Like I said in my last post, it’s important to remember that most of your readers don’t know you in real life, and they may not be particularly familiar with your field and its buzzwords, particularly if you’re blogging to promote your business (you want them to stick around and get to know you, not click away to look for a different source of information).
Therefore, you may want to avoid using highly technical or niche-specific terms without clearly defining them for your readers, or at least pointing them to a good definition with a link.
“But what if these are words or phrases that I want to use a lot?” You might ask. After all, defining a term every single time you use it in a post gets old - and overly wordy - real quick. Plus, you don’t want to turn off the readers that are more knowledgeable about your topic area by constantly explaining the same things. That also gets old fast.
So what’s a smart business blogger to do?
For starters, you can create a FAQ (frequently asked questions) or a dictionary for readers who may be unfamiliar with your niche but still very interested in the topic. This is also a good way to build some cornerstone content that other bloggers will link and readers will bookmark because it’s such a quality resource. In fact, it could end up being the most important and popular page on your blog.
If/when you decide to create a dictionary, it’s probably best to post it as a page, so that it remains outside the chronology and hierarchy of the rest of your blog. Besides, then it will remain on the sidebar or header and be clearly visible to your visitors, and you can update it without interrupting the flow of your blog.
For an example of a dictionary page, look no further than my own blog dictionary, which I created after getting questions from readers about some of the terms I used. Although I’ve covered plenty of the phrases that you’ll come across in the blogosphere, it’s an ongoing project as new buzzwords crop up and I come across more words that might require clarification for newbies.
Of course, you don’t have to write anything as lengthy as I did, but a FAQ or dictionary could go a long way towards teaching people about your topic, proving your expertise in your niche, and ensuring that your readers stick around because you’re providing them with valuable content. Yes, it is likely that they could find similar information on other sites, but you’ve got all the info in one place and it’s nicely organized. You make it easy for them, and they’ll reward you by bookmarking your site, recommending you to others, and even becoming customers or clients.
