As a small business website owner, you have possibly felt under pressure to add fresh content to your website. We’ve all been told that Google likes a well maintained and regularly updated website and a blog is a very easy way of doing that without having to constantly think of tweaking the main structure of your website … although it is important that you keep that current and don’t neglect it.

Apart from posting content in the interests of ‘just adding content’ to boost your search results, there are plenty of other reasons for starting a small business blog and some of them could just help give you a new focus when you’re struggling for blog post ideas.

Ultimately, your website and/or your blog is all about promoting your business and finding customers. Careful planning of blog content allows you to provide real value and benefit to new and existing customers. This in turn can build trust and loyalty which will lead to long term business rewards.

Regular posts on your small business blog allow you to:

1. Show a bit of personality behind your brand
2. Reinforce your key messages and build awareness of your services
3. Generate engagement with new and existing customers
4. Establish yourself as a respected voice within your niche
5. Attract new, and otherwise different, visitors to your website

1)  Show a bit of personality behind your brand

People do business with people. If you’re a small business, or perhaps ‘the’ business this is even more true. Depending on your offering, it is likely that your potential customers are investing in you as the provider of services rather than just the services that you offer.

Your website will be outlining all your goods and services and encouraging your visitors to make contact. It will be factual and detail the logistics of how you work and what a client can expect from you. You may have written an excellent ‘About’ page that outlines what qualifies you to deliver those services but it probably doesn’t give a huge amount away about you … the person.

For a long time, your website's Home page was considered the most important landing page on your website. The one to focus all your efforts and where you were going to create that all important first impression.

To a certain extent, this is still true, but visitors are now spending a lot of time on 'about' pages and may even 'land' at other pages of your website like your 'blog' or 'contact' page especially if you are promoting your blog on social media.

While not neglecting the importance of your Home page it's important to focus on these other pages as landing pages.

Review how they may be perceived by a new visitor to your website:

• What first impression do they create?
• Is there a clear call to action?
• Do they encourage visitors to move to other areas of the site?

Include the following to encourage them to move to other pages of your website:

• Have a clear and prominent message that lets your visitors know exactly what you do as soon as they arrive at the page.
• Include a contact email address and/or phone number. Consider how your visitors got the site. Is it likely to be from a mobile device? In which case have the phone number easily accessible for direct dial. In fact you should have your contact details on every page!
• Have one clear call to action ... don't overwhelm with too many. If there are too many choices and buttons to click, you risk causing confusion and your visitors clicking nothing!
• If you have a great offer or can give away some free information highlight it.  Do you have some information you could give away via free download that could also give you the opportunity to collect data for your mailing list?
• Include links to other pages of your website from within your individual blog posts to encourage readers to find out more about your business and services.
• Cut out the jargon. Write for your readers and ultimately your prospective customers. Use language that they will understand and can relate to.

The above are a few simple guidelines, but above all else keep it simple. If you would like some help with developing a new small business website or improving an existing one, please do get in touch.