Adding a blog to your small business website is one of the best marketing moves you can make. Consistent blogging can drive traffic to your site, where you can nurture curious visitors into loyal fans, and from there to paying customers. Let’s break down why.
You’ll Show Up in Search Results
There are two, and only two, ways to get your website to show up in search results: paying for ads and having valuable content.
Paying for traffic with pay-per-click ads is effective, but also quite expensive. And the same day you stop the ads, your traffic stops coming in.
Writing blog posts that give meaningful information to is also effective, and at a fraction of the cost. These posts have a good chance of showing up in search results as the answer to real questions your ideal customers type into Google.
Your blog posts could end up driving a great deal of traffic to your site for months or years to come.
Content for the win!
Establish Yourself as an Authority
When you write consistent content that really helps people, they will continue to come back to your site for more information. The more generous you are with the information you share, the more likely your content will convert for you.
As your target audience reads these helpful blog posts, you’ll build trust and rapport that will pay dividends down the road as you offer them your paid services.
Sharing information that will help someone solve problems on their own. This is a proven way to establish yourself as an authority in your field.
“Showcasing your expertise” and “establishing your authority” doesn’t mean you talk like a professor or CEO. Long, complicated sentences full of giant words are a sure-fire way to turn people off. Even if your audience is full of professors and CEOs, they are most likely tired, distracted, and multi-tasking while being constantly interrupted.
Keep your content scannable.
Define your Brand Voice
Blogging helps to define a voice for your brand. It’s one of the first things potential clients notice about your business.
This is an important point, because once people decide that they like and trust your brand, they are well on the way to purchasing from you.
Are you a relatable mompreneur dispensing excellent advice with a sense of humor? Or a certified expert who’s great at breaking big concepts into easily understood snippets? Let that work for you. Your knowledge and communication style go a long way toward dictating your voice, and having a blog on your website lets you use that voice for your brand.
Keep it fresh.
Make sure you update your posts from time to time. Search engines will notice your new content and send more traffic your way if you offer them fresh content.
You can make a dusty old post new again by updating the facts, the stats, the anecdotes used in them.
You can update the images from stock photos to new ones from your own professional photo shoot.
Try combining some of your older, shorter posts into one long-form post that is easier to read and provided more value.
Bonus points to you if your biggest competitors are not updating their content as often as you are!
Of course, some of your older content isn’t worth the effort to update. Go through your posts and look for ones about services you no longer provide or promotions that have long passed. And then hit that delete button.
Repurpose for Social Media.
Blog posts are highly shareable content. Anytime you publish a new post, you can use it to feed your social media platforms with interesting information.
Here are a few ways you can repurpose your posts for social media.
- Pull quotes or stats and create a graphic for Instagram. Share the link to the full post in the comments.
- Copy a paragraph or section of the post that can stand on its own, share it to Facebook and link over to the full post.
- Turn the blog post into a video script and go live on Facebook or Instagram.
- Pin your recent posts on Pinterest to as many relevant boards as you can. Use a different image every time you pin to a new board.
- Share your latest articles as LinkedIn updates.
- Grab an interesting fact or quote from your article and tweet it.
You can (and should!) repurpose the same post by using different sections of the content to grab your audience’s attention on every social media platform you use.
Be smart about how you build your posts.
Be intentional about linking to other posts or pages on your site when it makes sense. This is called internal linking, and it helps Google understand the relationship between the pages on your site.
It helps your visitors, too. Once you’ve captured their interest, keep it, and give them a way to drill down to find the content they want and the answers they need.
I did this above, when I talked about branding and fresh content, I linked to my posts on those topics.
Lastly, notice if the amount of words becomes overwhelming. People tend to skim until something grabs the eye before they settle into actual reading.
Bullet points are a great way to break up large blocks of content and avoid the dreaded Wall of Words.
Other ways to make content stand out are boxes, highlighted text and contrasting backgrounds.
Ready to add a Blog?
So… have I talked you into adding a blog to your website? It’s step #1 of a good SEO foundation, and a smart business decision. Let’s do it!