One of the first things that we do at my company is set up a site for our client. The purpose of this site is to have a place for the client to write blogs. When we tell them of this idea, the first question is usually, “why?” It is for this reason that we are going to share with you why blogging is so important for online reputation management.
Blog Description
To understand why we need a blog, we first need to understand what a blog is. As many veterans of the internet know, the word blog is a shortened version of its original name – weblog. The word weblog is an amalgamation of the words web and log. In essence, a weblog, or blog, is much like a diary or journal. The only difference is that one is done using pen and paper, and the other is completed using a keyboard and a computer. That is pretty much the long and short of it.
What to Write
Now that we know what a blog is, we need to discuss what you need to write in these blogs. In truth, you could write about anything. However, if you want your blog to make a mark on the community, you m decide must on a niche. Some niches that are overflowing with bloggers. That means that you are going to have a hard time breaking into the niche. Other markets are sparse. That would be the right choice. The only thing that matters is what you can write about extensively. We have had clients write about everything from painting to books and electronics to lifestyle blogs. It just depends on what their interests are.
Now that you know what you are going to write about, you need to follow some simple rules. Each blog should be no less than 500 words. We have found that this is the bottom number that is most recognized by the blogging community. It is also the optimal number to allow the Google web crawlers to know it is a valid post. The topic should be on one specific issue. Meaning, you are not going to write a blog that attempts to solve all of the world’s problems. That isn’t practical in 500 or even 1,000 words. Speaking of 1,000 words, this is the number in which you should be aiming. The more information you can pack into a topic without being too wordy, the more you will be recognized and read by people in the blogging community.
What to Include
When you are thinking up your topic, make sure to take time to think of the keywords you are going to use. Keywords are the things people are going to search for when they are looking to read on the subject. This keyword should be in the first and last paragraph of your blog. Additionally, you should have the keyword in the title. Placing the keyword at these three key places helps the search engines identify the topic and return the result to the person searching for it. Be careful not to keyword stuff your blog. Keyword stuffing is putting the keyword as many times as humanly possible in the blog. Doing so will put people off and have the search engines less inclined to return your blog as a result.
Placement
Once you have written your masterpiece, you need to know where to publish it. There are many free blogging sites that you could utilize. Additionally, you could always make a free website that is dedicated to your blog. The difference in the two is that if you post on places like Medium or LinkedIn, they have high domain authority. Domain authority (DA) is assigned by how many people link to it. The two websites mentioned have very high DA. That means that more people will have a chance to read it. If you are to use your site, there is less likelihood at the start. You may achieve this high DA, but it will take a lot of time and effort on your part. We are not discouraging you from doing this. We are merely providing you with all the facts.
What Blogging Does
Now to the meat and potatoes of this blog. You came here with the intent on finding out what blogging can do for you in terms of online reputation management. The following is precisely what it can do for you.
- Push down negative reviews – Blogs can be a powerful, and often overlooked, tool that will help push down negative reviews. In essence, you will be replacing those negative reviews with more up to date information about you or your brand. As Google loves new content, they will be more inclined to return these results as opposed to the negative things. That is not going to happen overnight, so don’t expect it to happen that fast.
- Builds trust – When people are looking for information, they generally go with brands and people they trust. If you or your company have many blogs about specific topics, you become the foremost authority on the subject. That means that people are going to be more likely to take your word for it. As a bonus, you will find that many people will link your blogs. That will create more trust in your blogs.
- Social media strategy – Blogging should be a part of your social media strategy. It is a great way to get people interested in your other social media feeds. The way to do this is to link your blog on all of your other social media platforms. You do have them all, don’t you? If not, you need to get on that immediately.
- Backlinks – Backlinks are links that trace back to your site. Think of it as a digital paper trail. Much like you can trace a spiderweb back to its point of origin, you can trace blogs on social media platforms back to their roots as well. Do you remember how we were talking about DA earlier? This tracing is where it originates. The more sites that are linking back to your website, the higher the DA you will achieve.
Bottom Line
At the end of the day, blogging is crucial to online reputation management. It does all the things that you need it to do to maintain a robust online presence. If you have not considered blogging in the past, perhaps this article has changed your mind. Blogging is quite simple when you know about the things you are writing. You should be able to knock out a blog a week in less time than it takes you to think of reasons why you shouldn’t.