5 Things That Every Successful Business Blog Has

Posted on Jul 8 2019 - 8:31am by Editorial Staff

What do the best blogs have in common? Do they simply have the best writers, or the biggest budget?

Surprisingly, neither of those things will define your blog’s success, although neither will ever hurt your case. A successful business blog is usually a culmination of the little things.

Here are 6 of those little things.

A Good Host

We listed this one first because we would really hate for you to check off the rest of the boxes on this list, yet have everything undone with a cheap and unreliable host.

You can have everything else running perfectly and still get undercut by slow speeds and unreliable uptime from a cheap host. If you’re not sure who to go with, we invite you to check this out to find a reliable host at a great price.

A Strong System and Workflow

You can have great ideas and great writing, but how is it gonna get from the whiteboard into WordPress? You need to have a meeting with your staff or your agency to clearly define:

  • The title ideation process
  • The writing schedule and who is responsible
  • The approval process (if applicable)
  • The publishing process and schedule

Without these things, great ideas stay trapped in Microsoft Word, or in draft mode.

A Dynamic Keyword Strategy

You can hire an SEO agency to do this for you, or you can do your own keyword research with a tool like ahrefs or SEMRush. They can give you more than enough keywords (longtail and short) to form a year plan.

Now take these keywords and turn them into blog titles and topics.

A Focus and an Identity

Don’t try to be all things to all people, or you will water down the product.

If you’re a lawyer, write about law trends and frequently asked questions. Don’t get sidetracked with other things going on in the headlines or in your local city.

Define your brand’s voice well in advance of writing your first blog, so you know how these blogs should “sound.” You may also want to create a brand guidelines document or cheat sheet if you will have more than one person working on this blog.

Real Value

You can’t cheat the readers, because they are ultimately the ones who will define your success. That means you need to provide them with real value to get them reading, sharing, and coming back for more.

Staying with the lawyer example above. Don’t just hire a freelancer (who knows very little about the law) to Google other lawyers’ sites and “re-spin” what they’re doing.

You will get 10 times more value if you have them interview you for 10 minutes and turn it into the blog. You’re the one with unique insights and expertise. That’s what your readers are coming for. So, don’t cheat them out of that experience.

You can have a brilliant writer an unlimited budget, but your blog will still suffer if you come up short on any of the steps above. You need a reliable host and a strong workflow. You also need a well-mapped-out keyword strategy and brand voice to reach your readers. Oh, and don’t forget to deliver real value and the real goods. All of these boxes need to be ticked, or nothing else will matter.

About the Author

Editorial Staff at I2Mag is a team of subject experts.