Where to Look for Great Content Ideas for Your Blog

We talk a lot about blogging here on the ITC Marketing Blog. For good reason as it plays an important role in adding fresh content to your website, which search engines love, and promoting your agency and your knowledge as an insurance expert, which your clients appreciate.

Blogging can easily become a daunting task. Especially if you struggle with what to write about. There are several places to look for ideas on what to blog about. But the best place to look are your customers.

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Let's Talk Expiration Dates

You've heard it time and time again. Content is King.

To show how your content is a reflection of your site to Google, let's consider expiration dates.

Somewhere, either sitting in your refrigerator, on your kitchen counter, under the seat in your car, or at your desk, you probably have food that will one day go bad. It will eventually sit there too long, start to grow mold, eventually stink up everything, and you will finally throw it out. Imagine if Google viewed your site the way you view that food.

Well it does. Kinda.

Google wants to expose its users to fresh sites. That means it will take note of sites that are updated often and updated with meanigful changes. Sites that are left too long and become stale will be tossed aside and may never be served up as a search result. So if it hasn't been stressed enough already, keep your site fresh.

How often should a site be updated? Often. Weekly, if possible.

How much should a site be updated? A lot. More should be changed than just the date, navigation, or advertisement.

What kind of content should be added to the site? New Pages. Not just new content on existing pages. Google wants to provide new value, so it wants to find new pages.

As a bonus, here's an infographic from bitrebels to further breakdown how to make your content King.

What to Blog About?

Create a content calendar.

In the world of business, families, school, and so many other things, people have adapted to calendars; on their phone, at their desk, on their computer, even through sticky notes on their car windshield. Calendars seem to make things easier. Less stressful. Less intimidating.

So when faced with the impossible task of blogging, some people will run scared and not even try. And some will start off strong, only to waver after 2 or 3 weeks. We know you’re busy. We know you’ve got better things to do besides stopping to put your genius into words. But blogging can be your escape. Like the working mother who has to schedule dinner and a bath into her life just so she doesn’t forget to take care of herself. Schedule blogging into your life, and give it the importance it deserves.

You have a website because you want people to visit. You care about the design of your website because you want people to stay. And Insurance Website Builder gives you an easy-to-use blog because we want people and search engines to come back.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again—Content is King. Blogging is the easiest way to satisfy this straightforward desire for fresh content. But it must be done in accordance with SEO efforts. And it must be done consistently. Here is where a calendar comes in.

Create a list of events that will give you an excuse to write something. Date these events and pick the ones you deem most fitting for you to target. Decide what type of content you can produce for each of these events. Don’t worry about keeping your ideas 100% business related, that’s what news events are for along the way.

Like I said, we know you’re busy. So to help you start brainstorming, here’s a handy (& long) list of events to get your gears turning:

Your Products

• New product launches
• Product upgrades / relaunches
• Announcements about big new clients

Your Business

• Anniversary of the company
• Company conferences
• Other events / meetups
• Publication of non-commercial content (new Whitepapers, etc)
• Announcing new job openings
• Announcing new hires / senior personnel changes
• Mergers and acquisitions

Industry News and Events

• Annual Reports
• Industry Awards
• Industry Conferences (esp. those you will attend or speak at)
• Industry Exhibitions (esp. those you will attend or exhibit at)
• Industry / Partner Events

Niche Events & Celebrations

• Niche occasions (eg: new driving laws, new insurance guidelines)
• Widely recognized events (eg: ‘National BBQ Month’)
• Events just made up for PR (eg: ‘National Pool Party Week’)

Politics & Community

• Local / regional / national election cycles
• New laws / bills
• Opening / closing of political seasons
• Annual budget announcement

Holidays (Federal & Unofficial)

• Christmas
• New Year
• Easter
• Independence Day
• Mardi Gras
• Diwali
• Ramadan
• Hanukkah
• Valentine’s Day
• Halloween
• Mother’s / Father’s Day
• April Fool’s Day
• Friday 13th
• Feburary 29th
• Pi Day
• St Patrick’s Day
• Chinese New Year

