To blog or not to blog – how can you write a blog with Squarespace?

Written by one of our fantastic clients who would like to remain anonymous

I’ve been mulling this blog over for around a week now. I like to think a lot before I blog, look around me for inspiration – quite often that can come at 3am which means furiously scribbling something down on a note pad beside the bed.

Top tip 1: get ideas down the moment they come to you!

Anyway, this inspiration came in a different form. I was watching TV a few nights ago. Mrs America was on. One of the things I like about this programme is the soundtrack. Some seriously funky tunes.

My ears pricked up – Make Your Own Kind Of Music, sung Mama Cass Elliot (of The Mamas and The Papas fame and not the recent cover by Paloma Faith – my wife thinks the new one’s better, I disagree – Mama Cass every time). 

OK, what is my point? Well, it’s these lyrics that grab my attention:

“..you gotta make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music.”

This really does some up life in business - why be the same as the rest? Be different. Be bold. Be creative. Be inventive. Be you. Think about your niche and then sing about it from the rooftops. In a nutshell, make your own kind of music!

 OK, you’re in the mood now, you’ve got something to sing about

Wow, hold on – sing???! OK, I you could sing about your product or service. But, if you’ve a voice like mine, I prefer put my words down online as a blog.

So why blog?

Well, think about this. I’m writing this blog about blogging. It is unique. Nobody has ever in the history of the world put these exact words down in this order. Once published, it will be unique to the glorious world wide web. Google likes that. Imagine Google being 80’s icon PacMan – furiously running around the web gobbling up new content. 

If you have a website, static, with rarely updated content, Google will be yawning, skipping by thinking, “meh…nothing to see here”.

If you are producing new, interesting and informative content, via a blog then Google is going to pick that up.

How can you help Google?

OK, let’s take this from the top.

Length of blog:

You have your idea for a blog. Don’t hold back on length. If you’re hitting 500-1000 words that is fine!

Title of your blog:

Give it a clear title which people will understand – and perhaps even add it in question format e.g. To blog or not to blog – how can you write a blog with Squarespace? You’ll also want to add in a nice long sentence or two in your Meta Description.

Get the most important information at the start of your title:

One of the key parts of the blog title was getting the most important words in the title at the start – this is called front loading keywords, i.e. the words and phrases people are likely to search for.

Make your blog sing!

Don’t be afraid when you write your blog to have some fun with it. Show off. Showcase what sets you and your products or services aside. Talk about a new service or product you’ve just launched; it’s features and benefits and how it is going to help your customers.

Don’t forget, you’ve built this company or are in a position with serious knowledge about it. Make that shine through.

Make your blog sparkle!

This is where the magic happens with Squarespace. You have so many ways to dress up your blog as just words would be a bit dull.

You can: 

• add images to accompany your blog – make them relevant, and if possible, use your own. If you’re stuck there are different options of free and paid for images within Squarespace, to the likes of Pixabay or you can buy images of iStock. When adding images, make sure you use relevant alt text to explain what the image is. This also helps Google.

• add video content – you could do a short video clip showing how to solve a customer’s problem. Believe it or not, I managed to fix a dripping tap following a plumber video on YouTube! Write about it and also show how it is done on video. You’re not showing customers everything you do – just giving them a teaser

• use headings: Use heading styles available in Squarespace to break up your content. The top heading (title) should be heading 1. Your first sub-heading a heading 2 and then you can follow that with another heading 2 or 3

• use bullet points to break up content so it doesn’t look like an essay

• link to other websites – the tip being to make it to influential websites where possible. E.g. if you are talking about latest guidance on eating healthily, link to information on Public Health England 

Don’t copy content

If you copy content you risk the wrath of the original owner, Google may penalise your website and, plain and simple, it’s not nice to nick other people’s content. But you can quote from other websites and then be polite and link to them. It shows you’ve got your eye on the ball.

Publish your blog

Once you post your blog, Squarespace generates a URL for you e.g. our latest blog was called ‘Website Accessibility – don’t leave your customers in the dark’. 

The URL generated was: https://www.managemywebsite.com/journal/website-accessibility-dont-leave-your-customers-in-the-dark

We deliberately add the most important words at the start of the blog title as this is going to be what people are search for.

Your blog is live. Sit back, relax and have a brew?

Not just yet. You’ve got to push your content out there on your social media and via email marketing. Think about pushing it out multiple times, depending on the channel. On Twitter you could get away with at least 5 tweets, but don’t use the same text each time. For example, for this blog I could tweet:

• To blog or not to blog – how can you write a blog with Squarespace?

• To blog or not to blog – top tips to help you get started with blogging using Squarespace

• Ever written a blog before? If not, read our latest blog (well what else would it be!) on…blogging!

• A blog on blogging – eh what? Yep, you read it right. We’ve written a new blog with top tips on blogging

And so on… 

For Facebook you might want to push it out twice. Post tend to linger longer on Facebook. Likewise, on LinkedIn. 

There’s so much to do

If you this has inspired you to get blogging on your own website, that’s great. We’re chuffed and hope this helps! Go for it and make sure to tell us about your blog experience. 

If you are thinking – cracking idea, but I’ve a business to run and haven’t got time – well, we can help. 

Blogs do take time

This blog has taken hours of thought time and research to get it right. It has been written, cut down, added to, images selected, uploaded, tweaked. And quite often if you do this yourself for a small business you just might not have time.

We can help. We can take your ideas, information about new products or services and write a blog around this for you. You give us the bare bones and we’ll make your own kind of music for you!

Imagine it like the relationship between Bernie Taupin and Elton John. Bernie writes the hits for Elton – Elton puts the music to it and belts the hits out. What a team!

If you’d like to have a chat with us, then get in touch by emailing info@managemywebsite.com or contact us via our online form.