By this point, you’ve probably heard that you should be blogging. You know it’s important, and it can help you book new or more ideal clients. But you might also be a little overwhelmed and not sure where to start. That’s okay! Luckily, there are just a few things that every blog post should have, and we can break that down for you!

Why You Should Be Blogging

There are several reasons why blogging is essential to any content marketing strategy. First of all, blogging should be your core content marketing platform. This is where you will house a majority of your longer content. Think of this as a home that you own. Your core content marketing platform allows for longer-form content and focuses on providing a lot of value to those taking the time to consume it. For wedding pros, this is often a blog, YouTube channel, or podcast.

It’s also great for SEO! Fresh content helps Google to find you. Google’s number one goal is to deliver helpful and relevant results to searchers. So, in order for Google to do that, they are always looking for fresh, new, and relevant content to share! That is where blogging comes in. This gives Google new and relevant content consistently!

Another important benefit is that it keeps people on your website longer. Our goal for your user is that they click around and stay around longer. Blog posts give you more content for the user to view! Google knows all, and Google pays attention to how long users are on your website and what they click on. So, if you can keep a user on your site longer, Google notices, and thinks, “This was a helpful article!”

And lastly, when it comes to wedding pros, your goal is to find clients, right? But if all you did online was say “Book me today!” chances are, you wouldn’t get a lot of hits. So for my clients, and you, we will focus on content you can share across all of your engaging platforms, tells a story, and speaks to your ideal couples. Are you more likely to buy from a total stranger hawking their product or someone who you know and trust? By building consistent content marketing, you are building that know, like and trust factor that your couples need. This increases the chances of a sale!

Blog Post Elements

Blog post topics don’t have to be complicated. You can have a real wedding or styled shoot is just that – a 300-500 word write-up about the event, with 30-40 images showing the work. There’s also an educational post, which educates your target audience while focusing on local keywords. These can be items like “Top 5 Wedding Venues in XYZ City” or “Top Ceremony Locations in XYZ City.” And lastly, the vendor post is all about featuring local vendors you love! But if you’re creating blog content for your website, you want to make sure the blog posts are working! This means making sure they have all the right elements that create an awesome blog post.

SEO Keyword

Before you write your post, come up with your Keyword. Whatever term you plug into your Google search is a keyword. Keywords are the focus of your SEO strategy. Your keywords need to be easy to search. Think of what keywords you use when you search. They are simple and to the point. SEO is about making your online content more “searchable” so that people can find you quickly and easily.

This needs to be CLEAR and SIMPLE! Not just for Google to understand, but for your couples. Your couples are not searching “Fine art wedding photographer” or “organic florist.” They are searching [City] Wedding Photographer – “Savannah wedding photographer,” “Austin wedding photographer,” etc.

You also don’t want to use the same keyword for every blog post. I like to focus the keyword on what the blog post is about or the wedding venue. 

When it comes to figuring out what keywords you should use, UberSuggest is an incredible free tool for Keyword research!

Engaging copy

When you blog a wedding, remember you need to have text! A blog post with just images and no copy will not help you. Google uses written content to read and understand your blog post, your website, and index what you do. If you are not writing copy, Google won’t understand what your blog is about! Plus, it might not even consider it relevant and won’t move it up in the SEO ranks.

When writing a blog post for a client’s wedding or a styled shoot, the story of the couple and the wedding day should be the main point of the blog post. Every couple’s wedding is unique – so shine the spotlight on their day! This is also where you can bring in the vendors that were involved in the day, and how they made it unique. Remember: these vendors are keywords as well! How did the vendors come together? This is a great way to promote your fellow vendors in your area! Always, always talk about and link to the vendors! I suggest at least 300 words per blog post. 500 words is ideal for weddings or shoots. 800-1000 words are ideal for educational

A few ideas of what you can cover:

• How the couple met. This can be pulled from any questionnaires you send them to get to know them.
• Talk about the location. Make sure to include why they chose that location, what venue they chose, and any personal details. Make sure to link all venues/vendors!
• Share personal details. Did they have hand-written vows during the ceremony? Or did they have a special moment during the reception? Sharing personal details helps you connect with your reader.
• What the wedding party wore. This can be a great addition to SEO! Couples are always looking for real images of wedding gowns – so make sure to include the designer, style, and bridal boutique it was purchased from. Include the bridesmaid’s dresses, what color they were, and the designer. And don’t forget the menswear!
• What you did for them. This is especially important for planners. How did you help them plan their wedding? What package did they book? Make sure to link to your services page so a reader can easily see what packages you offer.

