OPINION: Please call it anything
other than your 'blog'
When I say the word ‘blog’, what image does it instantly bring to mind? Is it a positive one?
For me, I’m immediately taken back to the year 2006 when everyone seemed to be a part time blogger. Where thousands of domains were devoted to the mainly incoherent ramblings of angst-ridden teenagers and people with far too much time on their hands. It was the long-winded precursor to sharing a picture of your dinner-plate.
The word was added to the English dictionary as early as 1999 and there are now amazingly over half a billion blogs online.
A permanent feature
With the ever present need to optimise websites for search engines and to showcase your companies’ or organisations breadth of knowledge, the blog is now a permanent feature of the digital marketing landscape and a powerful tool in the digital marketeer’s arsenal.
To maximise both the potential and return on effort (of maintaining a blog), it has to stand out. It needs to genuinely consist of high-quality and original content, and be a regularly updated tool.
If you want to ensure that your blog has resonance with the intended reader and begin to build a repeat following, you must start with one of the basics. Give it an appropriate and relevant name. Don’t simply call it OUR BLOG and tack it at end of your site.
What's in a name
Think about what its purpose is, what the majority of your content offers, how you as a company or organisation want to be perceived, and give it an according name.
For example, does your blog offer advice? Why not then call it something like ‘Tips and tricks.’
The blog you are currently reading offers a view into the marketing world. The thought processes and methods of marketeers. So I named it ‘Marketing Insights’. It’s worth you reading it because in return for you investing time in reading my content and engaging with my company, I am giving you something in return. An insight.
I’ve seen subject-matter experts call them ‘lessons’, ‘resources’ and ‘trends’. These seem to me to be much better. Their name conveys what you gain in return for reading.
Here's a hypothetical example
Dean owns and runs an independent travel agency: ‘Dean’s Travel’.
He gets the opportunity for lots of freebies and believes that blogging about his experiences, talking about those packages in detail, and putting it on the company website will help drive sales.
He names it ‘Deans Travel – Blog’.
Result: Minimal hits as people perceive that its just a blog by a man talking about his holidays.
He goes back and tweaks the name and some of his blogs language to: “Experiences from Dean’s Travel”.
Result: Improvement on hits because people see that the content may be applicable and relevant to them.
No substitutes
A charming name is, of course, no substitute for quality and relevant content. If your actual content is not of a decent standard then you will never get the engagement you would like. Having a decent name should lay a good foundation and encourage visitors to click through onto your blog in the first place.
Maybe I’m just a tainted by my teenage digital experiences. But I really do have to say; Please. Call it anything other than your ‘blog’.
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Written by: Tom W (Founder, Divergent Path)
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