WordPress Business Blog In a Box

WordPress blogs are great for adding pages to your website, increasing its depth and value. So what’s the right blog for you? Which theme? Deep-links or a microsite?

What if there was an out-of-the-box solution to make life easier for growing a business?

There is…

There’s a way to create a custom design using a single blog skeleton, optimized for search, and designed to grow with your business to attract customers, fans and followers.

Let me show you how:

Choose Your Skin

The first step towards building a site is deciding what you want it to look like. Browse some of your favorite websites and reflect upon what you like about them. Then take into account what you’re hoping to achieve with your target audience (sales, conversation, leads).

WordPress websites are ‘widgetized’, meaning you can add or subtract forms, design elements, and text wherever you like. By using the Thesis Theme, which all my sites run on, you have the ability to create custom design sites on the fly. Pretty cool, huh?

Deep or Shallow?

Next up is the choice between deep-linked website vs. single-purpose microsite (This doesn’t have to be an either-or choice, by the way).

Your deep-linked website is the base of operations for a business. The deep site contains a blog and all of the different services you offer, while a microsite is intensely focused on one topic. Your microsite is intended to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs) for the specific keywords associated with a single product or service you provide.

Every business owners ‘blog in a box’ is different. Check off the option of website, or website + microsite. Now we’re rolling!

Content Isn’t King, But It’s Still Important

I hate it when people say that content is King, because that simplifies things way too much and isn’t always true. Some of the best content on the Web never has the chance of being read because it rests on a poorly optimized website or social networking profile.

However, you need good content with a killer headline to gain inbound links, leads and conversions. Seed your blog with a solid 10 posts if you’re just starting out and make time at least once a week to write fresh content that gets rolled out on a scheduled day and time (ex. Write five posts in one day and schedule them out over the course of a week).

Psst, don’t forget to add capture forms to your website and microsite. Forms and phone numbers are critical for gaining leads! I’ve noticed dramatic increases in inbound leads just by increasing the size and placement of numbers in the welcome messages on specific websites. That’s another cool reason to use a widgetized WordPress site; ease of design changes that help you test what’s most effective.

Add It All Up

So let’s recap what your ‘WordPress blog in a box’ looks like:

1. Website (With or without microsite)
2. Skin (Your unique design)
3. Content (Blog posts, social network setup, and web form creation)

Fill out a WordPress plan of your own and hand deliver it to your consultant, or take a shot at bootstrapping it on your own using the Thesis Theme for WordPress, a domain from GoDaddy, and — when you need it — help from the Social Media Commando.

Tagged as: WordPress Blog