So, you’ve decided to have a blog on your company’s website. Congratulations! You are one step closer to having and using an effective content marketing strategy. The next step is to get content up and running on the site, as well as continue with maintaining your blog.

Getting new content on your site is a lot of work, but well worth the effort. If you’re trying to come up with ways in which to use your blog to its fullest advantage, well, you’ve come to the right place! Here are some do’s and don’ts for blog maintenance that you can follow.

Do: Keep the Content Fresh

By keeping the content fresh, I mean your blog should mainly contain evergreen content. Not sure what that is? “Evergreen” refers to both the tree as well as the type of content online that everyone and anyone regularly looks up online for information, meaning the content never loses its freshness. Subjects that are typically evergreen include the following:

  • Animals, pets, and caring for them
  • Food, cooking, and health
  • Relationships, love, and marriage
  • Children, raising kids, and babies
  • And more

This is just a sample of some of the evergreen content that exists on the Internet. If you’re still struggling with content ideas for what your blog should be based around, consider basing it from what you’re already trying to market to your customers while going into more detail on they need to know from it. Perhaps you get a lot of frequently asked questions about your services that the rest of your website doesn’t answer – this would be excellent content to cover on your blog.

Don’t: Use Jargon

While it is important to center your blog similarly on what you’re trying to market on your website, that doesn’t mean you should always use terms that are industry-specific. Not everyone will be keen on reading words like “utilize” or “agonal” on a blog if they’re not coming from the same professional background. Using jargon may be turning people away from your blog instead of convincing them to actively read it.

This is why it’s crucial to keep your audience in mind – do you want to communicate to others in your own profession, or to those who aren’t, but may be in need of your services? Really think about the kind of customer base you want to reach out to, and if you need to simplify your language, do so.

Do: Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is not only beneficial to your website as a whole, but also to anyone’s blog, so long as it’s used properly. If you’re struggling to find out why your blog isn’t getting the attention it needs, check on the keywords and overall SEO you’re trying to use. Keyword research may need to be conducted and reviewed for best results.

Don’t: Stuff Keywords into Your Blog

To go back to SEO for a minute, it’s great to try and use the best keywords that are relevant to your site, but that doesn’t mean you should stuff the same keyword into the first paragraph of your blog posts in order to be noticed by search engines. While they certainly will notice you, it will be for all the wrong reasons. Keyword stuffing is considered to be Black Hat SEO practice, meaning it will lead to your site’s online reputation being damaged as a result.

When you’re optimizing your blog posts, try your best to use the focus keywords in a way that makes sense, rather than trying to force them into your writing for the sake of getting a higher rank on search engines.

Do: Be Engaged with Your Blog’s Audience

Reply to comments as often as you can, and keep your audience engaged in what you’re posting on your blog rather than blasting out the information. You can also connect links to your blog posts on your preferred social media platforms or use the content in an e-mail newsletter if you have enough posts to share. You may be able to find new customers as a result!

Don’t: Leave Broken Links Alone

Sometimes you’ll come across information that is so helpful with your blog post, you decide to add a link to the article within the content. Using them can help back up the argument you’re making or show support in the information being provided. However, some websites don’t hold onto their content, whether it’s because they don’t hold onto old news articles or they’ve moved the article to a different part of their site, which can lead to broken links cropping up in your blog. This means it’s crucial to pay attention to any outbound links in the blog that are causing problems and clean up any broken links you find.