Blog Consultancy
Posted by John PrendergastWhy would you need Blog Consultancy?
This is a good question - the software is free and everything you need to know is on the internet, so why would you need a consultant?
The simple answer is that you don’t unless as a business you need your blog to be effective and don’t have the in-house expertise (or time) to achieve this.
As one of our services, Aonach provides Blog Consultancy because we believe that for most businesses an effective blogging strategy can be one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to increase the profile of a business online. A good blog consultant can save you time and money by helping with the following tasks:
1. Determine a blog strategy for your business helping you to identify the objective of the blog and to map out the key steps to achieve this.
2. Help you choose the right blogging software platform for your specific requirements.
3. Configure the blogging software platform and choose the most appropriate plugins to enhance the overall blog functionality and findability (SEO).
4. Evaluate the optimum information architecture for the blog particularly looking at the page and category layout.
5. Advise on the design of a template for your blog and on the integration of the blog into the overall website.
6. Determine a content strategy highlighting keyword targets, tone and frequency recommendations.
7. Help manage updates, security patches and ongoing maintenance.
8. Advise on promoting your blog though social networks.
Blogging is normally the preserve of the enthusiast. Ideally you need to constantly tweak your site, the plugins and the approach based on a continual evaluation of your traffic and user patterns. This is no issue for determined bloggers but can present a challenge for a business where the blog is but one part of a much larger concern. This is where a blog consultant can help you bridge the gap between the tech geek world and the time constraints pertinent to any commercial venture.
As with most open-source free collaborative software the benefit of blogging paltforms is that they are cost effective in terms of their small or non-existent licensing costs and offer the flexibility of customization. The trade-off is that there’s usually no one person to turn to when there’s a problem. Problems often arise when, for example, the blogging software is patched to fix an exploit and the array of plugins you are using don’t function correctly with the update. The enthusiast will resolve these issues over time using online forums and a little trial and error. That may not be an option for a business who’s blog reflect the overall high level of credibility of the company at all times.
