SEO: Blogging for small businesses

Whether you’re starting out or established, you may not yet have started the blogging process. Or, you may be blogging but you aren’t sure why, or what you need to blog about.

It’s true that the ‘dark art’ of SEO can feel daunting, as can the time needed to focus on writing a blog itself. However, with our tips below, hopefully you can start to understand the simple science behind a blog and improve your business’ visibility online.

Why do businesses blog?

Looking at A-Plan, as an example, we offer a huge range of insurance products. Part of what we do is to understand where to focus our attention to develop ‘content’ that is going to help us improve our position for certain Google Search terms.

To illustrate our products and services effectively, and ensure we’re there when you search for us in Google, we use blogging as one of several different tools to obtain our presence. After all, the higher up the search results we are, the more likely you are to click on us, right?

How do blogs work?

Blogging is an organic way of sharing information about you and your business – and by ‘organic’ we mean ‘free’, as in you don’t have to pay for each click or each time someone reads your blog.

So, you have a topic that you sense is something that people would like to read about, or you would like to write about. Maybe you have a particular products that differentiates you, maybe you have opened another branch, maybe you’d like to share a guide on how to do something, or maybe you have introduced a new product line and would like people who are searching for ‘gardening inspiration’ to find your solution. The key to getting started is to know your target audience and know what it is you are trying to tell them about.

Once you have your starting point, you’ll be focusing on keywords, quality, and interest.

Nobody wants to read a salesy blog, we all want to read about the insights or expertise a blogger (business or otherwise) has on a subject we are interested in. So a key factor is to deliver that in a readable and accessible way. However, it is important to ascertain some of the search terms your ‘searchers’ will use to find you.

Sites like Wordtracker come with a free option, and will give you a top-level insight into the popularity of the different themes you would like to explore. But don’t think ‘bigger is better’, it’s a tough market to compete against those in high ranking keyword categories, rather consider the low hanging fruit to get started.

What should I blog about?

Think about – and research – what people are searching for, related to your business. Create a list (or export if you prefer to use a keyword finder tool) your important keywords, i.e. words that relate to what people are searching for. These can include individual words, several words, or questions. And test several different words as you may discover that certain terms are more popular than others.

It’s then over to the grafting, with a general guide of 600 words to start with, and over 1,800 words if you want to make Google very happy.

Understand the difference between H1, H2, H3 and H4 headings – these are the types of headings that Google bots will latch onto when they are trying to find an answer to a search. Most sites use WordPress, so it can be as easy as finding the right heading and clicking the right ‘H’ button.

This is because Google will seek out words, phrases and questions, and team them with quality assessments. These assessments look at blog length, visuals, and so much more, and will determine where your blog will appear when someone searches for the subject matter.

Although your keywords will give you your guidelines, also ensure your pages are rich in relevant content – from product information, FAQ’s, infographics or even a vlog. Don’t cram in key words for the sake of it, remember that your customer or client is going to be reading it, they are coming to you for a purpose, so make it digestible.

Top Tip: If you find that you don’t have the time or energy to start writing from scratch, try making notes on your mobile phone over time, or recording your voice when inspiration hits. You can then use your notes and audio recordings when you do have time, and type out one, or even several, blogs.

What is a vlog?

The biggest difference between a blog and a vlog is the platform it goes on.

Vlogs are video, whereas blogs are text. Blogs are used for search engine rankings, while vlogs are more for social media engagement (although of course you can combine both for extra interest).

While you can still link to your blog from your social channels, vlogs are more suited to the more visual social channels, such as Instagram or TikTok.

Vlogs can also support your search engine listing as, when someone searches for you, they will be greeted with a list of all your different platforms, full of current, useful information, and greater options when it comes to contacting you.

Blogs vs articles

An often asked question is ‘what is the difference between a blog and an article?’ and we know this from our own keyword search.

In truth, very little is different and it can be a matter of perspective and the type of industry you work in, for example more formal businesses would prefer to refer to it as an ‘article’ over a ‘blog’. It can also be more generational, as before blogs, everything was ‘an article’.

Blogs allow you to share news and information with your audience and can help you become an authority within your industry. The posts will be displayed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent blog first. Ideally, blogs should be short, conversational style pieces about your industry – for example, if you’re in the beauty industry, this could be about views on the latest beauty trends.

Blogs can be created in a subsection of your website and many businesses use WordPress because it’s easy to use and offers a lot of features such as the content editing tool, page layouts and themes.

There is no true rule of thumb as to ‘when’ something becomes a blog or an article. You’ll find endless sources quoting that blogs can range between 500 to 1,000 words, or up to 300 words, and articles are longer, however this is no longer the case. Google also enjoys scanning longer blogs.

What makes a difference is the way you write it and who you are writing it for.

Generally, an article is more in-depth, potentially more formal, it can be less about opinions and more about data obtained from experts and research firms. It could even be a press submission (not ‘press release’) and will be submitted to a publisher or another company and hosted on their website, as opposed to posting on your own blog. It may even be rewritten by an editor. For that reason, SEO is less important when it comes to a traditional ‘article’ – but there is nothing stopping you from using your blog site to host an ‘article’.

Build your website SEO

Blogs are important to your search engine rankings, however so is ensuring your website is discoverable. Many ‘click-and-drop’ type web builders offer SEO support as an additional bolt on, so it could be worth exploring this if you use Wix, Weebly, Bubble or similar. But the principle is similar to that applied to your blog; use the words and information you know that your customer is going to be searching for.

The difference is that this is now ‘permanent’ information, as opposed to a blog which would not remain on an important page on your website:

Create a section on your website to host articles and guides, for example if you’re in the housing industry, you could create a guide around the ins and outs of buying your first home and what first time buyers need to know. Guides are known as ‘evergreen’ content and will keep customers coming to your site on a long term basis.Use longer, more in-depth articles to serve as interest pieces. Keep it relevant to your business to ensure that Google doesn’t penalise you, as they have a matrix scoring system on the relevancy of your site and its content. ‘Backlinks’ are an important part of your SEO journey, and linking to your sources can not only get your blog noticed by the company you’re linking, but they may even offer you an opportunity to host it on their site and link back to yours, boosting your site further.

Set up Google My Business local listing

These days, using Facebook as your only business website won’t be enough to beat the competition. Once you have your website set up and brimming with SEO, don’t forget to let Google know you’re ready and sign up for Google My Business.

It’s free to set up a local listing on Google and it will help increase your presence in your area. Google My Business provides the search engine with information such as the location of your business, your opening hours, contact details and link to a website.

You can request reviews from customers, add offers, list holiday hours and more. We would also recommend that you also add links and images to your blogs on it so that anyone finding your listing will see how active, passionate, and knowledgeable you are at a glance.

Google My Business is particularly relevant for mobile users as Google knows that mobile searches tend to be for more local purposes – whether you’re searching for a taxi company, a local tradesperson or somewhere to eat, for example.

You can set this up directly in the Google My Business webpage by clicking ‘Manage now’ and adding your business name, sector, location, address and contact information. You’ll be able to see how customers are connecting with your business within your ‘Manage My Business’ profile.

We provide our clients with a range of business guides to help you move your business forward – when it comes to insurance, you won’t find better experts than those at your local A-Plan business branch.