Business blogging is one of the best ways to build an asset that drives awareness, leads, and sales over time.
And yet, so few businesses really put in the effort it deserves.
Too often, a business blog feels like a “nice-to-have” section of the website. A place to park press releases, business updates, and holiday sales.
The only problem?
Nobody wants to read any of that.
Why doesn’t blogging work for my business?
There are many reasons your business blog might not be getting any results, but here are the two most important:
- You’re not going after the right keywords
- You’re not producing enough articles
Let’s tackle each individually.
You’re not going after the right keywords
It all starts with keyword research.
You’ve heard that before, but if you’re like me, it’s easy to hear the term “keyword research” and immediately shut your brain off.
Keyword research feels complicated.
Fortunately, there’s a solution: just go after low-competition keywords you find in Google.
You can use the Google Autocomplete method to type in searches related to questions in your industry, and see what comes up.
Just start typing a search into Google, and see what populates automatically.
For example, say your company installs security systems.
Your customers have all kinds of questions before buying one. If you start typing “how much does a security system” into Google, you’ll see what I mean:
Maybe you already have an article talking about how much a security system costs. But are you covering how much it might increase the value of a home? Or how much it costs with cameras vs without cameras? How about how much it helps people save on homeowners insurance?
All of these are articles that have a chance to drive traffic to your website because they’re dealing with a commonly asked question.
And even if the intent of the question is informational or DIY (not commercial), write it anyway.
Ranking for more search terms helps you build authority in Google’s eyes, and makes you more helpful for readers. You don’t want to be purely commercial.
You’re not producing enough articles
If you’re already targeting good keywords and creating content that’s helpful for readers, why aren’t you getting traffic to your blog?
You’re probably not writing enough.
Most people throw a blog post or two on their website per month, and hope it’s enough.
To really make an impact in Google’s eyes and to really stand out from the competition, you need to become an authority on the topic that your business deals with.
That means lots of content.
If you have a marketing person or generalist on your team who can dedicate a couple hours a day, there’s no reason you can’t push 3-5 articles per week.
Over time, hitting a couple hundred articles in the course of a year, that’s where the real magic happens.
Other reasons your business blog might not be working
Of course, there are plenty of other issues that might be weighing down your business blog.
You might not be producing quality content. If your blog posts are short, poorly written, and lack valuable information, readers won’t stick around.
Another reason why blogging may not be working for your business is because you’re not targeting the right audience. Your blog posts should be tailored to your target market, using language that resonates with them.
What about the competition?
To continue with the security system example, as you start doing your keyword research you’ll see that plenty of the Google search results end up with big companies like ADT in position #1.
But sometimes, you’ll see a few smaller companies or an informational blog, sneak into the top 10 of Google. You might even see a forum website like Quora or Reddit show up.
If you see these signs, usually, it means you might have a chance to rank.
Alternatives to blogging
Writing yourself, or having someone on your team do it, is often seen as a “non-core” activity for businesses — even though they have the most intimate knowledge of their own business, and are in the best position to help customers.
Many businesses rely on one of these instead:
- Running ads. This can work well, but it can quickly become expensive (in an extreme case, the top cost for the keyword “Houston Maritime Attorney” was $1,090 PER CLICK!)
- Hiring an SEO agency. This can also work well, but a good agency will cost $2k a month or more.
What most business owners need is high-quality traffic (your target market) to your website — without spending your entire marketing budget to get there.
Again, I’m not talking about company updates, or sporadic posts here and there.
What you want is strategic, focused publishing. Writing answers to your customers’ questions— better than the answers your competitors are providing (and most of your competitors aren’t providing any answers at all).
Easier said than done, right? Well, yes and no.
SEO isn’t rocket science
For years, SEO has been made out to seem like rocket science. But in reality, SEO for businesses comes down to one simple thing: answering your customers’ questions.
And you already know what your customers are asking, and how to answer their questions.
Consider this. Someone searches “why do I need a security system”
Who’s searching this? Someone who’s in the early stages of considering buying a security system.
If you manage to write an article that answers their question, you are building trust and familiarity. And the article continues to serve you for years to come, without a dollar in ad spend.
So how do you actually do this?
You start by looking at what your customers are already asking on Google, using the Google Autocomplete method described above.
Then you ask yourself 3 questions:
- Gut check. Is this a reasonable search? Do I think more than a couple people might search this each month?
- Is the competition beatable? Is it only major national brands, or are there some less established brands?
- Can I improve on what’s out there now? Are there gaps in the answers that the current results are providing? Or are they not providing answers at all?
If the search matches those criteria, and someone on your team answers this specific question thoroughly, you have a good chance of ranking on Google for that article.
Blogging = traffic = leads = sales
If your company writes articles like that 3x per week, and each article averages 30 visits per month, you’re building up to 4,680 visits/month or 56,160 visits/year.
If 1% of that traffic fills out a form, that’s 561 leads in a year.
If 10% of those leads convert into sales, that’s 56 new customers.
If you have someone on your team who has (a) decent writing and (b) time, you can make this happen.
How to make money with your business blog—faster
Want to skip the learning curve?
Reach out to us and we’ll send over a year’s worth of SEO advice and article topics that will get you (or someone on your team) blogging effectively for the next 12 months.
We’ll review your website and rankings and tell you exactly what we’d do in your shoes over the coming year, including:
Blog topics & themes we’d cover
How to outrank your competitors
Tweaks you may need to make to your website
All in the form of a 20 minute video. Click below for more.
