What’s more interesting to read about: an in-depth piece on tax law or which film won Best Picture at the Academy Awards? Unless you’re a CPA or someone who absolutely loathes cinema, you probably picked the latter. However, what would you say if we told you that you could combine both topics into a compelling, relevant and trending blog post?
A form of newsjacking – or the art of injecting ideas into a breaking news story to grow your business – topical blog posts can help your website grow its organic web presence. Learn how below.
What Are Topical Blogs and Why Do Expert Writers Create Them?
Topical blogging capitalizes on the moment. What’s happening in the world right now? How do certain events affect you, your business or your clientele? A topical blog takes the trending topic of the day – whether it’s scrolling across the news ticker on every major network or popping up on all your social media accounts – and turns it into a relevant post.
Like news articles, topical blogs draw on a sense of urgency. For this reason, they must be written and published at peak times when the public still feels connected to the event. The idea is to channel readers’ raw emotions and offer a new lens in which to see the event through.
When writing topical blogs, expert writers often employ a number of strategies. Here are a few ways to tackle a topical blog:
- Respond to a current event
- Break down a current event into easily digestible bites
- Contribute a different perspective
- Offer further statistics and facts
- Explain how the current event affects your business or your industry
By writing the right blog at the right time, you encourage eager readers to visit your site. And with more shares, more likes and more interactions, your business will receive more exposure.
What Benefits Do Topical Business Blogs Offer?
So what does a topical blog actually do? For one, topical posts boost traffic in the short-term, driving more viewers to your blog. However, just know that these types of blogs are fleeting. As the topic you’re newsjacking fades from the minds of your audience and becomes yesterday’s news, so will your topical post.
While topical blogs aren’t designed to be compounding, meaning they won’t sustain traffic over time, they can draw in more viewers in the interim, increasing your website’s visibility and authority. Once readers visit your site, you can hit them with an irresistible call-to-action (CTA) to get even more eyes on your content. For example, call on new visitors to sign up for your weekly newsletter, offer a free download of your ebook or encourage them to share your post on social media.
Topical blogs are also one of the most effective ways to build backlinks, or incoming hyperlinks to your webpage. As your visibility grows, there’s a good chance that other sites will begin referencing your topical post, which helps increase backlinks to your website. As a major metric for determining a webpage’s ranking, backlinks should be a critical component of your SEO strategy.
The goal for any business’s site is to rank first on search engines. In fact, the first position on search results had a 34.61% click-through rate (CTR) on average for desktop users in November 2017. By getting high-quality backlinks to your topical blog post, you’ll start seeing even more organic traffic on your site as you make the steady climb to the top of the rankings.
How Does Topical Blogging Breathe New Life into Content Development Strategies?
It’s hard to plan for topical blogging, as one day in news can vary significantly from the next day. But that doesn’t mean that topical blog posts don’t play an important role in your overall content development strategy – especially because everyday processes can get stale over time.
Besides attracting new visitors and building backlinks, topical blogging can ignite your content development efforts. Perhaps something in the news triggers a series of blog posts. Maybe an event will have long-lasting implications that take place over a series of months or even years. Or possibly, there’s a holiday or event coming up that will be considered topical, but hasn’t yet reached peak relevance.
In the last instance, you can use Google Trends and other keyword research tools to see where upticks throughout the year typically occur, and devise a content development strategy centered on certain months. For example, let’s say you want to write about great holiday gifts. While blogs around late November and December may garner more traffic because of the holiday season, you may also find a spike in searches around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
Know the Pitfalls Content Writers Must Avoid
Incorporating topical blogs into your content development strategy can push you out of your comfort zone, which is where creativity and out-of-the-box thinking thrive. However, it’s important not to get carried away. Topical blogs are best used sparingly because they can make your blog look like clickbait if overused. Publishing a post on a trending topic shouldn’t be an everyday or every week occurrence, but rather carefully done for maximum impact.
No matter what you blog about, your business’s reputation is always at stake. When it comes to controversial issues, it’s of the utmost importance to keep your personal views, politics, religion and similar factors out of your topical blog posts. Instead, stick to the facts and avoid leaning too much to any one side. You don’t want to lose prospects because of insensitive and absentminded blogging.
Learn more about topical blogging and how it can boost your exposure by contacting Virtucom Group today. Our comprehensive monthly content subscription packages and content development services may be just what your business needs to deliver fresh, engaging content that grabs the attention of prospects, expands your visibility and leads to increased conversions.
