Read my other “SEO for Rookies” posts here.
Many small business owners have no idea what to do when told they should “write blog posts for their website.”
Today I’ll make it easy to understand exactly “what to write.”
Quick review:
- A blog post is like a magazine article that sits on your website.
- If a person is searching for answers on Google, and your blog post does an excellent job explaining the subject, Google delivers your blog post to the top of the search results. This is much like when your grandmother snail-mails an article she knows you’ll like.
- Getting people to your blog is good because you now have a potential customer on your website (and not your competitor’s).
- Google does not charge you to deliver your blog to searchers. Google is in the business of delivering the best search results to their searchers; if your blog post is the “best answer” to a searcher’s Google query, Google happily offers up your blog post to the searcher on the first page.
Wait, what’s in it for Google?
- Google’s “world-class search experience” keeps searchers returning to Google and away from other search engines.
- The more people who start their searches on Google, the more Google can charge for its paid ads to small businesses. But remember, paid ads aren’t what we’re talking about here.
But why shouldn’t I hire an SEO agency/freelancer/writer to write my blog posts?
Business owners or their staff should write posts for your website because:
1. You know the common questions your clients ask of you in person.
2. You know the jargon, the vernacular, and the subtleties of your business and the local area.
3. A writer without first-hand expertise is much less skilled in writing anything nuanced enough to rank high on a Google search. The generic stuff has already been written – Google rewards original thinking.
4. The best a freelancer could do is re-write information already on the web. And Google does not reward this type of “re-writing” and “summarizing.”
Google rewards skilled, original, and nuanced perspectives written by someone grinding day-to-day in their industry.
For example:
I bet this guy could write a great post about upholstery.
Nuanced, specific, original writing from an insider’s point of view has a better chance of ranking high in search and AI results than content written by an industry outsider.
So while a freelancer could easily collect information from other websites about upholstering a sofa, a person who actually upholsters sofas could write about the intricacies of the thread they use, the stitching they prefer, and the exact tacks they use to finish off the underside of furniture.
I use two rules of thumb when deciding what to write for my website:
- I choose subjects customers ask us about over and over. If they’re asking us these questions, many people are also likely asking Google.
- I choose topics that represent high-value products and services. For example, writing articles about painting 2,000 square-foot epoxy warehouse floors is more lucrative to my business than writing about painting a single window sill.
My next post will center on exactly “how” to write a blog post, especially if you “can’t/won’t or hate to write.”
Did you know I help small business owners recruit staff? Click here for information and pricing.
paigenejame.com 