*Updated in 2024.
Adding a blog to your business website can open up some fantastic opportunities.
Quality, audience-serving blog content can help you establish yourself as an expert and build trust with your target audience.
Blogging can also give people a reason to visit your website. If people who already know you get there from your social media posts, emails, and other channels, they will have a chance to build a deeper connection with your brand. The more they interact with you, the more they are likely to become customers.
Blog content can drive organic search traffic to your site, although it can take months, an investment in SEO, a well-developed website, and some magic to make this happen for competitive keywords. Many small businesses just don't have the budget to compete with big brands that are bolstering their blogging efforts with paid advertising, substantial SEO efforts, and the like.
I specialize in small business blogging that serves humans first and then do a sweep to optimize it for search engines.
Why? Because I think as a small business, the smartest strategy you can pursue when it comes to your blog is writing targeted posts that solve problems, offer value, and answer questions for your ideal customers. If you also get some search traffic to your site and build more authority online, all the better!
In this post, I will break down how to start, maintain, and make the most of a blog on your small business website.
1. Set Goals For Your Blog
As with anything you do for your business, begin with clear goals. Ask yourself questions like:
What is the core purpose of your blog?
How often will you post?
What metrics will you be tracking?
Tracking some key metrics related to your blog will help you see how different posts and topics are performing.
Google Analytics can tell you things like pageviews per post, subscriber count, site traffic, and where people go on your site after reading your post. I suggest starting to look at the data for a post once it’s been promoted and live for at least a few months.
You'll also want to consider monitoring your SERP rankings, though as a small business, remember that it can be challenging to compete on popular keywords without paid advertising. The more you can niche down the focus of your blog and your posts, the better.
Post engagement (comments, likes, social shares) and anecdotal feedback can also help you tell if you’re on the right track.
Remember, it will take some time, legwork, and trial and error before seeing any meaningful results. According to this study by Ahrefs, only about 5% of newly published pages make it into the top ten results on Google search within a year. And even for those fortunate few that eventually rank that high, it takes an average of two to six months to get there.
I don’t say this to discourage you from blogging. I say it to set some realistic expectations. Even with this statistic out there, I still believe in the value of blogging as a small business. Here are just a few of the many reasons why:
It builds trust and establishes your expertise as a business.
It offers readers genuine value for free and builds goodwill.
Give people a reason to visit your site, again and again.
Your blog can serve as an anchor for your content strategy giving you content to repurpose.
2. Set Your Blog Content Pillars
Content pillars are the overarching categories that capture what you’ll be writing about. For small businesses, audience-serving content should be priority number one. Think about what you know well and like writing about. Then, do some research to find out what types of content your target customers will find helpful or interesting.
The place where these two overlap is the sweet spot we are aiming for.
There are a few ways you can research your target audience's interests, including:
Asking in networking groups or online forums
Conducting client surveys or having 1:1 conversations with customers
Searching online for similar business blogs and seeing what they are writing about
Based on what you find, choose 3–6 content pillars that align with your business’s core services or messages and capture what you’d like to write about.
Here’s an example:
If you have the budget, work with an SEO professional to identify long-tail keywords that match up with your categories. If you don’t have the ability to work with a professional, you can explore free keyword research tools.
Once you have some possible keywords to test, try this quick and dirty test: start typing into the Google search bar and see what predictive text pops up. You can also complete a search for a keyword that you’d like to rank for and see what shows up in the results. If you see posts by businesses similar to yours, you are on the right track!
3. Plan Your Blog Post Topics
Once you have your categories and tags set, brainstorm specific posts under each. Think of more ideas than you need so that you can select the strongest ones.
Get specific with the topics, and think about what the reader will gain from reading each post. Are they trying to DIY something and need a guide? Are they just trying to get a basic understanding of a topic? Do they want to get an expert's opinion on a product or service? Based on those goals and the topic itself, think about what type of post to write for each.
There are a number of common formats for blog posts, such as how-to posts, case studies, lists, interviews, and more.
4. Set Your Content Calendar & Make Writing a Must
Once you have decided which posts to write and the format you plan to use for each, it’s time to set the schedule for your content.
Aim for a mix of evergreen content and posts that capitalize on industry news or the time of year. It's also helpful to consider what you are trying to promote in your business at different times of the year.
Make non-negotiable appointments on your calendar to research, write, edit, publish, and promote your content. Potential customers get nervous when your blog hasn't been updated for 15 months. People wonder, “Are they still in business?”
If it helps - get an accountability partner. Or, if you lack time but have the budget, invest in a professional copywriter to help you implement your strategy.
It can be hard to stay consistent with your blogging efforts, so set yourself up for success!
5. Promote and Repurpose Each Post
As you can see, blogging for your business takes some thought and time. If you’re investing in this effort, be sure to promote and repurpose your content to get maximum impact from each post.
Send an Email Driving Traffic to Your Post
Share Your Post on Social Media
Share Your Post in Groups and Forums
Add a Link to Your Email Signature
Create an Infographic
Build a Slideshare presentation
Turn the post premise into an Instagram Reel, YouTube Video, or Podcast Episode
Are you ready to get your business blog underway? Follow me on Instagram for more tips and resources and be sure to download my free Publish & Promote Checklist for Blogs to get more eyes on your content.