Writing A Blog Post For A Small Business
Writing a blog post for a small business is one of the most cost-effective ways to “get your name out there” … as somebody at a networking event said to me recently. That’s great from a financials point of view – but a HUGE mountain to climb for the vast majority of business owners. Most business owners are scared of doing it for fear of failure – to the point they shy away from even starting. It’s why the HoneyBee worker bees spend a lot of time helping clients get stuff out from between their ears and down onto the screens in front of them. This article is here to help you with that process too.
Writing A Blog Post is not as hard as making honey. All you need to do is:
For the purposes of this article, I’m using the keyword phrase “Writing A Blog Post” … so refer to that when reading through the process described below.
1. Pick Your Subject
You can’t write anything until you know what you want to (or need to) write about. So, picking your subject is always the starting point. And that means choosing your keywords or keyword phrase.
Start by doing keyword research. There are numerous resources for that, including https://hikeseo.co/. Suggestions are generally provided by analysing the keywords used by your competitors specifically – and from data collected about your industry more generically. But you can add and research whatever words you think might be a good theme or topic for your article.
As you research each word or group of words, you’ll be given data on how many searches there have been for those keywords over the last month … data from Google etc. Ideally, you want to find keywords with a search volume above zero … and a difficulty of ‘low’ (rather than medium or high), as a beginner’s rule.
When researching for this article, I found “Writing A Blog Post” had a search volume of 260 and a difficulty of ‘high‘. That’s a search volume lower than I would have liked … and a high difficulty is not ideal either. But I’m going with it for the purpose of education and illustration.
2. Put Your Keywords In The Page Title
Having chosen your keyword or keyword phrase … make sure the page title includes the phrase … in full, exactly … preferably at the start. That’s why the title of this page is Writing A Blog Post For A Small Business. It uses the keyword phrase … and identifies the key readership of HoneyBee articles.
3. Create An Outline
The next thing to do is make some notes about your article generally. An outline.
Jot down bullet points about your subject – from your point of view. And even though I got Grade C for English language at school, I now know you need a beginning, a middle, an end … and a point to the story.
Don’t overthink it. Just write down the subjects and topics which pop into your head. If you get stuck … take a break … have a cup of tea … and then look at your list again. New ideas will pop into your head.
When your list is ready, write one paragraph which encapsulates all the bullet points – from your point of view – making sure you include your keyword phrase, in full, exactly.
Check the first paragraph of this article to see if that’s been achieved for ‘Writing A Blog Post’.
4. Find A Feature Image
Normally I search for an image next – the feature image which will be at the top of the article.
“A picture tells a thousand words” so it’s important to get the right image for your article. Sometimes this can take hours. Sometimes you look at Unsplash, Pixabay, or wherever, and the right picture jumps off the screen immediately. But normally it takes longer than you’d like.
Having found it – download it (legally, of course).
Then change its name from its image library name; e.g. “aaron-burden-AXqMy8MSSdk-unsplash.jpg” to a name which is meaningful for a blind person. The feature image for this article has been renamed “Write Ideas”.
Having renamed your image, upload it to your website. And before you save it, change the “Alt Text” to “Your Image Name” followed by “Your Keywords”; e.g. “Write Ideas – writing a blog post“. Then save the image in your media library.
5. Get The Words Out Of Your Head
Now back to the hard bit. Getting the words out of your head and onto the screen.
In simple terms, all you have to do is turn your first paragraph into 750-1000 words – from your point of view.
Easy, right?
NO!!!
The vast majority of business owners find this is far from easy. And in many cases, it’s so difficult that they don’t even start. But you have to grit your teeth, take a large swig of scotch … coffee … or whatever … and make a start. Once you start, it gets easier.
One trick which is useful for beginners, is to talk about your subject. After all, you’re the expert in your field and you know the subject you’re talking about. It’s all there between your ears. So, if writing it down is a problem – talk about it instead. Grab your mobile phone and record a voice memo. A few years ago I would have used a dictaphone. A few years before that I would have used a secretary fluent in shorthand. It’s the same process – just modernised.
