44: Why Your Website Needs a Blog & How to Get Started

blogging

May 30

In the age of TikTok and Instagram Reels, you might wonder if blogging is still relevant for small businesses. Rebecca Harpain, Squarespace expert and host of the podcast "Think Inside the Square," says absolutely! Blogging allows you to create in-depth content that establishes you as an authority in your niche.

Here's why Squarespace users should consider blogging:

Go deep, not short: Unlike fleeting video snippets, blog posts allow for a more thorough exploration of topics. This lets you share valuable information and position yourself as a thought leader.
Content pillars for the win: Focus your blog on 3-5 core themes (content pillars) relevant to your audience's needs. This keeps your content organized and establishes you as a reliable source of information.
Building trust and brand awareness: Consistent, high-quality blog posts build trust with potential customers. They see you as an expert and are more likely to choose your business.

Blogging Essentials for Squarespace Users:

Unique URL slug: Each blog post needs a unique web address.
Compelling titles: Craft a catchy title for your blog post.
SEO magic: Optimize your post with an SEO title and description to improve search engine ranking.
Eye-catching visuals: Include a thumbnail image and a social share image to grab attention.
Categories and tags: Organize your content with categories (broad topics) and tags (keywords).

Staying on Top of Your Blogging Game:

Feeling overwhelmed by the idea of churning out consistent blog posts? Don't sweat it! Before diving into Squarespace, take a minute to organize your ideas. You can use a fancy tool like Notion, but even a simple Google Doc works wonders. Think of it as a brain dump for all your future blog post ideas! If you want to use my notion template, you can access at insidethesquare.co/workbook

Brand new to Notion?
Sign up for a free trial with my affiliate link: affiliate.notion.so/insidethesquare

Building a Blogging Habit:

Ready to conquer the world of Squarespace blogging? Consistency is key! Here's a pro tip: commit to posting a new blog post once a week for at least three months. This jumpstarts your content creation flow and lets you see how your audience reacts. Plus, you can track your blog's performance using website analytics. Who knows, you might see a spike in traffic and engagement after a few consistent posts!

I genuinely believe that every single business that is using Squarespace should have a blog. Yes, every single business. And in a world obsessed with short form videos like Tik Tok and Instagram reels, why would a small business with a website need to create a blog? That's exactly what I'm digging into in this episode of Think Inside the Square. Welcome to Think Inside the Square, a podcast full of tips and tricks to help you create a Squarespace website that you're proud of. I'm your host, Rebecca Harpain, Squarespace expert and creator of Inside the Square Echo. In this episode, I'm going to be talking about why I still think it is so important to have a blog even in 2024. And I'll share some tips on creating content tools to help you stay organized and some Squarespace specifics that you should know about. And yes, we are definitely going to talk about SEO. For a transcript of this episode, along with the links to any resources mentioned visit insidethesquare.co/podcast.

The term Squarespace is a trademark of Squarespace Inc. This content is not affiliated with Squarespace Inc.

