SEO Tips for Your Small Business Blog Posts
It’s a question that is asked VERY often.
“How often should I post a blog?”
Wouldn’t it make life so much easier if someone could tell us that X number of posts would drive traffic or leads back to our website? Of course it would. Unfortunately, there are various factors to consider when using SEO tactics for blog posts.
As a rule of thumb, the more consistency you show with blogging, the better.
BUT the overall goal for your small business blog is to create posts marketed to your audience which means each post needs to offer valuable content that interests them, which in turn encourages sharing posts on social media or staying engaged on your website. The more consistent you are in posting blogs the more your SEO ranking has the potential to increase, drawing more traffic…and the cycle continues.
Through this process your blog post will be recognized and linked to by other blogs — generating ongoing leads over time.
Copywriting experts will tell you that as a general rule you should post in abundance. But what does that even mean?
Your goal is to keep readers engaged and coming back/sharing content with others to expand your reach — meaning those who are taking time and sharing your content can be hindered by the abundance of poor quality posts. Consistency is necessary, but quantity isn't everything. Don’t post for the sake of posting because search engines will actually punish your website and reduce ranking.
How many blogs posts should I upload monthly?
Let’s look at the beauty and skincare industry, as an example. This multi-million dollar market has a strong blogging presence with most brands using blog strategy as a key part of their overall online marketing plan. According to recent data, brands seeing the best results in traffic and conversion post 2 to 4 times a week. This means that a beauty brand who uploads more than 10 blogs per month enjoys 3X more traffic compared to brands uploading four or fewer blogs each month.
There’s more:
A 2015 marketing research study found that 75% of a small business blog’s views came not from those who clicked on the most recent articles but from links in existing posts. This means that weaving your growing library of content into new posts compounds in value and is helpful to your overall marketing strategy for YEARS.
The same study showed that companies and brands with more than 400 blogs in their library of content experience 2X traffic than companies with fewer than 300-400 blogs. Google rewards volume, so they’ve established some benchmarks that brands need to reach for them to have different levels of visibility. Unless you have time to create 400+ blog posts, you should think about outsourcing it to someone who can do it for you!
What not to do when writing blog posts
If you post just for the sake of pumping out blogs, your readers will start to notice the lack of quality and stop visiting your small business website.
You might have gotten that precious Google visibility at first, but once readers notice the quality of articles slowly becoming boring and uninspired they’re not going to return. Would you? Keeping your blog interesting, relevant, informative, well-written and engaging is vital for you to cash in on those new readers but also turn new visibility into return traffic — you want your market to always come back for more!
What are some ways to keep your blog posts inspired and valuable (especially if you’re lacking creativity when it’s time to sit down and write)? Here are some tips to keep in mind that will educate your reader and provide valuable SEO benefits for your small business website:
Don’t write about YOU. Write content that’s related to your clients or customers — all of the focus needs to be on what your readers are dealing with and the problems they want solved. Want to ensure readers come back for more? Create content that helps them solve those problems — whether it’s sharing skincare routines, healthy habits or tips on what to pack when they travel internationally. Make your content ALL ABOUT THE CUSTOMER EXPERINECE.
Don’t write irrelevant or random blogs for your target market. Want to know how to tap into your customer? Use a keyword tool to learn what type of questions are being asked for your industry. Every 30 days, Google keeps track of what phrases or keywords are being searched for most — the best way to create blog posts that attract traffic and rewards your SEO efforts is to look for phrases that are highly searched and answer those questions.
Don’t let questions go unanswered. Whether you get questions to your social media, website or email, look to those questions as a way to create upcoming blog posts! Chances are more than one person is interested in the same answer and instead of putting the time into answering each and every person, use it as a way to create an in-depth blog post that you can refer to over time.
Want to learn more about SEO and how it can play a powerful role in your small business content marketing strategy? Head over to this post for all things SEO.
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