Grace + Vine Studios

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Why Every Blog Post Should Have an Image

If you’ve ever wondered if you should have an image in every blog post, you should! Here are the main reasons why having an image in every post is important. 

One of the coolest parts about working with my clients is that I am able to share my blogging knowledge with them. Aside from my web design business, I have also been blogging for almost five years now. My blog started as a way to document newlywed adventures and then recently I rebranded to A Joyfully Mad Kitchen, a food blog where I share easy recipes through the lens of hospitality. Because I’ve spent years learning the trade of blogging, I’m able to share a lot of tips to my clients, who are often times brand new bloggers!

Recently I worked with a client who was brand new to the blogging and internet world. It was so fun to be able to build her brand from the group up from a handful of amazing ideas that she had for where she wanted her business to go. At one point we were discussing blogging and she asked if every blog post needed to have an image.

The short answer is no, every post doesn’t need an image, but there are numerous benefits to having an image in every post. I’ll walk you through a handful of those benefits!

Images Break Up a Blog Post

Long form blog posts have really become the industry standard over the last few years. For some niches, like food blogs, getting to 400-500 words can be tricky. But other niches, like how-to, business, entrepreneurship, etc., reaching a word count of 800-1200 is pretty easy to do because blog posts are packed with take aways and tips. This is great for blogs that want to build their SEO rank, but as a reader, reading through a solid 1200 words is difficult.

Images break up that lengthy word count and help with the flow of the post itself. It may seem counter intuitive that having image breaks can actually make it easier to get through a long form post, but that break in visuals helps your eyes to remain focused on the words and get through the content quickly and efficiently. These images don’t have to be images that are designed each time. This is why I love having a library of customized brand images that I can use in blog posts to break up the word count. Of course if it’s appropriate, graphics that are designed specifically for the blog post are always helpful too!

Many Themes Have Built in Functionality for Images

If your site is on WordPress or Squarespace, images are really important for taking full advantage of your theme. Because WordPress is my jam, I’m going to specifically talk about the built in functionality that most WordPress themes have for using images.

The first thing to note is the “featured image” space within your blog post editor. If you’re accustomed to adding images, you may have even done this, but if you’re just getting started with blogging, you may not have realized that there is a spot to pick a photo for each blog post you write. When you’re in your post editor, there’s a sidebar on the right with all kinds of tools. At the very bottom is one called “Featured Image”. This is the spot that tells your theme which image is the main image for your blog post.

Many themes (but not all) use this featured image spot to populate areas on archive pages and blog pages. There are also many widgets that use the featured image, widgets like recent or popular posts. Here are a couple of examples:

If you look at both images above, the image that is being showcased as the main image for the blog post is the image that I chose for my featured image on the blog post editor. If I had skipped choosing a photo, that space that is built into my website would just be blank. Choosing a photo utilizes the full capabilities of my WordPress theme!

Images Make Content Shareable

Every social media platform these days is completely image based. It used to be that Instagram was the main platform for images but now Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram are all major social media platforms that rely heavily on images. We are so used to scrolling through our feeds quickly and most of the time we are scrolling through images until one catches our eye. Only then do we pause to see what the content is.

Having images in your blog posts allows for those social media shares to have images in them as well, which will help your information stand out in social feeds.

 

Images are Important for SEO

When images are used the right way, they can actually drive traffic to your site. If you’ve ever searched for an image on Google, maybe for a recipe or craft idea, you may have ended up on someone’s site from that Google Image search.

Correctly utilizing images for SEO is a whole other topic, but the basics are that every image you upload to your blog should be renamed with your SEO keyword (ex. wordpress-featured-image-blog-post.png) and it should also have an alt text set for that image. An alt text is simply text that is used in the event that someone cannot see your image, whether due to visual impairment or an image not loading correctly. This is the exact thing that Google would pull from when someone searches for an image on an image search as well.

SEO is controlled by a lot of things, but one of them is about how user-friendly your website is. Having images throughout that post will also help for Google to see your site as user-friendly which gives a boost to your website’s rankings.

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How to Overcome Self-Doubt as an Entrepreneur

If you’ve ever struggled with self-doubt in your business, this post is for you! Here are a few ways to help build your confidence in your own business and overcome self-doubt as an entrepreneur.

Recently I had the chance to attend a young adults event and meet some new people, which is always an interesting experience as an entrepreneur.

Being a mom and entrepreneur, often times people assume I am a stay at home mom and don’t ask what I do. If my business gets brought up, they’re often surprised to learn that I actually work for home to be able to stay home with my son. [Read more…]

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How to Stay Organized When Working from Home

Working from home definitely has its benefits. I never have to deal with traffic. I don’t have to wear a suit. I can drink as many cups of coffee as I want without shame.

But like anything, there are pros and cons. As much as I love working from home, it’s a lot easier to get distracted here than in a cubical. Being a mom too, it’s more important than ever to stay organized and on task as I “balance” being a work at home mama.

