Best Blog and Article Strategies for Small Business Owners in 2022

Boosting Customer Traffic Through Blog Posts and Articles in 2022

*Updated August 26, 2022

With information flying at the speed of light, businesses are in constant competition for each and every customer. Maintaining an online presence with consistent blog posts and web articles is one way small businesses can put the Internet to work for them.

Well-written blog posts and articles establish expertise by providing current and relevant information that customers are looking for. They personify the company and brand, develop a connection with existing customers, and attract new customers.

How do I write quality content my customers want to consume?

Quality content creation must consider your audience’s needs. If you don’t understand what your customers want and need, you can’t successfully satisfy them. To satisfy customers, you’ll need to know the questions they’re asking and information they’re seeking. You can get a picture of this from frequently asked questions or some good, old-fashioned research. 

Searching your target keywords will tell you what information is out there and what quality you’re competing with. You can’t change the reality that some crucial keywords will be things you can’t hope to rank highly for. But as you challenge yourself to think of different keywords and descriptions for your products and services, you’ll find some untapped keywords that you can put to work for your business. The better you anticipate your customers’ wants, the higher you’ll rank in search results.

Your tone and style should be determined by your target audience. Age, socio-economic status, education, and other demographic factors are as important to your content creation as an extension of your marketing.  

Once you’ve identified your target audience, write in the way you would converse with them. You might find it helpful to create a customer persona and write directly to that person. The 5 Best Guides to Creating a Customer Persona, as compiled by UserTesting, a customer feedback and insight platform, has resources for getting started with customer personas. The basic principle is to identify the most specific commonality you can target. Businesses will have a collection of customer personas and you’ll need to choose which one is most appropriate for each blog post.

Visual components are one of the most engaging pieces of your blog and article arsenal. Not everyone takes information in via reading. Pictures, graphics, and videos invite customers of all preferences to receive your information.

Finally, keep in mind, if it’s no fun to write, it’ll be no fun to read. Let your passion and energy into your writing and it will infuse the experience of reading.

How long should my blog posts be?

Ultimately, your blog post should be long enough to answer the question or inform on the topic to satisfaction. Playing by a hard and fast word count won’t always be in your best interest if you don’t have enough content to keep things interesting. The other factor to consider is the purpose of your page. A pillar page that introduces a specific service package should be longer than a secondary page that gives information on one particular facet of the service. For example: Empower Creative Agency offers project management for a variety of creative endeavors. A pillar page that provides information on how we will help you self-publish a book will be longer than a secondary page specifically on self-publishing a children’s book.

Hubspot provides an analysis of their most popular blog posts from recent years and provides general guidelines for target lengths. In general, their analysis revealed that between 2,100 and 2,400 words generated the best search engine optimization results.

It’s crucial to keep quality over quantity in mind, however. Many website visitors are looking for something specific—how to make this recipe, how to complete this DIY project, what makes this product different from its competitors. Your goal is to answer all the relevant questions and present the information in the clearest way possible.

If your visitors don’t see what they want, they’ll back out of your page and look elsewhere. You don’t want to miss out on visitors and conversions because your information was poorly presented. The best way to avoid this pitfall is to make sure visitors know what the page will tell them within the first 300 words. Use your remaining words to elaborate and expound upon that quick info hit.

How often should I write blog posts?

Marketing Insider Group recommends a minimum of four new posts a week, or 16 new posts a month, for boosting organic traffic to your site. 

But consistency can be more important than the number of blog posts. Your blog won’t perform well if you burn out writing four posts a week for the first month then nothing for the second. If you don’t have the time or team to spread out the creative work, you may want to start small and build your way up toward more frequent posting. 

The more frequently you write, the easier it becomes. So feel free to start small and grow your blog as you gain confidence and reader engagement. Even one consistent blog post every two weeks is better than nothing at all.

Where should I share my blog posts?

In general, the more places you post your articles, the wider audience you’ll capture. That said, not all social media sites serve the same purpose. 

In A Guide to How Often and When to Post Content, former Forbes contributor John Rampton offers guidelines on how often to post to certain social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as some information on key times for posting.

For example, Rampton says Facebook posting should be limited to twice a day for weekdays and once a day for weekends. So you’ll need to consider your most important goals for these posts. Do you want to use one post promoting your new blog content? Or do you have sales, products, or events that would be more valuable to highlight?

If you are posting at the best times, you can keep track of the data and determine if you’re getting a return on your posts. Recommended posting times include: 3pm on Facebook for optimized clicks, noon on Twitter to capitalize on the most popular hour, and noon on LinkedIn to catch professionals on their lunch break.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and why do I need it?

SEO helps boost your ranking within search engine results. The closer to the top of page one you rank on Google or other search engines, the more likely non-customers will discover you. SEO is a constantly-evolving field, covering everything from how you write content to technical details of how your webpages are presented and linked.

MOZ’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO is a great place to start, with a mix of operational and technical steps to take. The most important recommendation is simply to create quality content that people want to consume. Understanding your audience and what people are searching for, then writing content that exceeds expectations will go much further than using certain keywords X times in every paragraph or blog post.

Looking at how your pages are displayed in search results, making sure web blurbs represent your content, and making sure search engines see all your relevant pages are some examples of more technical SEO that can help boost the discoverability of your pages.

Remember that SEO is a tool to help connect customers to quality content. If you’re using it as a shortcut to get views without investing time in the content, you won’t see the returns you’re after.

How do I hire a writer for my blog?

If you determine hiring a writer is the best way for you to generate quality content, you’ll want to hire a professional who will bring your brand to life. The last thing you want is to offer canned content.

A professional writer will hold your audience’s attention, use keywords naturally, and learn about the business before getting started. Additionally, a professional writer will produce mistake-free copy.

Shorthand Content Marketing offers these tips and more in their article, 10 Tips for Hiring a Freelance Blog Writer for Your Small Business Blog.

But whether you’re hiring someone or writing yourself, remember that the time and/or money you spend is an investment in yourself and your business.