When Blogging Isn’t Just Blogging: Tie It Into Your Business

Remember the good old days? When we could get away with article spinning, mass link submissions, and all that stuff. Times have changed, haven’t they? Well, somewhat. We’ve now got people shouting from the rooftops about how they can use AI to generate tons of content for blogging sites at a fraction of the cost.?

Sigh.?

I may have covered that here and here recently?

But be careful folks; all is not what it seems. Do you really think Google isn’t prepared for this? They already have more advanced technology than the OpenAI gubbins that you’ve seen splattered across the internet.

Anyway, I digress.?

Content – But Not What You Would Think About If You Listen To The Experts

All the talk of AI and people creating a deluge of crap across the internet got me thinking about something else. Something that has been recommended by Joe “Blogging” Blogs for years.?

“You need to post at least three articles a week, or Google won’t like your site”

“More content is always better”

“If you aren’t posting to your blog ALL the time, then Google won’t come back too often”

And so on. For as long as I can remember, I’ve seen, heard and read this disingenuous type of advice.?

It’s just not true, folks. You don’t need to be bashing out whatever comes into your head. It isn’t helpful. And it’s costly to your business – and the environment.?

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t blog – and more importantly, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t think about why you blog. There is more to life than organic traffic, you know. But organic traffic is important as well.?

“We’re all in this together,” as the old saying goes. Yet, it’s all too easy to forget when we sit behind our computer screens and write posts for hours. That's why I’m going to show you how blogging can be more than just a blog post: it can also be tied into running your business.

Back in my days of running an agency, we blogged for many reasons. Yeah, quality content and all that. But here’s some other thinking behind the content we encouraged for years.

Training?

When you have new team members or even co-workers moving up the ladder, they will learn new stuff. It’s inevitable. We encouraged them to write about what it is they’re learning. And we liked to do that right after they’ve learnt it? – it could fall out of their brain before they need to use that skill again. SEO is quite a big discipline, apparently.?

This not only helped cement what they’d learnt recently in their brain (agency life is fast-paced, and stuff gets forgotten), but it was also there for us to share with others when they are learning similar stuff.?

Helping Without Pushing?

We also published content that can help staff - that’s accessible for any of us to share. I’m a big believer in hitting people up multiple times with advice; otherwise, it gets forgotten. Drop some tips on Slack, mention it in meetings and get it in a blog post.

Meetings are temporal. Slack is the wild west of here today, gone tomorrow information. Your blog can keep stuff organised for future reference – and low and behold, it’s categorised and has tags to make it easy to find stuff.?

Sharing how you work??

This is mainly internal, but when you try to explain concepts or processes we used, it could get forgotten. Having it as a blog post can be shared again and again.?

Do these posts get loads of traffic? Mostly no. But that’s not the point; they get some. They occasionally pick up links, and you can also share them with your clients when needed? – nobody wants to write out all the stuff repeatedly. And blog posts tend to be read more often than a Word doc ‘cos they feel less businessy (I have no evidence to support this, so don’t ask me!)

Content that you can share with clients?

Account managers didn't create something new or send clients off to an external resource. Often this can be to explain how we do things differently. Sometimes it’s to back up changes in Google. It can be a bunch of things. And you know what? It’s always better to send a client to you covering a topic than it is another website (include the other good stuff as a resource list at the bottom of your post, though).?

Internal workflows that don’t deserve a process as such

Think of best practices. If you have them, then you can share them. If you have them on the site, you get the value of traffic (links?) that you wouldn’t if they were just on an internal wiki.

Encouraging people to keep learning and exploring

We would create monthly roundups of what each other had found and read - to make sure the team were actively searching out new content. And it’s quick to put together.

It encourages the team to look at posts outside their direct skill set. It introduces them to new topics that could set off a chain of discovery. Then on top of that, it provides content for your social team to share that references other people in the industry. Anything that saves time is a good thing, right? As long as it’s quality.?

Blogging is not just about gaining traffic. It can be used to tie in other aspects of your business. The key is to use it strategically to get the most out of your content efforts. You don’t have to shout about yourself; instead, think about how you can use it to improve internal workflows and processes. How can you use it as an internal tool rather than just a way of attracting traffic??

But combine the two: work smarter not harder, and all that jazz.?

It’s not all about SEO, y’know