We hear so much about ‘content’ these days – offering content to engage your audience and giving them a reason to keep coming back to you to discover more. If you have your own website, writing about your small business is a good way of showing your audience behind-the-scenes and more about your products, so that eventually buy from you.
For small businesses, you already have a million things to do without writing blogs on top of this. However, they are great for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), so when somebody does a search (such as Google) for a business like yours, you’ll appear in the results! This means your business (and products) can be discovered even when you’re not physically working.
Some people find blog writing super easy, but it’s completely normal to be daunted with the prospect. Here’s our top tips to get you in the groove:
- Think about your target audience – what do they want?
- What are they looking for?
- What interests do they have?
- What really matters to them?
- What problems do they have that you can solve?
- How can your products help them?
- The length of your article can be a factor in page ranking. Ideally, have a minimum of 300 words. HOWEVER, write as much as you feel able to – you’re not a machine!
- Give people a reason to stay. Link to other websites and sources that they might find useful or interesting. Google ranks based on quality of content i.e. what they deem will be useful to people, special tips and so on. Links to other websites are great.
- Give them an incentive to read your blog or click on your links – are you giving away free colouring sheets? Is there something they can easily download for free? Can you give them some top crafting tips in a separate document, or if they join your email list?
- Keyword research – ‘Keywords’ are terms or phrases that people will be searching for on Google and other search engines. Make sure you’re including useful phrases that link to your products, so you show up in searches. Here’s a beginner’s guide explaining more about using keywords.
- Catchy titles – Once you’ve decided what keywords people are searching for, use them in your blog titles. For example, if you sell vintage teddy bears and you’ve found that people are searching for ‘top sewing tips’ and ‘vintage children’s toys’, perhaps have a website blog called ‘Our Top 5 Tips For Sewing Vintage Teddy Bears’ and include links and images of your vintage teddy bear products, also including these keywords.
- People love numbers! Don’t ask why, but ‘5 top tips’ or ‘9 things about…’ seem to fare higher in search rankings than blogs without numbers. People like short, snappy lists of tips.
- Chunk your text – nobody wants a lengthy body of text to read. Give them a numbered list, bullet points or small blocks/paragraphs. Use sub-headings to break up text or bold text. Make it as easy for people to read as possible!
Great – you’ve finished your blog! But is it SEO optimised? Click here to double check.