Blogging Tips for Small Businesses

by Syrup | Jun 19, 2018

If you think your small business can thrive without blogging regularly, think again. According to Social Media Today, “companies who blog get 97% more links to their website in comparison to those who don’t blog.” We all know getting more links to our website means more exposure, more leads, and more conversions. But how do you stand out from the billions of blogs out there and ensure your content ranks highly and reaches the right people? These blogging tips for small businesses can help.

“Blogs have been rated the 5th most trusted source for accurate online information.” – Social Media Today

Blogging tips for small businesses:

Know what people are searching for.

What if you knew what your audience was searching for and could write content that ranks for those keywords? Spoiler alert: you can! We use Google Keyword Planner, which will show you what your audience is searching for and how they’re getting to your site. Writing content around these topics, questions, and keywords will help you give your audience exactly what they’re looking for. This will help increase trust and bring those people back to your site more often.

Blog regularly.

We write three posts a month for our clients. Blogging regularly (at least three times per month) will help keep your content relevant, timely, and fresh. Bonus: it will also help tell Google what your website is about.

Create a blogging strategy.

Never write content without a strategy. Think through what time of year it is and what will be most relevant to your audience. Then decide what types of blog posts work best for them. Your content will depend heavily on your unique type of business and your audience. However, generally speaking, try to add in a variety of post types, from useful tips, to in-depth thought leadership pieces, to fun, timely content with your community in mind. (This is part of what we deliver to our Marketing Services clients.)

Write with people in mind.

Remember: you’re writing for humans, not for robots. Make sure your content is easy to navigate, understandable, and engaging. Keep in mind most readers are skimming your content to see if it’s valuable before they decide to dive in and read the entire post. Catch their attention right away, and make sure the most important content stands out to them. Here are a few ways to do that:

1. Bold and italicize content to help catch the attention of your readers.
2. Break up text with headings, bullets, numbered lists, block quotes, and more. All of these things will help your readers get a feel for what your content is about as they’re skimming. If it’s broken up and direct, they’ll know right away if it’s valuable for them.
3. Write short paragraphs so you don’t overwhelm your readers.
4. Add internal links throughout. If you reference a product or service you offer, make sure you link to it. Add in links to other relevant blog posts as well. Internal links will help keep people on your site longer and connect your content better.
5. Add images throughout to help break up content and illustrate your points better.

Blogging is extremely vital for your small business, but we’ve learned that many small businesses feel overwhelmed by the thought of blogging regularly for themselves. That’s where we come in! If you’re convinced that you need to start blogging (or step up your blogging game) but don’t know where to start, reach out to us here.