How to use a blog post as a cost-effective small business website promotion technique

Periodically publishing a blog post is an easy way for small business owners to promote their website and increase their sales. You offer new products or services? You expanded your territory? You have new staff? Let the world know about what is new and exciting about your small business. Google loves fresh content. Blogging is an easy way to remind Google that your small business is alive and kicking.

By Alain Houle, Alco Web Design LLC

Blogging is a cost-effective small business website promotion technique

BLOG POST CONTENT
​You heard it before, content is king. There is not point to write a blog post that nobody wants to read.

• Keep things simple: Most small business blog posts are 400-500 characters in length. Think SEO and make sure your most important keyword comes at least 3 times throughout the write up.
• Take it easy on the sales pitch: The primary objective of your blog post is to connect with potential customers, not to make a sale. Connect, establish relationship, demonstrate expertise, build trust, open the door. If you do a good job, the sale will come later.
• Use small paragraphs and short sentences: People don’t read on the internet, they skim. Use 5th grade vocabulary and grammar to make sure your visitors can quickly and easily understand your message.
• Work and rework the text of your blog post: Limit the distractions and use your favorite text editor to make sure your write up is perfect before you even think about publishing it.
• Post title: The post title will also be displayed on the Google search results. Use a catchy title that will get the reader’s attention and convince them to go to your post. Make sure your title contains your most important keyword.
• Post Highlights: On top, use bold characters to create a summary that tells your readers what the post is all about and convince them to read more. Include a reference about the author and a link to your website (Google likes incoming links).
• Use of picture(s): Appropriate visual elements will make your blog post look good and help reinforce the concepts you are trying to drive. Don’t copy pictures from the internet. This is illegal and some unscrupulous companies make a business at finding and fining violators. Use your own picture or purchase a stock photo.
• Post wrap up: At the end, summarize your blog post and politely inviting the readers to contact you for more details, information, or help.
• Mobile considerations: Mobile devices can only display a few characters per line. Remove un-necessary spaces after paragraphs and use a single space after sentences to minimize unnecessary line changes in the mobile version of your post.

CREATE WEEBLY BLOG POST
Weebly is the perfect small business website design tool. Here is how to create a blog post with Weebly.
 
Web browser consideration: When working with Weebly, I use Google Chrome because it includes a default “Paste as plain text” option that removes the original formatting when cutting and pasting. This feature eliminates double text formatting errors that are sometimes difficult to detect.
 
Create new post: Go to your blog page and click the “New Post” at the bottom right.
 
Build your post: Enter your post title, text, and picture(s) as described earlier.
 
Google optimize your picture:

• Google likes links so create a link from your picture to a page of your website.
• Reuse some elements of your post title and take advantage of the picture CAPTION and ALT TEXT tools to help Google understand what your post is all about. Make sure the CAPTION and ALT TEXT contain your most important keyword.

 
Google optimize your post:

• At the bottom left, click POST OPTIONS
• Assign one or more category to your post. Use categories that contain your most important keyword.
• Reuse some elements of your post title and create a permalink (URL) that contains your most important keyword. Separate words with a dash (-) character to make the URL easy to read. “Blog-post-cost-effective-small-business-website-promotion-technique” is an example.
• Reuse some elements of your post title and create a SEO post title that contains your most important keyword. (65 characters max)
• Reuse some elements of your post highlights and create a SEO post description that contains your most important keyword. (155 characters max)

 

• Publish your blog post:
• As part of the publishing process, Weebly offers the option to automatically include a note on your Facebook and Twitter accounts so your followers know about your new post are invited to read it. This is an awesome feature, take advantage of it.
• Once published, verify that your blog post looks good on a computer and on a mobile device.
• Make sure there are no errors and that all links are functional.
• Bingo you are done

​Periodically publishing a blog post is an easy and cost-effective way to promote a small business website. Writing for the web is a delicate balance between creating persuasive content that is also easy for Google to categorize. Our experienced blog post writers know how to craft a message that will impress Google and your visitors. For help or more information, call us at (920) 850-4642 or fill in this contact us form, we would be happy to help.​