Blogging is one of the best things you can do to keep your small business website up-to-date, informative and optimised for search engines. All too often, these small business blogs start out enthusiastically but don’t become a regular feature.
The web is filled with thousands, if not millions, of dead blogs. It is estimated that 95% of personal blogs are abandoned and unfortunately many small business blogs are also left to stagnate after a few posts.
It can be difficult to keep it up as the novelty wears off or the ideas run out, but if you’ve decided to write a blog for your small business website you need to keep going. Remember, this is a professional website which reflects your brand, so it’s important you put the work in.
It’s better to have no blog than a dead blog
A dead blog can scare your customers away. If a website visitor notices that you only managed to post one or two blogs on your site before giving up, they may not trust your reliability. Potential customers may also assume you’re no longer in business if your last blog was posted several months or years ago. If you don’t think you’ll be able to keep it up on a regular basis, it’s probably best not to start writing a blog in the first place - an old blog post on your site could be more damaging than no blog at all!
Show your expertise or authority
If you’re willing to maintain it, a well-run blog can be a great asset to your company website. You can give valuable information and advice to your customers, and eventually establish yourself as an expert in your field. A relevant, regularly updated blog will give you an SEO boost and could be enough to put you ahead of the competition in the all-important search engine rankings.
According to Matt Cutts, Google’s Head of Search Spam, Google hopes to give sites that are an authority in a specific industry, community or space a ranking boost with their new Penguin 4 release next month.
Provide useful information and answers
Maintaining a business blog doesn’t need to be difficult. Most website builder tools will provide a decent blogging platform so you just need to set aside a little time every week to get blogging.
Many people find the hardest part is coming up with subjects to write about. The best thing to do is think about what your potential customers will want to know. Is there a question about your industry your customers often come to you with? You can write a blog post providing the answer or just comment about new industry developments or news. If you’re still stuck for ideas, just tell your customers what your company has been up to since your last update.
