We’ve posted quite a bit about different ways to organically boost your SEO. And the one marketing tool that always checks the most boxes is a business blog.

Without a blog, your website has one link to your site, your URL. But if you posted a blog once a week for a year, you would have 52 links pointing back to your website. Fifty-two! That’s fifty-one additional ways that a potential customer could find your site. That’s huge.

In addition to the links back to your site, business blogs are great for a few more reasons. Here’s why.

SEO

Your website is constantly being crawled by search engines to analyze and categorize your site. The easier it is for a crawler to do this, the better chances your site will get returned when someone searches for a related topic. Google uses over 200 factors to analyze and then rank your site, including freshness of content, magnitude of updated information, and quality of content, especially grammar and punctuation. Blogs check off a lot of these Google Ranking Factors, making it an absolute must to include on your site.

Images

Speaking of SEO, having great images in your blogs not only boosts your SEO but it’s also an opportunity for you to share and add new images without having to redesign your website – meaning the images posted in your blog change often without having to update the main images on your site. Keeping a consistent feel across your site is important, but so is displaying new and exciting graphics. A blog is the perfect spot to keep your customers and readers up-to-date on what’s happening while maintaining the look and feel of your site.

Micro Content

Blog topics are a perfect way to feed your micro content (i.e. social media). Blogs are macro content because they are longer, more detailed posts. But those detailed posts can be broken down into bite-sized pieces and used to feed your micro content. For example, this post could be broken down by headings (images, SEO, links) and used for one to 3+ social media posts. The result is a consistent social media presence and cohesive message for your marketing.

How Hammersmith Support Can Help

Do you have a blog tab set up on your site? Let’s talk. Hammersmith Support’s comprehensive monthly maintenance can help get your blog set up, get your site on track, and keep it there with monthly check ups.

When was the last time you looked at your business website? Like really looked at it? Chances are, you’ve been busy running your business and not putting enough time and effort into your website. Why is that a big deal? Because potential customers are going to judge your business based on your site. If it looks bad, is inaccessible via a mobile device, and or is not secure, they may decide to take their business elsewhere.

So how do you know if your site is out of date? Here are five areas to consider:

The Site Is Slow to Load

If your website takes forever to load – and by forever we mean if it’s not instantaneous – it’s slow. Consumers have high expectations: they want what they want and they want it right now. If your site takes too long to load, they are going to move on. Ensuring that your site is updated and utilizing a CDN will help it load quickly, keeping fast-moving consumers satisfied.

It’s Not Mobile Optimized

Pull up your website on your mobile device – can you see the entire site? Do all of the buttons show up? Do they work? Are the images sized correctly? If not, your website is not mobile optimized. With more than half of the world’s 3.9 billion internet users viewing websites from their mobile device, not having your site fully functional on mobile is a huge loss.

Your Content Is Old

Take a look at your about page. Is it still accurate? How about the images, the titles? Old content can be a huge red flag to consumers, not to mention confusing as well. Take time to update even tiny details and freshen up your content, it will make a big difference.

Your Micro Content Is Nonexistent

If your website is not showing your social media – or if your business social media doesn’t exist, fix it. Micro content is essential to keeping your business top of mind for consumers. Small bites of information can entice consumers because they can digest them quickly. Good micro content will point consumers to your website to find out more information, so do not miss out on that opportunity.

It Lacks Security

Does your URL have an “s” after the “http”? If not, you are running an unsecured site. While this may not seem like a big deal, if you are asking for potential customers to submit personal information like an email or phone number, they will know that their information is unsecured. In addition, Google Ranking Factors will rank your site lower if it lacks security.

Hammersmith Support Can Help

Feeling a little overwhelmed by what needs to be updated on your website? We’re here to help. Contact us to talk through your business and website goals and we’ll help make it a reality.

There has been a lot published lately about micro and macro content. The meaning behind the names isn’t a new concept, but the way it’s categorized is, and that’s for good reason. By defining the type of content you’re working with, it’s easier to know where that content should go. And the right placement for your content can make all the difference.

What Is Macro Content?

Macro is just that, big. It’s the long / detailed version of your content. This includes videos longer than 30 seconds, blog posts, mobile apps, emails, newsletters, podcasts, long form sales pitches, etc. If you can’t digest it in 15 seconds, then it’s macro content. That is important because macro content belongs in a much different place than posts that can be consumed quickly. Have you ever seen a post on social media that went on for several paragraphs? Did you read all the way to the end? Maybe, but most likely you moved on after a few sentences. That’s because the post is too long for social media and belongs with its macro content buddies in a blog post or video.

Having too much information in the wrong place means your potential clients are likely to miss what you’re trying to tell them. Putting it in the right space means a potential customer is likely to digest all of the information because they are prepared to do so. They know when they come to a blog that it’s going to be several paragraphs long. Or if they click on a video that they’re in for a few minutes of time. That mental state is key and tailoring your content to fit that is crucial.

What About Micro Content?

If macro makes sense to you, then micro content will come naturally. Micro content includes quick and easy bites of information: social media posts, memes, graphics, videos shorter than 15 seconds, infographics, etc. As with macro content, putting your micro content in the wrong place is a mistake. Blogs that are too short or images with no caption can leave a reader frustrated and feeling cheated.

Social media is the perfect home for the majority of your micro content. The platforms are designed to digest small bites of information from multiple sources, which is both good and challenging. Keeping information short and sweet but attention-grabbing can be difficult. Before you post, be sure that the majority of your content is “above the break,” meaning a reader will see it without having to expand to read the full piece. Use color and relevant images to grab attention, but be sure to be genuine to the piece.

Working Micro and Macro Together

The beauty of content in either form is that it should all feed each other. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel to create small and large chunks of information. Start with what comes easiest to you; if social media posts are quick and easy, write out as many topics as you can think of. Then expand on each topic to feed your macro content, i.e. blog posts and podcast topics. If large pieces are more natural, start with a blog post and then break it down into small bits. This post is a perfect example; 1 blog post about both micro and macro content can be broken into 2-3 social media posts. One for micro content, one for macro, and one for how to work both together.

Want to read more about content and how it can boost your SEO? Click on over to the Hammersmith Support blog “What is SEO?“.