How Can Local Business Owners Blog Effectively? Experts Weigh In.

Having a website for your local business simply isn’t enough by itself to get the attention online you need to build your business.

To get more visitors to your site, generate more leads and convert those leads into sales, there must be a compelling reason for them to visit — and come back.

So what’s the best way to start drawing more attention to your website in your local area?

Start writing a blog and create content that will help you get found by the people who need your products and services.

Blogging at a Glance

Here’s what you need to know about blogging and why your site needs one to be successful.

• Well-written blog posts start a conversation with your audience and will do more to pre-quality prospects than your best brochures or other marketing collateral.

• Blogs provide two-way communication by allowing engagement between you and your audience through the comments section.

• Blogs are an easy tool to add fresh content to your website, and that comes with many benefits in itself. Blogs are typically updated every few days or weekly, and search engines such as Google will rank a site with recently updated posts higher than websites that do not have as much activity. Higher rankings make it easier for the right prospects to find you.

Now that you know how a blog can benefit you, read what some experienced bloggers say about how to build a successful local business blog.

Feel free to share this infographic on your blog or website. Just include a link back to this post to give us credit.

On How to Blog with a Local Focus

The Problem: More and more business owners are sold on the power of inbound marketing, especially how effective blogging is for increasing traffic and leads. But if your business depends on leads in your local area, you can’t approach blogging the same way as non-location dependent businesses.

The Solution: Write about general topics related to your business, but put a local spin on them. Make sure your titles are optimized to be found by local readers. Samara Hart explains more in her post: How Local Businesses Can Blog Successfully About Anything.

On Creating Content for a Local Blog

The Problem: Creating content is challenging! Many business owners think blog posts need to be a certain way and never get started.

The Solution: Darren Rowse’s post, 12 Lessons from 4 Inspiring Local Business Blogs, is a great resource to turn to if you’re having difficulty coming up with ideas for blog content. Two great tips you’ll find are to use visual imagery if it’s appropriate for your business and to feature customer stories or case studies.

On Why Local Business Blogs Are Effective

The Problem: You’re not fully convinced that a local blog is a good use of your time.

The Solution: 43% of all Google searches are local (meaning city and town names are used in the query.) The more local content you put on your blog, the better the chances of you receiving that free traffic from Google. In his post, Why Local Blogging Works, Matt McGee points out some of the other reasons why a local blog can work for your business.

Now that you know what the experts have to say about building a successful local business blog, what steps are you going to take on your website? What are your biggest questions? Let me know in the comments.