Before we dig in, full disclosure, I've spent the last few days just absorbing all of the content I could from the latest book by Gary V called “Day Trading Attention” It's a really fascinating book, and one of the things he talks about a lot is short form content like videos on TikTok and Instagram reels, and it's definitely a hot topic. So you might be wondering if that's the new way of marketing. Why the heck do you need a blog? And I'm here to tell you, you absolutely do. I think that every Squarespace user should have a blog. I think it's an important part about establishing yourself as an authority in your niche, in your industry, and it's the best way to share long format, readable content with your audience. Do I think that you should be creating short form content for other platforms to get the word out about your business? Sure, you go for it. I'm not a marketing expert. That's what I read books by marketing experts to learn a little bit more. But I can tell you from my own experience as a Squarespace user who has been blogging consistently every single week for over four years, Creating a blog on Squarespace is not only an easy thing to do, but it's a great way to establish yourself as an industry expert and truly connect with your audience. Creating a blog is what has helped me establish my brand as Inside the Square. So let's go ahead and assume that you're sold. You're ready to create a blog. How do you actually get started? There's a lot of advice out there that tells you to start with your ideal customer, your ideal audience member, what did they want to read? But I want to flip the script on that. I want you to think about what you want to share with your audience. I'm sure you have in mind it's a small business who your ideal customer is. But I want you to think about how you can delight your customer. What can you share with them? What information do you know that they need to know? That is what you can start thinking about when brainstorming content for your blog. There's a brainstorming concept that I'd love to share with you here ideal for anyone who's just getting started with the blog. Even if you have an established one, you can give it a try. It's the concept of creating content pillars Think of content pillars like the core themes that you'll revisit, often These content pillars give your blog a clear direction, and it helps your content revolve around relevant themes to connect to your overall messaging. They can also help you categorize your blog post logically, which makes it easier for readers to find what they're interested in it. When they find content in a specific content pillar, they're more likely to keep coming back for future posts on similar topics. Now when done strategically, these content pillars can be a little power boost for your SEO, your search engine optimization. When you focus on a specific topic using a content pillar, you'll have more and more articles about that specific topic, which means you're more likely to show up in search results when people are looking for information about that topic. So I'm going to go ahead and guess what you're thinking right now. How do I figure out what my content pillars are? And that is a great question. So I tried to brainstorm a few examples here. Let's start with the bakery. Assume this is a bakery that you run and you sell baked goods and baking mixes to your community. What the heck would you blog about? One of your content pillars could be about the basics of baking, troubleshooting, tips and easy to follow. How to guides for people that are just getting started. Information on how to properly line a cupcake pan or how to sift flour before you actually use one of the baking mixes that you sell at your bakery. That could be one of your content pillars. Another content pillar could be about recipes. Teaching people how to kick your baking mixes up a notch, like how to turn a basic lemon bread mix into a delicious citrus cake with just a few extra ingredients. A third content pillar could be a behind the scenes offering a peek into the heart of your bakery. Feature some of your employees in a profile talking about their signature treats, or even talk about what goes into your baking mixes. What inspired you to create it, or where you source your ingredients from? These behind the scenes look can really help establish trust with your audience. Okay, let's move on to another example. This one is for a personal trainer. Your first content pillar could be about exercise combinations. A blog post that outlines a personalized workout routine based on a fitness goal explaining the science behind the training methods that you're creating here. You could also have a content pillar that is complementary content like healthy habits. An article with meal planning tips or debunking diet myths, or exploring a connection between nutrition and exercise. You can help your readers understand a holistic approach to wellness. Still promoting your offering, but educating them on other pieces of content. Now your third content pillar could be motivational tips, something to help people overcome workout plateaus or sharing inspiring stories from your clients. Three different content pillars for a totally different type of business. I hope those examples help when you establish these strong content pillars, your Squarespace blog transforms from this scattered collection of ideas into a well-organized, valuable resource for your target audience. And remember, this is just a starting point. As your blog grows, you can expand on existing pillars, introduce new ones to keep your content fresh and engaging. But I want you to start by thinking of three, just three content pillars Focusing on information your audience needs to know. That's going to make it even easier to work with you. Now, I could spend all afternoon going over example after example, but I'm sure you get the overall idea. What I want to do now is move on to some Squarespace specifics. What do you literally need to create for each blog post? Every blog post needs a title a you r l slug the blog content itself, an SEO title SEO description, thumbnail image and a social share image. I also recommend writing an excerpt for your blog post. It's not a need to have, but it's a nice to have and it can double as your SEO description. There's a time saving trick for you. Now the thumbnail image for your blog post. It's going to be a different ratio depending upon the blog post layout that you choose and Squarespace. About two years ago, I decided to make my job a heck of a lot easier and I started using my YouTube thumbnails for my blog post thumbnails. So mine are a 9 to 6 ratio, but your perfect thumbnail image size is totally dependent on the layout you choose. The other image that I mentioned is a social share image, and the social share image will be used by different social media platforms. What happens when you share a link to a blog post article on LinkedIn or on Facebook? That program will often pull an image to be displayed with the actual link itself, like a little preview. Now, different social media platforms use different size images here. So there is no perfect size. But I stick to the 9 to 6 ratio for this image as well, keeping the content centered and away from the edge just in case it gets cropped. So title URL Slug Blog Post Content Associate Title SEO Description. Thumbnail Image Social Share Image Excerpt. And then we also have categories and tags. So how do you know what is a