12 Business Blog Essentials

There are about a million items a business blog could have, but the essentials make up a short list. Some essentials relate to blog structure, others relate to the message you provide on key pages. Get the following 12 essentials right and your business blogging will get serious results.

Also, be sure to check out the bonus 3 at the bottom of the list.

Business Blog Essentials

1. The purpose of every blog post/page is clear to visitors.

2. A homepage that clearly conveys the blog’s offerings & purpose.

3. Easy to find breadcrumb navigation.

4. Obvious links. (Underlined Links are what we have been using for years. Don’t reinvent the web.)

5. Copy (content) written for the general public. (3rd-5th grade level)

6. All options and next steps are obvious.

7. Free of any wording or imagery that is unnecessary, confusing or distracting.

8. Consistent with icons, buttons, menus and links. (Make sure they look and work the same no matter what.)

9. A site wide search feature which logs search queries.

10. A short sales funnel which tells people what they are getting, what it costs and how to buy it.

11. A “printer friendly” link for content or a style sheet for print media so pages look good on screen and off the printer.

12. Quality assurance system to fix broken links, spelling errors and other items.

Bonus: Three Deadly Mistakes

Not putting descriptive titles and alt tags on pictures and links.
Failing to do so means search engines and people with visual impairments may not be able to use your site.

Reinventing the web.
Make your website look like a website and not like a high end print brochure.

Forgetting that some people have slow connections.
There are a lot of users in offices where the shared T1 is slow or who have an old-fashioned modem at home.

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