How Does A Blog Benefit Small Businesses?

In short, it is absolutely worth it for every small business to have a blog. All search engines are being optimized to deliver relevant content on their searches. That means websites with blogs and regular content are ranked higher than websites without blogs or content.

Why do you need to be ranked higher in search engines? These search engines generate hundreds of thousands of hits and most people will never go beyond page two of the listings. Your website must appear in the top 20 for it to have any chance of generating traffic and finding customers.

Additionally, a good blog gives your customers reasons to keep coming back to your website. Every year more and more people rely upon the internet to answer questions and find products.

Understanding marketing vs. sales

In essence, a blog is part of your marketing campaign, which allows you to make sales. Many people combine “marketing” and “sales” when in fact they couldn’t be more different.

A marketing campaign is the way in which you position your company and product. A sale is how you convince a customer to purchase your product. Marketing connects you to potential customers whereby you can complete a sale.

Generating value for your customers

Don’t treat your blog like the landing page for a product. Your blog should first and foremost be about generating value for your customers. You want to give them a reason to read your website. People hop onto the internet to get information about various subjects from recipes to how-to guides. Your blog should fill one of these knowledge gaps. However, your blog should not come off as a blatant advertisement, which will turn off any potential customer. Instead, your blog should focus on spreading information without being clogged up with advertisements.

So, how do you generate value? How do you know which questions to answer? Think about why you started your small business. Why do you have the answer that no one else does? What do you have to offer? Write about what drove you to start a small business, the inside information, technical tips and other information that a normal person may not know or have access to. Make sure that this is information that someone needs and would be interested in reading.

Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to rank higher

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was once the gold standard for internet search. Anyone could rise to the top of the listings by anticipating the keywords that the search engine liked and adding them all over their website.

That is less true today. However, keywords are still relevant. Search engines now rely on “bots” to crawl through the internet and assign values within a proprietary algorithm that calculates search lists. These bots balance blog content, proper spelling, grammar, and keywords to generate search listings.

Take your time when you write the content and make sure you double-check spelling and grammar. Additionally, ask friends and family how they might go about finding answers on the internet. Ask them about the keywords they might input into the search engine. Try to incorporate those words into your blog, but don’t sacrifice readability for the keywords. These keywords should be organically incorporated into your blog posts.

Ready to create a blog for your small business?

Try to create a blog post as often as you can. The more relevant content you generate, the higher you go in the search listings. However, don’t let your mad dash to generate content outweigh your obligations to your business. Blogs are still free content and you cannot build a small business on free content. So, blog as often as you can, but don’t let it detract from managing the core of your business.

If you want to create a blog campaign for your small business, but just don’t have the time, UCI Digital can help! We offer a variety of services from search engine optimization and content marketing to website design and more. Give us a call at (806) 553-5332 or Contact Us via email if you have any questions. If you are in the area, you can also stop by in person at 1000 S. Adams St. in Amarillo, Texas.