Small business owners who currently manage their own blog in-house could be unintentionally making a few mistakes. It is not uncommon for small business owners to manage some or all of their blogging, or some or all of their online marketing, but business owners must stay on top of the most effective methods of maximizing their online success. The five blogging mistakes below are all ones that all small business owners must avoid.
Posting Only Sales-Heavy Or Promotional Content
While the goal of a business blog is to generate more conversions, many small business owners make the mistake of posting only sales heavy or promotional content. While a blog can indeed be used to announce the latest products, services, and promotions—these are not topics that inspire website visitors to return with frequency. If a blog it feels like it is nothing more than an advertisement, it will not generate much success.
Posting Poor Quality Content
Small business blogs must maintain a level of professionalism, but the good news is that blog posts can certainly be written with personality. According to Brent Gleeson’s post on Forbes, blog posts must be written with proper grammar, and laid out in a manner that is easy to read. The information must be fresh and new, and not a copy of similar content found elsewhere online. When writing blog posts consider a layout that makes posts easy to read, including elements like short paragraphs, subtitles, photos or images and/or bullet points.
Forgetting What the Client Wants and Needs
Topics that clients want and need must be the primary motivation behind each and every blog post. Too often small business owners focus too much of their time and attention on the message they want to communicate, opposed to the information their customers want and need. Aside from topics that are directly related to the products and services a small business offers, business owners must also focus on topics that their target audience is searching for. For example, a women’s clothing boutique can blog about more than just women’s clothing and accessories—but also hair, makeup, health, and beauty. This will help to drive more organic traffic from their desired target audience, and the keywords in these related topics will help improve SEO. When picking topics, small business owners must also understand balancing evergreen topics that are always relevant with trending topics within their industry.
Blogging Only on Occasion
Since all business owners are busy, sometimes blogging gets put on the back burner. Even if blogging is a priority, writing may not be a business owner’s strong suit. Whether due to lack of time, or lack of desire—posting regularly is essential. If new posts are only added a couple times a month—the blog’s performance will suffer. To increase frequency, or improve the quality of content, many small business owners outsource their content to an experienced online writer.
Misunderstanding How SEO Works
Understanding SEO is crucial for achieving success in the online world. As Forbes’ contributor Jayson DeMers points out, to help improve their understanding of SEO, many small business owners perform an online search to learn the most effective tricks of the trade. While this can help small business owners improve their understanding many aspects of online marketing such as keywords, page rank, and back links—SEO is constantly changing and evolving. Not only are search engine algorithms constantly changing, but many business owners also do not fully grasp the terminology well enough to understand how SEO truly works.
According to Imperial Advance, a provider of small business loans, growing a small business blog is not only essential for online marketing, but a successful blog with a consistent amount of traffic also makes small business owners more attractive to lenders when in need of a loan. Successfully utilizing blogging for a business could lead to major returns on investment.