When done right, wedding blogging can be a key component to your SEO success and search engine rankings as a wedding business. That’s why we are sharing with you some of our most recommended wedding blogging best practices as well as the most common wedding blogging mistakes to avoid. Whether you choose to DIY your wedding blog or outsource to a professional keep these best practices in mind!
Seven Wedding Blogging Best Practices
Credit Vendors
It is a known fact that it takes an entire vendor team to bring a wedding day to life so be sure to credit all of the vendors involved. We recommend crediting vendors within the copy when it makes sense as well as providing a full vendor list at the bottom of the blog. Including hyperlinks to the vendor’s websites which is known as backlinking can not only increase your credibility and ranking on search engines but also your fellow vendors.
Be Strategic With Keywords
One of the main reasons to write wedding blogs is to include SEO to attract your ideal audience. So, be strategic with the keywords you are choosing and their placement. Do keyword research in advance and include keywords in priority areas such as the Title, headings, copy & imagery.
Use High-Quality Images
When it comes to imagery as a wedding professional, your marketing material should always include high-quality, professional imagery. Avoid including self-taken photos or iPhone photos in your blog posts. Take this opportunity to showcase your work through the professional photos taken by your photographer team- and don’t forget to credit them!
NOTE: Always ensure that the photos you are culling for your blog posts are relevant to the blog topic and are images that your ideal audience enjoys. Even though you may have fun photos from the dance floor, these may not resonate with your audience and ideal clients.
Be Consistent
Being consistent is important in and wedding marketing strategy. Being consistent with your wedding blog schedule helps develop trust and credibility with your audience. It shows you as an expert in the wedding industry and encourages your audience to return to your website as loyal followers. We recommend setting a realistic posting schedule that is easy for you to stick to. Two blogs per month are better than four in one month and zero for the next few months.
Make It Easy To Read
When writing the copy for your blog ensure it is easy to read. By this we mean not only does it make sense and the context of what you are writing about flows but is visibly easy to read. Include headings, break ideas down into bullet points and consider photo placement. Not everyone is a ‘visual person’ so include photos at the end of your copy rather than in between paragraphs.
Write For Your Audience
An important blogging mistake to avoid is writing your blog for SEO and not humans. Be sure to write with your readers in mind. Write to their level of readability, use known terms and lingo and be sure to avoid keyword stuffing. After all, you are trying to attract and educate your ideal audience and convert them into clients, NOT Google.
Ensure The Photos & Copy Match
No one likes to be catfished. So, to avoid a high bounce rate on your blog, ensure that the photos you are selecting are relevant to the blog topic. In our opinion, there is nothing worse than clicking on an educational blog topic to then be shown an entire photo album that is not related to that blog topic. ie) A blog about wedding ceremony traditions showcasing an entire wedding album including portraits & wedding reception decor.
Three Common Wedding Blogging Mistakes To Avoid
Treating Your Blog As A Portfolio
One of the biggest blogging mistakes to avoid is treating your blog as a portfolio. If you are looking for a space to showcase entire wedding albums your blog is not this space. We recommend working with your website designer to have a separate portfolio section on your website menu. Feel free to link to this section within the blog post to encourage your audience to stay on your website longer.
We recommend keeping the number of images in each blog post to no less than 10 and no more than 30. This ensures you are not overwhelming your audience with too much content.
Additionally, be sure to include relevant and strategically written copy in your blog posts. Without copy, your blog becomes a portfolio and does not include the SEO benefits. Keep real wedding blog posts to no more than 500 words and educational wedding blog posts to no more than 1,000 words.
Making It All About Yourself
When writing your blog with your audience in mind be sure to not make it all about yourself. No one likes a narcissist. Yes, it is important to talk about how you helped the couple or the services they worked with you on. But I doubt your audience has come to your blog to read about your personal opinions and will be turned off by such.
Sharing Irrelevant Information
This may be an unpopular opinion- sorry wedding pros! But…other engaged couples do not care about your couple’s love stories or proposal stories.
If it does not benefit your audience by inspiring them for their wedding or educating them for their wedding planning it is best to leave these details out of the blog post.
As wedding blog writers we want to ensure that your content is attracting your ideal audience and working for you not against you. So, use these wedding blogging best practices in your wedding business when writing real wedding blog posts and educational wedding blog posts. If DIYing your blogs seems overwhelming to you we’d love to help! At DxD we offer monthly blog management services as well as a la carte blogging bundles- Check out more about our blogging services and let us know how we can help you!