How to stay organized when working from home | Small Business Tips | Organization in Business | Working from Home | Self Employed Tips | Managing a Business

I love working from home but it does take a bit of extra effort to stay organized when I work in the same place that I live. So I am sharing five ways I stay organized when working from home, some are daily and others are weekly tips. A few are general principles that are important when it comes to staying organized and working out of the same space you sleep, eat, and relax. [Read more…]

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The Power of Creating Systems for Your Businesses

Whether you’re working from home or you are running an empire, systems are imperative to your business’ efficiency and success. With a new year beginning, it’s the perfect time to talk about systems, why they are important and how to implement them in your business.

First, let’s talk about what a system is. It’s a way of doing a particular thing–from invoices, to your client process, to the creation of your product. It’s a task  that is always done the same way and is measurable. If you have tasks in your business that are done differently every time, there’s a chance that they could benefit by being streamlined into a system that will tighten up your processes and make things run more smoothly.

A lot of the tasks in my business are managed effectively through systems I have created. My design client workflow is the same every time. From sending out web design proposals, to creating brand boards, logo, or full web designs,the processes I use are the same each time. While each of my custom WordPress web design clients may have different needs and branding, the process of working with them is similar enough each time to create a uniform system to make the process run smoothly. [Read more…]

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Defining an Editorial Calendar that Works for Your Business

There is a lot of information out there about how often to share new blog posts. But what about what’s best for your business or blog? Here are my tips for defining an editorial calendar that makes the most sense for your business!

There is a lot of information out there about how often to share new blog posts. But what about what's best for your business or blog? Here are my tips for defining an editorial calendar that makes the most sense for your business! Blogging tips | business tips how to blog | small business tips | editorial calendar | social media calendar | blogging schedule | blogging calendar | post schedule

When I first started blogging, the consistent advice out there was content, content, content. 

Every thing I read talked about how more content would drive more traffic to your site. 

It makes sense, on the surface. But what I found is that focusing on more content, ended up resulting in content that was simply fluff. It wasn’t content that was useful to my audience.  [Read more…]

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Five Words to Apply To Your Business This Year

If you love setting goals for your business, here is a great way to shape those goals for the new year. Here are five words to apply to your business this year to help this next year be the best one yet! 

I always love to start things on the first.

Whether it’s the first day of the week, first day of the month, or first of the year, I’m always more motivated to start something at the beginning of a time period. The new year especially, my head is spinning with my list of things I want to start or do in this near year.

I’m not the type that does New Year’s resolutions or sets a word of the year every year. I tend to get overwhelmed with putting such finite terms on the year. Instead, this year I’ve decided that I’ll choose a few years to focus on this year that I hope will shape my business for the next year.

If you’re looking to shape your business for the new year, here are a few words that you can apply to your business and how I’m specifically applying them to mine!

Growth

I am really planning big things for Grace + Vine Studios in 2017 and I’m hoping it will be a big year of growth in many ways. Instead of just hoping for that growth, I’m trying to create actionable goals and steps that I want to take to make that growth happen. Making that word a focus of my business in the year is the perfect first step to making it a reality.

If this is a word that resonates with you, take it one step further. Are you wanting to grow your social media followers or your email list? How about growing your engagement on your blog posts or growing your income? In order to really achieve your goals for the new year, you have to make sure that you create actionable goals that are also measurable. Meaning, don’t just say “I want to grow my business,” instead put it into terms that you can judge by. Say “I want to gain two new clients each month,” instead.

Consistency

Consistency can apply to so many things in business. Whether it’s consistently writing new blog posts, consistently sharing on social media, consistently meeting deadlines, etc., consistency should be something you want as a huge foundation of your business. I am hoping to tighten up my client processes as well as things like my editorial calendar for the new year in order to help me consistently meet my goals.

Customer Service

Whether your business is client or product based, customer service is beyond important. Going the extra mile for your clients and customers is how you’re going to continue to bring in new business. It’s my hope that when my clients finish their design period with me, they can’t wait to share about the process and the end results with their friends, families, on their blogs, etc. This is how client referrals happen, but it all starts with great customer service.

Even if you have a reputation of fabulous customer service, this is something that can always be improved! Continue seeking feedback from customers on how you can improve and continue tightening up your processes to make your customer’s experiences working with you beyond amazing.

Network

Y’all, let me just be honest. Running a business from home is hard work. It’s lonely work sometimes, too. Having people who get the world you’re in from day to day is SO important. This is where networking and building connections becomes so important. If you’re not in The Rising Tide Society, you need to go join their Facebook group RIGHT now.

This is where I build a lot of connections. Those connections are great for getting feedback, asking questions, referrals, and potentially even clients someday! They also have local groups that have meetings every month. They just opened a new group in the city we are moving to in January and I can’t WAIT to get involved and meet other small business owners and creatives through it! Networking is a huge goal of mine in 2017.

Unique

There are so many web designers out there. One thing that has become really important to me is not blending in with the rest of them. It’s been so hard not to just try to do what everyone else is doing, so in the new year, I hope to continue trying to differentiate my business from others. This can be done by establishing unique offerings, unique processes and client experiences, as well as building a business around who you are as a business owner.

Is your personality spunky or are you soft spoken? Are you introverted or extroverted? Does your branding and color palette match your life (guilty!)? Each of those unique characteristics about yourself could be a way to make your business stand out and be unique as well.

Which of these five words resonates most with you?