Take your one paragraph – and all your original bullet points – and talk about them – from your point of view. In an ideal world, have your partner or your children listen to what you’re saying … getting them to jot down jargon and other stuff they don’t understand. Later on, remove that jargon and replace it with plain language.
When you’ve recorded yourself talking about all those bullet points – get the soundtrack downloaded into a transcript using Descript or whatever. Then read it and tweak the transcript carefully.
Leave it overnight and then re-read it and re-tweak it … incorporating the SEO tweaks listed below.
6. Tweak To Improve Search Engine Optimisation
Once you’ve got your words as good as you’re going to get them (which is never perfect) get them copied and pasted as a new draft post on your website. DON’T PRESS PUBLISH just yet.
Create your article page in the style of your website … or get your website host to do it for you.
Utilise a website plugin, such as YOAST SEO or whatever your website host recommends, and go through the suggestions for improving your content SEO-wise.
These tweaks will probably include, but are not limited to:
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Your keywords are identified.
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Your keywords are in the page title.
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Your keywords are in the H1 heading.
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Your keywords have been used, appropriately three or four times within the content.
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Your images are named and have your keywords added to the ‘Alt Text’.
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You have an ‘internal link’ to an appropriate page within your website; e.g. book a 1-2-1 consultation. (Note: Always ensure links open in a new window)
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You have an ‘external link’ to an appropriate page on another website … and if you can do it by agreement and get a backlink, you score extra points.
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Add a meta description. Copy your first paragraph … scroll down to the space for the meta description … and paste. Then shorten/tweak as required for length (140-160 characters normally) but ensure it still makes sense … and ensure the keyword phrase is included, in full, exactly.
Save the page, reopen and look at the SEO actions again. Now, don’t be disheartened. It is unlikely you’ll get through the SEO tweaking process and get a 100% “double green light” result. You certainly won’t get it on your first blog post, unless you’re very lucky. But practice and you’ll get better each time.
7. Add A Call To Action
Add a CTA … Call To Action … which is appropriate to the theme of your blog post.For example; “Book Your Blog Post Consultation NOW! Book Your Blog Post Consultation NOW!
Remember what I said above about you are the expert in your field and you know the subject you’re talking about. It’s all there between your ears. And like most business owners you can talk about your business confidently. So, the aim for your blog post – certainly your first one or two – is to start a conversation.
Therefore, have a call to action which tells your reader what you want them to do.
Not “BUY MY STUFF!”
More like “Let’s have a chat”.
8. Review With Fresh Eyes and Fresh Thoughts
Finally, I suggest you leave your draft blog at this point. Go have a large glass of Rioja. And then another.
Come back to your draft tomorrow with fresh eyes and fresh thoughts.
And a general comment …
The aim of your blog posts is to have your reader get to know YOU. It’s the same as would be achieved by a 1-2-1 chat or a face-to-face meeting. Consequently, AI is not good for blog writing, because AI is not YOU. A copywriter could produce reasonable content for your blog post … but a copywriter is not YOU. Only YOU will use particular words. Only YOU will tell a particular story or tell a joke the way YOU do. So, the best blog posts for your business will be written by YOU.
And AI written blog posts, look written by AI. I can spot them instantly. Google can spot them instantly … and downgrade the website. So don’t use AI – other than to get ideas or do research.
To doublecheck you’re not writing ‘AI style” … use a tool like Semrush Plagarism Checker. Copy your text into the tool and find out whether your content “looks” like it’s written by AI. If it does, Google is likely to think so too … moving your blog post down the search engine results, rather than up. Such a post will not help your SEO and won’t get you to “number 1 on Google’.
Can I Make A Suggestion?
If you’ve never written a blog post – here’s an idea for your first blog post.
Or if you’ve not written one for a long while – here’s an idea for your next blog post.
Start by answering these questions … which I often ask face-to-face at networking events …
“Hi. What do you do? And why have you come here?”
At networking events, whoever I’m with will answer those questions. Some do it well. Some do it less well. But all of them have the answer between their ears and can answer fairly satisfactorily.
If you answer those questions, using the 8 step process above … it’ll probably make a good article.
And do me a favour …
Send it to me whether it’s good or not. I’m genuinely interested in the answer.(And some lucky writers might get their article published in HoneyBee News).