Business Blog Checklist – 10 Must Have Features

Does your blog blindly feed information to anyone that happens by your website or does it provide effective content that points to a specific call-to-action? In today’s blog post we’ve got 10 critical items to include on your business blog.

1. RSS Feed
   With the popularity of Google Reader and mobile RSS reader apps, having an RSS feed directly linked on your blog is critical.
2. RSS Email Option
   The classic email subscription option still lives on for many. This simple form on your blog can provide a quick easy conversion from a visitor to subscriber.
3. Visitor Tracking
   What’s the point of a blog if you don’t know how many people are reading your content. Track who is linking to your blog and what your visitors are doing once they arrive on your site.
4. “About Us” Section
   Make this section as short as possible. A good rule of thumb would be to keep it within 140 characters. If your visitors want to know more, that’s the importance of the next tip.
5. Link to Sales Website
   Your blog is not a sales engine. You are to provide industry tips and opinions based on current trends using your blog. Let your website pitch your product, not your blog.
6. Author Info
   Social media is all about transparency. That’s why it is import to place an author bio somewhere on the page. Preferably a headshot of the writer and a short description of who they are.
7. Custom Header
   Make your blog stand out among all the other millions of blogs. Give it a custom header with colors and logos that match your main sales website.
8. Follow & Social Buttons
   Some visitors would rather follow your Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus page rather than subscribing to your RSS feed. Make it easy by putting follow buttons in your blog sidebar.
9. Share Buttons
   Each blog post should have individual share buttons so that visitors will be more likely to put your blog post on their own social network feed. Also, once you start getting a strong following the share numbers gives your content more authority.
10. Contact Form
    Make contacting your company easy by providing several different methods of contact including a phone number, email address, a contact form, and maybe an online chat option.

Business blogs are completely different from blogs created for personal usage. Make sure your business blog is effective at providing valuable information about your industry, but also make sure it has a strong call-to-action for critical social media conversions.