6 Tips for Building a useful Blog for your Small Business

Blogging is a popular way for Small Business and individuals alike to reach a broad audience across the web. WordPress (one of the most popular blogging platforms) says that 409 million people view the blogs they host per day. 

Small businesses can take benefit from the popularity of blogging too. If you’re a small business that operates online, you’re probably considering blogging as a way to:

• Convert views into clicks and sales 
• Build a loyal brand following 
• Position yourself as a leader within your niche  

By building a blog for your small business, you can reach a larger audience and convert blog viewers into leads and sales. 

But with 2 million posts uploaded to blog sites daily, there is a lot of competition in the blogosphere. Follow the advice below to make your blog effectively reaches and engages with its target audience – and doesn’t just get lost on the web. 

1, Be Consistent 

Consistency is essential when it comes to making sure that your blog content does not get lost. If you post just once every two weeks, you will have to work overtime to promote your blog posts on social media. 

If blog viewers know that they can expect your posts every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, for example, they’ll come back to the site on those days. 

You should post around two to three times a week if possible. Some studies show that sharing posts 16 times a month is the best amount. Figure out what is doable for you with your time and budget, but make sure that you do post consistently and ideally at the same kinds of times and days. 

2, Be Relevant 

Make sure that whatever you are blogging about is relevant to your customers and potential customers. What is your area of expertise? Hone in on that and posit yourself as a leader in this field. 

Brainstorm topics in your niche, while keeping abreast of the latest news in your industry. If you’re stuck for topic ideas, check out a list of what to blog about. There are plenty of these online written by specialists in blogging and content marketing. 

3, Optimize your Posts 

Firstly, this means doing keyword research and ensuring that your blogs focused on the words and phrases that your target audience is searching for. 

Keyword research is primarily just researching the exact phrases that people are using when they search for something. For example, people may search ‘How to start yoga.’ If you owned a yoga studio, you could create a blog post called ‘How to start yoga in 5 easy steps’. 

Your title would encapsulate the search term and would be more likely to be found by the people searching in your area. It can also help give you some ideas of the kinds of topics you could write about. 

Another way to optimize your posts would be to make sure they are the best length possible. Longer posts tend to rank best with search engines and will also give you enough space to weave in your keywords naturally. 

One study showed that, on average, the search engine results that rank best contain more than 2000 words. But don’t worry about all of your blog posts hitting that length – it’s about quality over quantity. After all, you want your blog posts to be shareable. So making sure that they are informative and engaging is more important than making them lengthy. 

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4, Create a Snappy Title 

Titles of blog posts should be engaging and attention-grabbing, but they should also accurately describe what a reader can expect from your blog post. 

Remember to include a keyword in your title but don’t go overboard with this or use a keyword that makes the title sound strange. 

Generally, a title that is short and sweet will have the most impact but have some fun with it. Develop an original title and then figure out some alternatives. Is there a way you can play on words? Or could you add some descriptive language? 

Get the opinion of other people that work within your niche. Ask them if it a title that they would click on and adjust accordingly. 

5, Add Visuals and Graphics 

People have a short attention span. That attention span is getting shorter all the time. One of the best ways to hold the attention of potential customers is to distract them with motion graphic video, visuals and graphics including bright, appealing infographics. 

The ideal combination is to always add some visual elements to written posts. People thought to retain 65 percent of the information shown to them when they consume both visual and written information together. That’s compared to only 10 percent when they read the information in written form alone. 

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6, Partner Up 

Once your blog is off the ground and running, you want to make sure that it is seen. One productive way to do this is to engage in partnerships with brands and other individuals. It is particularly impactful if those you work with have a strong following on social media reach. 

Encourage others to guest blog on your site and offer to do the same for them. If someone is guest blogging for you, this frees up more of your time to focus on running your small business. 

Plus, it will be high-quality content for the readers within your niche. Approach industry experts about blogging for you – they may offer an interesting perspective that you have not previously considered writing about. 

You could also interview authoritative figures and share a typed out version of that interview on your blog. 

To encourage guests to blog on your site, you should first develop the blog to make it appealing for them. It is also useful to have a strong social media following as you are essentially offering your guest free advertising in this space in small business. 

It could help to approach potential guest bloggers that are currently promoting something such as an event or book tour. Their guest blog would then mention said promotion – this is a great incentive to get them involved.  Advertise your guest posting opportunities online, and you may also have interested parties reach out to you.