Stories should be the backbone of your blog posts. They are an amazing way to show personality and draw people in. This is particularly true if you’re a wedding professional because you’re trying to inspire people to hire you for your services. Talking about couples you’ve worked with and things you’ve done is what helps people feel comfortable with you. You convince them with stories, and those stories make them feel more connected to you.

When it comes to education and engaging blog posts, you want to solve a problem for your reader. They’re coming to you with an issue, and they’re looking to you for a solution. That important information is what makes your blog post engaging.

You also want your blog posts to have unique tidbits. The goal is to provide your reader with new information, even if the topic has been done before. The more unique content/tips you can give your readers, the better.

Bonus tip: Don’t forget subheadings! Not only does this keep your blog post easy to read, but it also lets Google target keywords and read your blog easier. Always have your main keyword in a header! On websites, this is called H1, H2, and H3.

Keep Images Streamlined

Keep your images compressed and to a minimum. I know we want to share 100 images, but for educational, share up to twenty. For weddings, no more than forty. 

When selecting images to share, keep it around thirty images. Oftentimes, people post too many images, and it slows down your website. Also, people have short attention spans – keep it to the best of the best that still tell a story. Couples often want to see details and emotion – so focus on those. 

You’ll also want to use BlogStomp! This will allow you to compress images and create the right size. Avoid a third-party platform like Narrative! First, if the server or software goes down, you can no longer access your blog posts. Second, it doesn’t allow you to outsource it easily. BlogStomp lets you re-size the images. You do not want to upload high-resolution images to your website. This will slow it down, which hurts your SEO rankings. BlogStomp will make sharing images SO much easier! It lets you resize for web and create image layouts with just a few clicks.

I suggest 1400px on the longest side, and I personally prefer white spacing in between images since it is easier for the eye to see the detail.

And don’t only post horizontal images! Those do not perform well on Pinterest, where you should be sharing them. Have a good chunk of them be portraits so they can be shared on Pinterest.

Call to action

Include a call to action throughout the blog post (and your website!). I like to have one in the introduction as well as one at the end of the blog post. At the end of the blog post, summarize what you went over. Then encourage the readers to do something else. Offer them another blog post to read in which you go over a topic similar, or point them to a service you offer.

Internal and External Links

The last step is to make sure to add internal links and outbound links.

Internal links are links to other parts of your website. (contact form, gallery, etc.) Do at least two! Link to other blogs to allow people to engage. The goal of the blog post is to keep the reader on your website, and clicking around! Make this super easy for them by adding these links right in the text of the blog post. As you write more blogs, you can start backlinking to other blog posts you have, to keep readers going.

For example, did you blog the couple’s engagement session? Link to that! Have you done another wedding at that venue? Link to that blog post!

Not to mention, Google notices which page you link to within your website – it shows Google which page is the most important.

And don’t forget to credit all of the vendors and link to their website! This is so important. It’s not just important to credit vendors, but to allow the reader to view their website. Make sure this opens up in a new browser – this way the reader is not moved from your website. Adding vendor links also gives you outbound links, another important part of SEO and creating a great blog post. 

This may seem like a lot, but blogging is so worth it. It can really help you improve your marketing game and provide some amazing content for your ideal couples.

If you’re really worried about finding the time, Ava and the Bee offers done for you blogging services! We can take care of all of those details for you, so you have time to focus on your favorite parts of your business. Just shoot us a message!