Seasonal / Calendar Events

• First day of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring
• Summer Vacation / Back to School
• The Equinoxes and Solstices
• Start & end of daylight savings time
• Tax Season

Historical Celebrated / Well-Remembered Events

• Look for 10th/25th/100th anniversaries
• Tragedies (natural disasters, plane crashes)

Once-in-a-Lifetime Events

• Halley’s Comet
• The last NASA shuttle launch
• Royal Wedding / Coronation
• Solar eclipse
• Turn of a century

War & Conflict

• VE / VJ Day
• Remembrance Day
• Independence Days
• Famous battles (Bosworth, Hastings, Normandy Landings, Dunkirk, Stalingrad)
• Terrorism memorials (7th of July, 11th of September)
• Internal conflict (eg: Bloody Sunday, various Civil Wars)

Annual Sports Events

• NFL Playoffs & The Superbowl
• NBA Playoffs
• March Madness

Non-Annual Sporting Events

• Ryder Cup
• Olympics
• Soccer World Cup

Calendar courtesy of distilled.net

Au Naturale...

search en·gine op·ti·mi·za·tion
"SEO: the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the natural, un-paid, or organic search results"

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Back to the Basics

SEO combines the methods of how search engines work, what people search for, the actual terms or keywords entered into search engines, and which search engines are preferred by target audiences.

Optimizing a website for SEO involves editing the content, promoting that site around the web, and removing any barriers possible so that search engines can index the site.


No Cheaters Allowed

Don't cheat yourself out of something rewarding to get something easy. SEO can be thought of similarly to a relationship. Your site should be accessible, have goals set for the future, always know the right things to say, know the likes and dislikes of search engines, never come off as fake, automated, or a copy-cat, and never ever bore them. Never.


The Truth of the Matter

If you would prefer to find love by going on reality television, getting engaged after 1 week, and becoming married after 1 month, then I can already guess how long that marriage will last...

But if you prefer the tried and true way of meeting someone at your local coffee shop, getting to know that person over a few dates, then embarking on a lifelong journey of happiness, you're already one step closer to understanding SEO!


Making it Make Sense

They say love is fleeting. And search engines can be just as tricky. So if you haven't figured it out by now, you have the power to choose that regrettable rush of a drive-thru wedding in Vegas or holding on to the lasting satisfaction of a relationship sustained through the ups and downs. This is similar to Paid SEO tactics and Natural SEO tactics. You can pay to feel that instant, however short-lived rush, or you can grow naturally. The results will speak for themselves.

In dating and in SEO.

Your Fun Friday Facts!

Be sure you check the rest of our blog entries to see how these SEO tools can be implemented on your own website.

White Hat SEO & Black Hat SEO

Search Engine Optimization can be divided into two categories: methods that search engines consider “best practices”, and practices that search engines frown upon. Search engines try to lessen the effects of black hat SEO. The search engine industry and the SEO community have classified these methods as white hat SEO and black hat SEO. White hat techniques typically produce long term results and black hat practitioners, in the back of their mind, know that their sites may be de-indexed from the search engines if they’re found out.

White Hat SEO
White hat methods follow the search engines’ guidelines and do not try to trick the internet visitor or the search engine. White hat is not only about following guidelines, it’s about making sure the search engine content matches what the user will see. White hat recommendations include creating content for users, not for the search engines, and then making the content easily accessible to the search engine spiders, rather than to try to deceive the search engines.

Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO tries to improve rankings in ways that are not approved by the search engines. One black hat technique is to use text that is the same color as the background. Another technique is to take the user to a different page than the one that was requested, a technique called cloaking.

Search engines may penalize sites they find using black hat methods. Punishments include reducing their rankings or removing the website from their index. These penalties can be implemented automatically through search engines’ algorithms or manually by review.

Our SEO team at Insurance Website Builder only uses white hat methods that will ensure your insurance websites will remain indexed in the search engines and highly ranked.