SEO Blogging 101: How to Set Up a Blog and What to Write
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Almost 100% of the time, when clients mention to me that they’re interested in setting up blogs, it’s for SEO reasons — they want to drive traffic to their web sites. Indeed, blogging is among the better ways to accomplish this. Traffic increases, brand awareness increases, and hopefully conversions increase as well.
That said, there are a two main considerations involved:
- How should you set up the blog to begin with?
- What should you write?
✒️ Blog Platform Considerations
Most people, by default, consider their web site as the natural option for their blog’s home. You already have XYZ.com, so it seems natural to make XYZ.com/blog your blog, right?
On the other hand, here I am, as a professional web developer, doing a blog article on Medium.com instead of ArrayWebDevelopment.com. That may seem a little odd to some. Let’s look at some pros and cons of these two main approaches (using your own site vs. another platform):
Using your own site:
- Pros: You have full control of the template and design, and arguably better integration opportunities with your existing site. The URLs will include your domain name and blog article key words (e.g., xyz.com/blog/your-article-title).
- Cons: You have to design the blog area and pages yourself, and/or at least customize a template (and/or pay someone to do that for you). You’ll have to be able to use a CMS, which is generally a bit more involved vs. a platform like Medium.com. Your site’s exposure will likely be lower than a platform’s (meaning fewer people will likely see your blog posts). Future redesigns might be more complicated because you’ll need to deal with retaining inbound links.
Using a platform like Medium.com:
- Pros: The interface is a snap to use — literally just type and publish. The audience is almost always easier to reach (via proper tagging, for example). The platform’s SEO is generally much higher than an independent business site (thus more eyeballs on your articles). The design is set, and it’ll be attractive and fast on all devices right out of the gate. Platforms like Medium.com are so large and so…
