The concept of blogging for business has certainly transformed over the last several years. Once upon a time, your company blog could merely contain mediocre content stuffed with numerous keywords, and the efforts could be rewarded with better search engine rankings and high traffic volumes. While Google may have acknowledged these blogging efforts, the truth is that the content itself wasn’t useful. This resulted in frustrated readers clicking away to a more reliable source, never again to return to your company website.

And that began the movement of businesses aiming to create high quality content that resonated readers, rather than simply pleasing the search engines. In result of poor quality content, Google released their Panda algorithm in 2011 to reward those who adhered to their quality content guidelines. Although Google’s official quality content guidelines focuses more on what not to do with your content, some reverse engineering has shed light on what Google considered as ‘quality content.’

 

What Exactly is Quality Blog Content?

 

Quality blog content carries a lot of weight not only with search engines, but with your readers and customers. While quality blog content can come in different forms like video or infographics, one common underlying theme remains: in order to be considered quality, your blog content must resonate and benefit humans.

But what exactly does this mean? And how can a business be sure that humans (your readers and customers) receive value from your blog content?

First, it means that your content must connect with your readers on some level. It needs to be easy to read, understand, and remain 100% spam free. Keyword stuffing is not allowed, and you must focus on writing the absolute best blog posts that you can manage. It also turns out that Google is a stickler for bad grammar and spelling, which decreases your website’s credibility.

You can offer your readers and customers value with your business blog in multiple ways, but it generally boils down to the following elements:

• Write blog content that answers questions. One of the best benefits of using the Internet is having the ability to find answers or solutions quickly and efficiently. Your customers likely have questions that need answered, and answering those questions through your blog is a surefire way to enhancing its quality.

• Remain relevant to your blog’s theme at all times. Although you surely have different interests that don’t involve your business, it isn’t appropriate to publish about them on your company blog. As much as you may want to share a new favorite recipe or talk about a family trip to the zoo, keep these topics for your personal blog. Your customers are coming to your blog to learn more about your services. Choose to blog about topics that relate to your business and industry, as relevancy is one of the keys to quality blog content.

• Teach your readers something with your content. Educational blog content almost never fails to satisfy customers, especially when it’s offered by an industry expert. As you’re teaching your readers something about your product or service, you are simultaneously building a relationship and earning their trust, which becomes a triple whammy effect of business blogging benefits.

• Entertain or inspire your readers through your company blog. Your customers are busy and distracted people, and you really need to be able to cut through the noise in order to get your company noticed. Entertaining and inspiration blog posts are considered high quality as long as they are relevant and establish a connection with your customers. And not to mention, if you can entertain a potential customer through a blog post, you’ll already have a foot in the door.

• Offer helpful resources, such as downloadable eBooks and printable checklists. Your readers will enjoy content or resources that they can use today.

Now that you understand a bit of what counts as value in terms of a blog post, you can apply these strategies to your own blogging efforts.

The Value of Custom Blog Content

Custom blog content is content that is specifically catered to your business and your audience. It’s 100% original content that can’t be found on any other website. The ideas and insight are original, and it’s carefully thought out and extensively researched where appropriate. You want your custom blog content to reflect the values and the core message of your business, and consistently communicate this message to your customers.

Not only is custom blog content important for spreading the message of your brand, but you’ll also be creating a new and exciting experience for your readers. You can do this by including interesting visuals that are catered to the needs of your customers, telling stories, and putting your own spin on overdone topics.

Run-of-the-mill content—and even worse, duplicate content—can’t hold a candle to the power of custom blog content. The value of custom blog content can be experienced when customers share your blogs on social media, comment on your posts, and even contact your company about your services.

 

Why Do Businesses Need Custom, Quality Blog Content?

 

As you can see, quality blog content is important for any business, regardless if your industry is B2B or B2C—which brings us to our first point:

Staying on Top of The Competition

Blogging and content marketing is in full force in the business world, and simply having an existing blog isn’t enough. Not only are your competitors blogging, they are publishing content at a considerably high rate in the B2B industry according to Content Marketing Institute:

 

 

If you’re in the B2C industry, you’re not exactly out of the woods in terms of dodging the quality blogging bandwagon. Content Marketing Institute also reports that blogs are one of the most popular channels of B2C content marketing:

 

 

With high publishing rates and cutthroat competition, there’s an awful lot of noise out there in the business blogging world. Only the best content that is focused on quality will win over customers and help them move through the sales funnel, engage on social media, and build a relationship with your brand.

Engaging on Social Media

Who doesn’t want their blog posts to go viral and attract thousands of visitors? While viral content production is nice, it’s not the most realistic strategy to base on your blogging strategy. However, what is realistic is providing your audience with engaging, high quality content from your company blog.

Good content gets people thinking, talking, and sharing. When people are talking and sharing, this means that they are engaging with your business and that your blog posts have captured their attention.

