The humble blog has long since outgrown its roots of just being an online personal diary. With over a third of the world’s top businesses blogging (source), it’s a great way for developing your personal or professional brand.

Creating authoritative content has numerous benefits, from showing your business is active and up to date within the industry, to building interest and brand loyalty. We've put together a guide on how and why blogging can boost your authority and save you time in the long run; just read on to get started!

Why blog for authority?

The average small business is always pushed for time, and with so many tasks to complete, blogging is often pushed to the bottom of the list. However, if you can clear half an hour once or twice a week, you can reap the benefits of becoming a respected authority in your niche and boost your search engine rankings and traffic at the same time.

Build trust – One of the most important ingredients in any business relationship, trust is easier to build when you have a foundation of respect. Displaying your knowledge and helping people through your blog shows that you’re helpful, approachable, and reliable.

Be the go-to person – Word-of-mouth recommendations have never been more important for businesses, particularly if you’re working in a competitive niche or a field dominated by much larger companies. Great blog content helps potential customers see what you offer and what you’re about even before they approach your services.

Create evergreen promotion – If people are sharing your blog posts, your business and skills are promoting themselves whilst you’re busy with the direct running of your business. Directing your customer to one of your posts or articles instead of having to trawl the web or craft detailed responses as and when also saves you (and your staff) time.

Open up opportunities – A high-quality blog naturally opens the door for more opportunities, such as collaboration with other people and businesses, developing valuable contacts, guest posting, speaking at events, review and giveaway opportunities, and even magazine and newspaper features. These can be targeted and developed in line with your aims (e.g. improving your offline presence, increasing advertising revenue and so on).

How to boost your authority

There are plenty of great reasons to blog for authority, but how do you actually become the go-to person and build new opportunities? Read on for some suggestions on how to get started and improve your writing straight away.

Use your knowledge as a springboard

The old rule of writing anything – ‘Only write about what you know’ – is especially true for blogging. It’s instantly obvious if you don’t know the topic inside out, so a good rule of thumb is to only choose areas you’d be happy to answer questions in. Avoid anything you’re not sure on or up to date with, particularly in terms of fast-moving areas such as web development or search engine optimisation, and come back to blogging about it when you’ve caught up or gained the necessary knowledge.

Be assertive

This can be a difficult balancing act for any kind of content; you don’t want to come across as bossy or condescending, but equally you don’t want to hedge or you risk undermining your authority from the start. Be firm in your convictions, use your knowledge and any relevant stats to back up your points, and lead any resulting discussions. It’s a fact of life that people won’t always agree with what you say – especially on the internet – but don’t get sucked into a circular argument, and don’t be afraid of controlling the conversation.

Ensure exceptional attention to detail

Every aspect of the content you create should show incredible attention to detail in every way. The facts you present, the images you include, the sources you reference, the videos you embed, and of course the message itself should all be of a high standard. Every single experience a visitor has on your website should be aesthetically pleasing and serve a specific purpose.

Craft a strong argument

Ultimately you’re aiming for a well-structured, easy to read, and helpful piece of writing. Creating a strong argument doesn’t necessarily mean disputing something, but rather being convincing in what you’re saying and showing that you stand behind it.

There are some good quick tips in these slides: How to structure an argument that you can easily adapt for blog posts.

Additionally, use trusted data sources to back up your points where relevant, and be specific when it comes to numbers (’10,450’ is much more convincing than using ‘thousands’, for example, as it has a literal value and eliminates the possibility of exaggeration).

Offer something different

Aim to help your readers learn something or think differently with every blog post you write.  You don’t need to get bogged down trying to invent something new; the most important thing is that you bring a different perspective to the table.

A great place to start is by drafting a response to a piece you don’t agree with, for example the views in a particular newspaper or a common myth for your particular niche.

Focus on action rather than description

Press releases and company news stories aside, a good rule of thumb is to base your blog posts around active ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ and minimise passive descriptions. This fits in with my previous point regarding offering something different; you don’t want people to feel like they’ve read your post somewhere before. Save descriptions for introductions and defining complex terms, and focus on calls to action, insights, and your own opinion for the bulk of your post.

Put the time into it

It’s instantly obvious when a blog entry is rushed or doesn’t come from the heart. To be a successful blogger in the long-term, you need to be dedicated and self-motivated. Make sure you’re happy with the post before you hit publish, and use that to determine your publishing schedule. Never post just because you haven’t published something and think you should; post because you have something to say and you’re happy with how you’re saying it.

Be consistent with the points above, and over time you’ll build up a strong reputation in your niche which will positively impact you and your brand in a wide variety of ways. What else do you do to build your reputation, online or offline? Let us know in the comments.