04 Jul 3 Things Research Says About How to Blog For Business

When it comes to business blogging, there’s a fine line between not giving your readers enough … and boring them to tears. Find out how to successfully blog for business.

Written by Daniela Cavalletti

7 min read

Let’s start with an admission: when I first decided to write on the topic of how to blog for business this week, I was pretty confident about having most of the answers to those all-important business blogging questions:

Does size matter?
When and what to post?
How often is enough?

Blogging … It’s Complicated

While there are indeed some definitive answers, I was rather blown away by the sometimes-conflicting opinions amidst piles of in-depth research on this subject. Analysis after analysis – layer upon layer.  

As in all industries, there are some cowboys amongst the professionals, doing no research at all or base it on tiny samples. Not so these guys: SEO company Moz analysed one million articles, others one million Google searches. But it is HubSpot that takes the prize for its insights on all things digital marketing – check out its Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2018, including the findings on all things blogging.

There’s a lot to digest, to say the least.

Let’s Keep It Simple

Some of the research and related conclusions out there are dubious. Others do it well, but overwhelm with too much info or data.

To help you see the wood for the trees when creating blog posts that actually bring in readers, leads and business, we’ve done the hard yards for you. We did the research, and combined the results with our own team’s decades of writing experience.

Here’s how to create online content for your business that will actually get read … and convert.

The Evergreen Rules: How to Blog for Business

Whatever your blog is about, some things you cannot go without if you want your efforts of creating blog content bear fruit: quality and consistency.

Those are the no-brainers.

And research shows that quality is evergreen. Engaging, old posts are ‘compounding’: they’re being repeatedly viewed, increasing organic search traffic over time.

So let’s get into the nitty-gritty of it all … this is how you write a badass business blog.

#1 –  The Shorter, The Better? Research Says A Big Fat “No!”

Depending on your age, you may recall that when websites first surfaced sometime in the 90s, no-one actually had a clue what they were doing. Many companies just dumped their corporate brochures online in the vain hope that someone might stumble across them on the ‘World Wide Web’.

Then in the noughties, it became all about less is more. Companies clambered over themselves to create streamlined sites with minimal pages, ‘cool’ images and very little copy.

Now, thanks to the divine intervention of our search gods Google, Yahoo and Bing, we are all about more copy, more pages, more often. More of everything to ensure a higher search-ranking with the ultimate aim of turning email subscribers and readers into customers.

One of the most cited reports on this is the SEO case study that analysed one million Google searches (now that is some major dedication!).

It discovered that pages with longer content ranked significantly better than short content.
In fact, the average word count of a Google first page result is 1,890 words.

And this is why we are now seeing meatier business blogs – 1,000 words or more becoming the norm. To explain it simply: search engines determine rankings based on a variety of different algorithms, and to them, longer content correlates to content that supposedly contains more customer answers.

It therefore ranks higher than a shorter blog.

Recent analysis from HubSpot found that the ideal blog post length is roughly 2,100 words, while serpIQ found that most of the Top-10 Google results are between 2,032 and 2,416 words (they like to be precise!).

HubSpot also found that posts which contain more than 1,500 words have more ‘shareability’ gaining 68.1% more tweets and 22.6% more Facebook likes.

So that’s that. Statistics don’t lie, and the answer then is “More is better”.

Actually…. sorry, it’s not quite that simple.

#2 –  In Defence of the Short Business Blog

As an experienced writer of business blogs, I’d put a disclaimer on long business blog-posts are being better per se.

Anything over 1,000 words is fine if  the subject matter is worthy of that amount of attention. In this time-poor world, people scan online content, so you better make it good. Readability and customer engagement are crucial.

We also know that more and more people are reading content on their phones. Will they actually persevere in reading a 1,500-word blog in this format?

A blog post length that is shorter doesn’t necessarily equate to inferior copy.

The great marketing mind that is Seth Godin can write some pretty fine prose using just 30 words.

It’s all about building a reputation, getting people interested in what you say – and getting them coming back for more. The thing is, Seth varies his word count – and very often tops 600 words. He writes to the length he feels a topic deserves and he writes something interesting every day. That’s a fabulous lesson for all of us.

It basically comes down to what we want to achieve, rather than a specific word count. For example, getting quick-smart to the call-to-action of a 300-words blog designed to create a sense of urgency can be highly effective.

#3 –  Give Us Our Daily Blog

Blogging frequency. It will come as no surprise to you that the stats indicate that the more often you publish a blog post, the more traffic you will attract to your website.

Websites that blog have an average of 434% more pages indexed by Google,
which makes it easier for your customers to find you.

Adding to that, over at HubSpot they found that companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5 times more traffic than those that published between 0 – 4 monthly posts.

And that is all well and good but … let’s be realistic.

For small to medium-sized businesses that is a huge commitment. I do have clients who require 15 posts a month. Luckily their industry is subject-rich, which makes it very easy to write interesting blogs 3 – 4 times a week. Not all are over 1,000 words. Some are simple case studies or event reminders that only warrant a couple of hundred words.

Other companies choose to post a lot less frequently than that: based on budget, but also what their specific marketing goals are.

So while your marketing goals may not stretch to a large number of blogs, it is important to commit to a regular business blog – whether that is weekly, fortnightly or monthly (no less than monthly though).

It will definitely make a difference to the number of leads you generate, and your ongoing customer engagement.

It’s worth remembering that business blogs continue to engage long after they have been published. It doesn’t matter how old it is, if it is good quality content it will continue to be of interest and show up in searches. Plus, hopefully, social media shares and other website links, proving its value (and ROI) for many years to come.

The Great Divide

There are always going to be those who vote short and others adamant that a longer business blog is the way to go. Depending on your marketing aims and industry, either length can work, so it’s an argument that is not going to go away anytime soon.

The answer to this conundrum is simple – it all depends on your voice, your business, what your customers want, and the purpose of the blog.

If you can deliver a great business blog that is of interest and assistance to your core customers in 800 words, then that’s the way to go. If you want to debate a topic in more detail and require 2,000 words then that is tickety-boo, too.

At the end of the day, the ideal blog post comes down to meeting the wants and needs of your customers. And that should dictate the length and frequency of your business blog.

Still reading? Good – you just made it to over 1,386 words!

Your blog post length matters, but the quality of your content matters more. The writers at Cavalletti Communications are a versatile bunch with oodles of experience writing blog posts. We can help deliver regular and exceptional business blogs that your customers will want to read. Contact us now.