know this from school, however it’s often done in short doses by pulling paragraphs word-for-word or repeating articles in entirety while referencing the original source. By duplicating content from other sources in your blog (or website for that matter), you lower your credibility with readers. In addition, duplicate content is seen as a deceptive practice and can negatively affect your website. Read Google’s guidelines and the benefits to creating “distinctive” content.
On our Sales Funnel Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Boosting Sales and Brand Awareness, notice how we used screenshots of what the article was talking about. That way, the concept of a sales funnel and web design components are no longer abstract to a reader – they’re real, and they’re right there. From a sales angle, this shows the potential client reading that you’re talented in multiple facets – and not just writing or video editing. At the end of the day, your blog is there to inform your audience and make you credible. Multimedia aids the latter.
Writing blogs is time-consuming, we know. But it is one of the most powerful and effective strategies for brands and companies to reach, and more importantly, connect to their audience. At Into the Blue, we offer blog writing services that are proven to attract new clients and establish credibility for nearly every niche under the sun. We’ve got your back. Email [email protected] today to get started.
