Getting started with blogging

It’s easy to think of your website as a one-time project, the “set it and forget it” item. But the truth is your site should be treated as something that’s always changing and growing.

Search engines love websites that are updated frequently or are adding new pages to be indexed, and your website visitors love seeing new content as well and feel more engaged with your brand. An easy way to keep adding fresh and relevant content to your site is with blogging!

Goals

We’re not going to blog just to blog though, we should have some goals in mind with a blog. Some goals of your blog should include:

Assisting the site’s ranking in the search engines results pages to improve visibility
Attracting the right audience (ones who could become future customers)
Inspiring action, like making a booking or signing up for future email marketing campaigns
Retaining relationships with past customers

Blogging is a great way to reach new customers and provide them with quality content and, when done well, it can be a huge boost to your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. Since we’re trying to improve a site’s ranking, this does not mean your blog is an opportunity to only promote your business or offerings, or simply recreate your activity pages in a blog format to try and game the search engines’ algorithms. Too many promotional posts come off as pushy and stale and ultimately alienate your website visitors.

Like the rest of our website copy, we want to focus on the website visitor. Every visitor to your site is trying to find the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me). They want content that matches their search query and isn’t overly salesy. Soft sells at the end of the post are totally fine! Link them out to other similar blogs you’ve written or link them to specific activities or tours on your site that were mentioned in the blog as these promotional pieces still tie into their original reason for coming to your site.

Topic ideas

We understand one of the biggest hurdles with blogging is creating the content and coming up with unique topic ideas. Here are a few idea-generating tips for creating blog content for your site.

One of the most common blogging formats is the list. List format blogs are very popular – and lucky for you – generally pretty easy! List-style blogs are easy to scan and digest and with many people searching for list-style content, it’s a great win for getting traffic to your site.

Seasonal

The changing seasons demand changing content. Use the seasons and holidays to your advantage and create content around it. Not all of your blogs need to be just about your activities or tours. Seasonal blogs are great ways to bring in new website visitors and reach a wider audience to get your brand name out there. Examples:

14 romantic activities for Valentine’s Day in Denver
10 fun things to do in Los Angeles for spring break
Get your holiday shopping done in San Francisco at these top shops
Tips for seeing the fall foliage in the Rockies

Of course one of your activities or tours could be one of those 14 romantic activities or one of the top 10 things to do in LA in the example, but those lists shouldn’t just be showcasing all of your offerings. Always think about what the reader is hoping to get out of reading your blog – good information!

Hyperlocal information

Google loves content that’s localized! Share information on your blog from a local’s perspective as you live and work in this area and know it the best! Not all of your blogs have to be specific to your activities or tours as you can also share insider information with your website visitors about the area. Examples:

10 things you didn’t know about Denver’s LoDo neighborhood
Best spots to watch 4th of July fireworks in Seattle
Our favorite restaurants in Minneapolis that aren’t on our Foodie Tour
Get energized for your walking tour – top coffee shops in San Francisco

Evergreen

Evergreen content is designed to be relevant for a long time. The information in these posts shouldn’t need to be updated frequently and can be applicable any time of the year. Evergreen content allows you to shine as an expert in your industry and helps build trust with your website visitors. Examples:

Surfing 101
Top 5 kid-friendly adventures in Denver
What to expect on a Segway tour
Tips for beginner scuba divers
Romantic experiences in Honolulu
10 historic sites in Boston you need to visit

Video blogs are a great format for evergreen content as you can reach audiences on both your blog and social media channels like YouTube and Facebook.

News

Win an award? Adding a new tour? Share it on your blog! Examples:

DenverEats a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence Winner
DenverEats debuts new, luxury shuttle bus
New vino tour added to Rome Excursions

Answer questions

While you may already have an FAQ page on your site, you can always create blog posts out of those questions and have the space to go more in-depth with your answers. Do people frequently ask if your tours are kid-friendly? Write a blog like, “Why kids love our biking tours” to answer it and provide assurance to parents that their kids are going to have a great, and safe, time.