Effective blogging for SMBs

Effective blogging for SMBs can bring a number of benefits and advantages to not just the website, but the company and brand altogether. However, getting this right can be more complicated than you might think. So, how can you be sure that your blog will drive traffic, and ultimately increase sales or bookings? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design, we are Preston’s leading web design and web marketing professionals. We provide valuable web design, SEO, and marketing solutions to a range of clients, across the North West, including Southport and Wigan, as well as Manchester. As a result, we have produced this guide to everything you should know about high quality blogs for SMBs.

What are the benefits of blogging for SMBs

There are a variety of advantages and benefits to adding blogs to an SMB website. these include:

• Adding quality content to your website
• Increasing brand authority
• Creating content to target wider keywords

However, for your blog to bring these benefits to your website, this needs to be well planned.

What are the important steps for effective blogging for SMBs?

To ensure that your blog is a successful and valuable addition to your website, there are a number of important details and factors that you will need to take into account. These include:

• Responsive design
• Quality of the content
• Matching keywords to search intent

Responsive design for SMB blogs

While this may be more of a technical factor, than a content or SEO consideration, it is still important for success online. Mobile searchers are now a significant share of website traffic, with some websites experiencing between 50 and 80% of traffic being mobile based. As such, it is important that your blog index page, and the blogs themselves, are designed responsively to have the best possible visual effect on any website user. This not only can be key for making a good first impression, but it also presents your company in a positive light too.

Quality of the blog content for SMB blogs

Quality should be a defining factor for any company looking to add blogs to their website. However, too many companies become more interested in quantity over quality. This can mean that many low quality blogs are churned out, that don’t bring any real value to your website. Or alternatively, long form blogs are chosen instead, that are difficult to read and uninteresting. Focusing on quantity is the wrong plan. Short blogs can be much easier to read, but if these don’t provide enough detail, you will need to forgo the word count. Long blogs can add more detail, but this is not always necessary, or appealing for your website visitors, and sticking to the short version can be a better option here. That’s why quality should be the key focus for blogs of any length, with the aim of each being to send a specific message, or serve a particular purpose.

Blogs need to match the keyword with the search intent

Keywords or phrases that you choose are the ones that you want your blog to show up for, on the Search Engine Results Page(SERP). But even if your blog content does land the number one spot, if this is not what the searcher was looking for, you won’t see much benefit. Instead you will see a high bounce rate, and a subsequent ranking drop. This is because the content, and the keywords, need to match the user intent. For example, there is a difference between a searcher looking for more information to make an informed decision about a purchase or service, and one that is looking to book or purchase immediately. Serving the wrong kind of content to the wrong user is never a successful option, and this is something that should be carefully considered for all of your blog posts.

For more information or advice, or for professional web marketing and social media marketing, get in touch with the team today, here at Pumpkin Web Design.