Blogging is an important SEO tool, and every business owner today should get in the habit of creating relevant blog posts about their industry and business to post to their blog on a regular basis. Here’s a step-by-step on how to create a blog with CarCareCONNECT’s simple WordPress editor.

1. First, you need to be logged into your administration area of the website. This will be your domain name + /wp-admin, so for example, it could be http://www.yoursite.com/wp-admin. Once you’ve found your login page, enter your login credentials.
2. After logging in, you’ll be taken to the backend administration area. You’ll see a “control center” dashboard, but focus on the left sidebar. Find the third option on the sidebar titled “Posts.”
3. To add a new post, click on “Posts” — if the panel is not already opened a dropdown menu will appear— and then click on “Add New” to begin composing your post.
4. Once you have completed adding your content— You will move to the Right-Side Actions of the WordPress Post Editor, Publish is the most dynamic of these options for post management.
5. In the Publish box you have the option to preview the post. A preview is a setting where you can see what it would look like on the website, without it being visible to anyone else.
6. If you’re satisfied with your blog post, you can move on to click publish, by going back to the editor where you composed your blog and clicking the “Publish” button. If you want to make any changes, you can do so in the same composition window and preview again until you like what you see.
7. Keep in mind your blog post will not be live, meaning no website visitors will be able to read your blog post until it’s been published.

Blog Post Must-haves:

• A title. Your blog must have title – think of something not too catchy, but will get someone’s attention while still staying on point. Include the most important words. You have a 65 character limit- it’s best to stay under that anyway, because 65 is pretty long. For SEO purposes, you want the title to be simple but effective and to the point. Think about a newspaper or magazine article, or even online news or article. The titles are short and simple.
• Content in the middle. For good SEO (an important aspect of blogging), your blog post should be no less than 300 words. The best blogs on the web contain posts of about 1,500 words each, but you can start small to get a feel for blogging and so you don’t get overwhelmed.
• Breaks in the text. After you’ve written all of your content, be sure to change the style of text and add lists, numbering, emphasis where appropriate. Doing so makes it easier to organize your information, as well as easier to read, which always helps keep visitors on the page longer.

Nice additions to your blog post:

• Media. Images: breaks up the text, people also like pictures and will stay on the post longer with images. Learn more about uploading and adding images here.
• Links. Good for SEO, it helps to include links to pages already on your website such as services, contact page. For more in formation on how to do this, click here.
• Call to Action. This will tell people what to do when they’re done reading, such as “pick up the phone and call now”, “schedule your appointment now”- be sure to include a link to a Contact Us page or an Appointment Schedule Form page embedded within any similar calls to action.

Want to watch and learn how to create a new blog post? Watch our tutorial video and follow along! Click here to view the video.