Wondering if small business blogging really matters? Think you can’t compete with larger businesses and their big marketing budgets? It’s an honest concern many SMBs face but no need to worry. It’s not too late if you haven’t started blogging yet. If fact, a few recent Google updates make it easier for SMBs to reap the benefits of blogging.
The value of blogging
Blogs help search engines serve up content on topics and drive new customers to the website. Pretend for a minute you’re a copier sales center (not such a stretch for us), how can you better position blog topics and titles in order to be found when customers look for copiers?
Welcome to the long tail
The word copier alone is considered a keyword. Office copier is a key-phrase. And due to their popularity, a small business that’s new to blogging won’t rank for either – no matter what. But ranking for something more specific like Finding The Best Copiers In Colorado Springs is entirely possible. This extrapolation on a keyword or key-phrase into a more specific and defined sequence of search words is called the long tail.
The renewed power of the long tail
The Internet is now engrained in our daily lives and as voice control gains traction, another type of search style has developed. We have the traditional keyword based searches entered on a device, and now there are conversational searches that are spoken into a device. This shift is good news for SMBs and opens new opportunities for capitalizing on the spoken long tail.
Finding conversational long tail topics
How would you ask a mobile device for a location, when driving? In the copier or office copier example think in conversations:
- Where are office copiers sold around here?
- Find a nearby office copier with a small footprint
Once you have a topic, it’s time to find titles that convert. While the body of the blog should ideally address both traditional and conversational searches, the title still needs to grab a reader’s attention in print:
- Top 10 Office Copiers that Double as a Printer
- How to Find a Space Saving Office Copier that Meets your Needs
Another quick trick, especially if you operate locally is to add your city name to the title: The 10 most popular space saving office copiers in Pueblo Colorado
Need Headline Help?
Any seasoned copywriter will tell you that developing headlines is an art. In other words, it’s not as easy as it looks. However, there are a couple free tools that help:
Headline Analyzer – from the Advanced Marketing Institute, this app ranks your headline based on several criteria so you know if it’s likely to convert before you publish.
Hubspot Topic Generator – is another free tool. Add up to three keywords and they will return topic and headline ideas.
When it comes to digital marketing, small business blogging works to bring traffic and helps visitors understand your products and services. Few digital marketing tactics can compete with what blogs can do for your business and putting a little strategy behind your small business blogging is key.
Happy blogging and if you need more information on office copiers, we’re here to help!
