We were recently asked to investigate why, despite setting up a wide range of social media platforms including Twitter, a YouTube channel, Instagram and a Facebook Page and a regularly updated well written blog, a new client’s website was seeing no benefit in terms of its Google Ranking.

In terms of the social media and content marketing, we could not fault any of the work the client was doing, in fact, we were highly impressed by it. Upon further investigation, we found the cause of the problem.

The client had created a wordpress blog and seamlessly integrated it into the design of their html custom built website. The website works on a .co.uk domain, and the blog is set up on a .me domain. This means that the blog does not benefit from the website’s existing SEO benefits, but more importantly, the website does not benefit from all the hard work that goes into the blog. In effect, the efforts at content marketing are actually competing with the website for Google rankings.

With that in mind, we decided to write a blog about how to make your blog work best for your website.

1. Upgrade your website, don’t set up a separate blog for your content marketing.

One of the most important things to do when setting up your business blog is to ensure it’s within your existing website.

Whilst it might seem an easy way to add an extra dynamic to your website, creating a WordPress Blog on a separate domain to your existing website is counter-productive when it comes to Google rankings and improving your website performance.

Google and other search engines such as Bing will see two identical domain names with different endings as two separate websites. Even if your blog sits neatly on your navigation bar, linking to an external blog such as on wordpress.com or Blogger will simply add competition to your site rather than improve its online strength. Keep your blog within your website at all times is the best advice.

2. Make sure your website is regularly updated with informative content through your blog.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is all about ensuring more people find your website and give you their custom. Through SEO, this is done by boosting your search engine ranking, ideally getting to the top page of Google by improving your ranking positions for your key search terms, fresh informative content is more and more important.

This means writing informative, content rich articles about the products and services you offer, why your business is the best to go to for what you do and letting people know about you online.

3. Work with a specialist copywriter that can develop your online content

To create the best copy to help you achieve your online marketing goals, it’s best to work with an experienced web copywriter. They have the skills to help you identify the best keywords and create copy to make a real impact for you and your website.

Creating informative, content rich blog articles involves more technical skill than simply writing about products. You have to create articles that include the keyword a certain number of times, and add in location, business and additional information that will work for you on a local level. Local search is increasingly important in the way Google ranks websites and your blog is a great way to take advantage of the shift in search ranking.