At this point in your business, you hopefully have realized the benefits of content marketing and have launched your blog on your contractor website. You’ve decided what types of articles you plan on featuring and you’ve been sharing them on social media. That’s great! As you begin navigating the waters of blogging, here are a few simple Do’s and Don’ts to keep you on the right track.
DO proofread your articles before posting.
Part of the reason you’re publishing articles in the first place is to establish yourself as an authority within your field. You want to portray yourself as the most experienced roof replacement company or knowledgeable basement finishing company in your given area. Therefore, why would you let something such as spelling mistakes, which as easily avoidable, begin to put doubt in the minds of homeowners? If you can’t write professionally, how can you do a professional job within their homes? Make sure someone else looks over the article before posting or, at the very least, use spell check which often points out grammatical issues as well.
DO publish as often as possible.
The most you post, the more the search engines will love you. There are few things that Google loves more than fresh, updated, relevant content. Beyond that, your current and potential customer base will always find something new and interesting to discover when visiting your website.
DO use photos within your articles.
It will be hard to grab a reader’s attention online without anything visual to support your writing. Consumers are used to a multimedia experience online, so be sure to include images within your article. For bonus SEO (search engine optimization) points, make sure each image has a title that directly relates to your article. For example, if you are writing an article about
DO respond to comments and questions.
If your article prompts a homeowner to respond with a comment or question and they never hear back from you, how likely will they be to call and schedule an estimate or appointment? Not very likely! When you see that someone has commented, be sure to respond as quickly as possible. Doing so will not only earn the respect and trust of that particular homeowner, but further demonstrate your expertise and interest in your customers to the masses.
DON’T pass off someone else’s material as your own.
You’d be surprised to hear how frequently it happens, but it is unfortunately commonplace for companies to take a rival’s blog article and post almost the entire thing verbatim. Changing a few words here and there isn’t going to cut it. Websites, such as Copyscape, can easily detect what percentage of an article has been plagiarized.
DON’T spam or bombard others with links to your blog.
It’s natural to be proud of the work you’ve put out there and want to share it with the world. However, make sure that you are not suddenly turning into one of the most disliked people on the internet: a spammer. Going from site to site, and adding your blog into the comments section, or posting it to social media multiple times per day will only turn people away from you, not draw them in. Leave a few breadcrumbs in relevant places online, and the right people will find you.
DON’T publish just for the sake of publishing.
Of course, we feel that you should be publishing content regularly on your site. However, if you don’t have anything to say, don’t throw something up there without a real reason behind it. Customers will be left confused if an article doesn’t tie in with the rest of the content and messages on your site. Stumped for topics? We have other great articles on how to come up with new and creative topics, just keep scrolling down to the bottom of the site and type “blogging” into the search bar!