An effective business blog has an abundance of components that contribute to its success. These mechanisms allow for readers to interact with content in an optimal way. Optimization is key to not only becoming a useful source of content within your industry, but a useful source of content within search engines.

Every blog needs to have the basics, a set of stand mechanisms that make content user-friendly and easy to consume. Standard mechanisms include: a title, featured images, supplemental imagery, categories, date and archives. Additionally, your blog can contain a popular posts mechanism and a homepage filter that allows your latest blog content to be featured directly on your website's homepage.

Moving past the standard options, every successful blog in the construction products market must have these components: an integrated/non-third party blogging platform, social sharing options, and a lead generating mechanism.

One of the earliest discussions of a blog within your company should include where the blog will be housed. While external platforms do exist, an internal platform is the most effective. The reason for this is that a blog contains content, often more content than your website. That content is keyword-rich and has tremendous potential to gain readership.

If the blog is not attached to your website, you are forcing users to visit another site to seek information, an unnecessary step this day in age. Not to mention, this third-party site can potentially become more popular in search, taking over or essentially working against your corporate website. Therefore, the best business blogs are a tab within your corporate website where information is most accessible.

The second most important component is social sharing options. Every piece of content your company produces should have the ability to be shared directly to social media. There are several plug-ins that allow you to add this feature to your blog and it is vital. Content should not be stagnant, it should always have the ability to be easily shared throughout the web. With the ability for users to share your content, your content gains authority within search, allowing your ranking to increase.

The last, and arguably most important, blog feature is a lead-generating mechanism. The construction products market is a difficult market to quantify leads. Often leads are initially contact forms or sample orders. Therefore, every piece of content produced should have some form of lead-generation within it. This varies depending on your brand but often the mechanism is listed at the end of each blog and allows a reader to: schedule a lunch & learn, order samples, download a white paper/eBook, or subscribe to an email list. This mechanism allows a reader to become a potential lead by capturing essential information.

With the addition of these components a business blog is guaranteed to be more successful. But business blogging is not easy, there are also a variety of steps required before committing to its creation. Coming soon..."A Beginner's Guide To Blogging For The Construction Products Market."