How to plan a blog for your web design business

Through working with web designers, I’ve seen how much of a struggle it can be for them to create consistent content. Often, it’s because they don’t know what to write about, or they don’t know how to start.

Yet, creating content for your web design business is important, because:

·???????It tells people what you know about your industry.

·???????It makes you more attractive to search engines, therefore making you easier to fine online.

·???????It shows your personality to potential customers.

·???????It does some of the selling before potential clients even decide to contact you.

Having a blog helps you to build a strong online presence and give you the chance to inspire, educate, and entertain your readers.

But if you haven’t had a blog before, it can be really daunting to know where to begin. As a web designer, you likely know first hand how to build your blog page, and the value of doing so – but what do you put on it once it’s there?

Here. Let me walk you through some ideas…

Research your audience

First thing’s first; who are you talking to through your blog? Is it potential customers? Are you planning on using it as a persuasion tool, to sell your services? Or is it more aimed at showing your expertise, amongst your peers?

Reading other web designers’ blogs tells me that there is a mix of designers who use their blogs to give potential customers advice and information about web design as a tool for businesses in general, and then there are those who slant on the more profession-led side of things.

There’s merit to both. It really depends on your own aims – are you trying to impress your potential customers, or your fellow designers?

Brainstorm blog topics

Once you know who your blog posts will be written for, then the next step is to find out what they want to read about. Think about the questions that they might ask you. How could you answer those questions through your blog content?

Here are some ideas that may help:

·???????What challenges do your target audience face?

·???????Are there any questions that you get asked quite a lot?

·???????What subjects might inspire your audience to either converse with you, or want to know more about how you can help them?

Try researching through websites like Quora to find out what people are interested in for inspiration, or for a ready-made solution, download my free cheat-sheet, ’39 blog post ideas for graphic designers’.

Write your first blog post

Now that you have your ideas down, it’s time to get that thing written! But hang on – before you start, there are a few things that you need to bear in mind for your first blog post:

Keywords – you’ll want to create a small list of the keywords that your blog article is likely to be searched on. While keyword stuffing is an absolute no-no, you will need to make sure that there are enough in your piece so that Google can gauge what it’s all about – and so that your audience can find it when they search. There is plenty of advice online of how best to do this, but make sure that your writing sound natural even with those keywords added.

Title – your audience need to know what your blog post is about, and the title is where they look to find that information. So make it clear!

Use headers - use headers to separate your subjects into neat little paragraphs. Make it easy for people to find the information they’re searching for.

Write engaging content – structure your post so it has an introduction, main body of text, and a clear conclusion. It’s also good practice to add a CTA to all of your posts here.

Add images – the images you choose for your blog give your audience a strong impression of your overall article. They should help tell people what they’re reading, convey your main points, and highlight important points.

Ready to hit publish?

After you’ve finished writing your blog post, make sure that you read it though (or better still, get someone else to!), checking for errors. Then, you can hit publish and celebrate your win!