You can reap a lot of rewards from integrating a blog onto your website. A blog is great for a search engine optimization campaign, but it can go a lot further if you remember its human element.
Blogs are free, and can be more powerful than you realise, especially if you spend a lot of time working on the content you post. If your content is intelligent and generates a following, it’s important to encourage them to comment. You have, at your hands, an objective following who will tell you their thoughts and opinions. Cultivate this opinion and use it to shape your strategy moving forward.
Say you’re a website in the betting industry, for example, and you regularly post pieces of news on your blog that cover sports across the planet. Take notice of the comments that are appearing on every piece, is everyone talking about a single sport? Is there a specific, massive event about to happen in the footballing calendar that everyone is excited about? If so then why not make a big deal of it on the front page and encourage them to tell their friends.
Managing a website holds the same principles as running a business on the high street. The customer is always right and should always come first. Having a website though allows greater interaction than a high street setting, especially if you have a blog. It gives a friendlier, more personal tone to your operation, and because people have a certain degree of anonymity over the internet, they’re more than likely going to be more comfortable leaving opinions and messages on your website.
Having a forum can also be a goldmine of opinion, and consistently maintaining, moderating it and making it an attractive place to visit is a great way to generate a core user following. By posting topics and encouraging visitors to leave opinions about your site, you can learn a lot more about how people feel about your site on a human level. This will also help your reputation management no end.
If a comment crops up time and time again regarding usability issues, then don’t ignore it. Follow It up, and show that you listen to your visitors!