Boosting Web Traffic

Your business blog can be a magic bullet for increased traffic, but the success is determined by strategy and blog content quality. In order to boost web traffic, you’ll need to promote your blog on social media channels. Furthermore, you’ll also need to strategically use your targeted keywords throughout your blog posts to get indexed and ranked in the search engines.

Both of these strategies will only work if you have compelling, custom, and quality content to offer to your audience. You can tweet links to your blog post until you’re blue in the face, but if the quality isn’t there, the traffic won’t be, either.

Not to mention, Google won’t give your blog a second glance if it’s lacking quality content. Thanks to its quality control algorithms, poor quality blog posts will fall short (very short) of reaching the first page.

Bringing in New Business

Business blogging has also proved its worth in terms of bringing in new business and lead generation. Hubspot conducted a survey that asked businesses about their lead generation success. Their results indicated that 69% of businesses believed that blogging was the source of those new leads:

 

 

Businesses are able to drum up new customers with their blogs by offering quality content that resonates with readers. Business blogs with low quality content won’t have the same outcome, as it’s much harder to earn trust and inspire readers to take action when your blog provides no value.

Building Your Brand

Another reason that businesses need custom, quality content is for brand building purposes. It can be a tough road to establish your business, and blogging can help take you to that point. But in order to effectively make a name for yourself and become a reliable source in your field, you’ll need to master the art of crafting quality content.

Building your brand through your blog takes time. You’ll need custom, quality content to attract potential customers and get your voice heard in your industry. You’ll also need to stay on top of industry trends and write insightful blog posts that add a new angle or offer expert insight. But as you dedicate yourself to building your brand through blogging, your business can continuously grow.

 

What do Businesses Need to Produce High Quality Blog Posts?

 

If you want custom, high quality blog content for your business, you’ll need more than luck to get results. There are steps to successfully crafting quality content, and you’ll need to implement them into your blogging strategy in order to publish your very best blog posts.

A Goal For Every Post

Before you start writing your blog post, you should have an idea of the results you want to achieve. This will help keep you focused, set the tone, and provide a clear call-to-action for your readers. Some common goals that business owners want to achieve with blogging includes:

• More web traffic and increasing search engine visibility
• Social engagement such as likes, shares, and re-tweets
• Building a reputation and thought leadership
• Educating your audience
• Signing up for an e-mail subscription list
• Improved brand recognition
• Sell products or services

Top-Notch Writing Skills

Sharp writing skills will increase the quality of your blog posts by miles. Your ability to write will determine whether you can make an impression on your readers, and engage them enough to establish a relationship with your brand. If you can’t get your readers to at least skim your blog, it will be difficult for your posts to produce any form of conversion.

Access to High Quality Images

High quality images are one of the keys to crafting a quality blog posts. Images help engage the audience and give a visual perspective, which is perfect for readers who are visual learners. You can use stock photos for high quality blog posts, as long as the same image isn’t floating around all over the Internet. If you have any skills with Photoshop, you can add your own twist to your stock images and make them uniquely yours—just be sure to follow the guidelines of your stock photo company.

Original Content With Unique Flair

High quality blog posts have to be completely original to your business. Copying, duplicating, or spinning blogs from your competitors will do you no favors. One of the downsides to creating quality content is that it’s time consuming, but the payoff of original and custom content is worth the time and effort.

Be sure to include your own ideas and expert insight into your blog. As you become more comfortable with your writing, you’ll discover your style and should let it shine through. People won’t want to read blog posts that sound like they were drafted by a robot—they want to know that a human is on the other side of that computer screen.

100% Accurate Research And Reporting

We mentioned that research is often required when you’re creating high quality blog posts. As you surf the web and collect information, you’ll want to be sure that your research is coming from a credible source. You’ll also want to make sure that your reporting is 100% accurate when you publish your post; in the world of high quality business blogging, there is no room for error.

Understanding What Your Audience Needs

High quality business blogging is intended to serve your audience. Think about what they want and need from your blog. How can you help them make decisions, learn something new, or discover more information about your product? If you aren’t sure about what your audience truly wants from your blog, do some market research to find clues. You can find answers by looking on websites like Quora, or even reading blog comment sections of competitors and social media feeds.

If all else fails, consider asking your audience yourself. You might be surprised at what they have to say.

 

Unlock Your Blog’s Potential With Custom, High Quality Content

 

The key to creating custom, quality blog content comes from a combination of a pinpointed blogging strategy, great writing skills, and consistent publishing. Your blog’s strategy will be determined by the needs of your customer and the goals of your business, and applying this strategy as a long-term marketing technique.

Busy Blogs Plus offers custom blogging packages that cater to the specific goals of your business. We’ll evaluate your goals and develop a blogging strategy that is unique to your situation and bring the very best out of your blog. And of course, high quality content is always included.