category and what's a tag? I'm going to simplify this for you. Your content pillars are your categories. Your tags are your keywords. I'm going to say that one more time for the folks in the back. Your content pillars are your categories. Your tags are your key words. Tags can be used to group together similar content. The tags can also help influence your SEO, your search engine optimization for your blog. Squarespace creates a page for every tag in your blog that lists all of the post. With that tag, organizing it for users and for bots. So again, content pillars are your categories. Tags are your keywords. Now let's be real here. That's a lot of content we just discussed. I've been creating at least one of the honestly like two or three blog posts every single week for over four years. That is a lot of content to organize, my friend. A lot. So how do I do it? I used to use a big old spreadsheet in my Google Drive and honestly, I would probably still be doing that if it wasn't for notion. I now organize all of my blog content inside one notion database I have a table. That's my content calendar. That's actually where I'm reading the script outline as I'm recording. This podcast is right here on a notion page in my notion database. So in this table, I list out all of my ideas as a different page. I tag it as a tutorial idea, a podcast idea, and I tag it with whatever content pillars of mine it happens to fit into. If you've ever sent me an email or left a comment where you suggested a tutorial and I told you I was adding it to my tutorial to do list, this is the list. This is the actual list inside a notion database where I have all of my ideas. So I write the idea out and then I tag it for whatever content pillar it's going to be. Is this a C? Is S tutorial a design tutorial? Is this a great idea for a podcast When I have a publishing date in mind, I'll assign that date to that piece of content. Then I have a specific space for all the things you URL slug. Excerpt SEO Title SEO Description. Then a checkbox for thumbnail and social share image. In notion, I can just drag and drop the images directly into the page. So they're right there ready for me to download when I'm ready to put this blog post into Squarespace. I also have two different status tags. A lot of my blog post content has a long format video that goes along with it. So if there is a video I can mark whether or not it's in progress, if it's been edited by the uploaded it. And then the other status tag is for the actual blog post itself. Have I written the post? Have I added it to Squarespace? Have I scheduled it in Squarespace? I can organize all of this inside notion. If you want a copy of this notion workbook that I use, you can get one at inside this weird eco forward slash workbook. I started offering the whole notion database to other square spacers so we can all get organized to the designers listening to this episode. Yes, you can share this notion database with your clients duplicated for every project and keep all their content organized in one spot. It has been super helpful for me and for the hundreds of other square spacers who use it. Again, you can get a copy at Inside the square dot co forward slash workbook. I am a big fan of notion these days and I might even start a separate YouTube channel about it. If you want to learn more about notion, send me a DM on Instagram and I'll share some of my secrets with you. Okay. All right. I'm getting too far off topic here. Let's recap. I mentioned quite a few resources today, so be sure to check out the show notes for this episode at insidethesquare.co/podcast. This is episode 44, so that'll be insidethesquare.co/podcast/44
And let's go ahead and recap. While short form video platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram reels have become dominant forces in capturing online attention, blogging still remains a powerful tool for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Here's why. Blog posts allow for in-depth exploration of topics compared to the brevity of short form video. This lets you establish yourself as a thought leader by providing valuable and informative content to your target audience. Focus your blog post content on 3 to 5 different content pillars. Sharing helpful information that your audience needs to know. Consistent, high quality blog posts will establish your business as a reliable source of information in your field. When a potential customer or client encounters your informative content during their online searches, they are way more likely to trust you and choose your business. Blogging offers a powerful and strategic approach to building brand awareness, establishing you as an expert in your niche. And I think every Squarespace user should create one. Every blog post you create will need a unique URL. That's the URL slug. You'll also need a blog post title, an SEO title and SEO description, a thumbnail image, and a social share image. I think you should also create an excerpt and use categories and tags to organize your content. If you want to start blogging consistently, create a way to organize your content before adding it to Squarespace. I use notion, but you can start with a free program like Google Docs. That brings me to my final point for this episode. A pro tip for any beginning blogger. I want you to pick one day of the week to post a brand new blog post and stick to it for three months. Seriously, stick to it for at least three months and see how it goes. See how your audience responds. Keep an eye on your analytics and see if your traffic increases. See if your community reaches out to you more. See what people think. Share your post on social and get feedback from your existing fans. We're talking about 12 posts total. That's four posts for each of your three content pillars created scheduled in Squarespace and see if your business benefits from it in the short term. This is literally how insidethesquare.co was started. I challenged myself to post a brand new tutorial blog post every Tuesday for three months. Four years later, I have a ton of content out there for a Squarespace community, and I'm still creating consistently every single week. I hope you're inspired by the ideas in this episode and my own story as a successful Squarespace blogger. If you can take any action steps today, just start with the content pillars. Think of three topics your audience needs to know more about and brainstorm for articles for each. Just open up the little notes app on your phone and write it down You don't have to do all of this at once. But I want you to start thinking about it and check out the show notes for this episode for links to additional resources that can help. I've got some past episodes, my website workbook, I'll have it all in insidethesquare.co/podcast/44 Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Think Inside the Square. If you enjoyed it, be sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever you happen to be listening to this episode and share it with your friends. Thanks again for tuning in and most importantly, have fun with your Squarespace website. Bye for now.
Day Trading Attention by Gary Vaynerchuk: garyvaynerchuk.com/attention
Website workbook: insidethesquare.co/workbook
Episode 21: Squarespace blogging: what makes a good blog post great
Episode 30: Blog vs Portfolio - which one is the right choice for your Squarespace website?
Episode 34: Squarespace SEO: Transform Your Squarespace Blog into an SEO Powerhouse