If you've done any modern research into search engine optimization, you have no doubt encountered many people telling you that you need to write content.
I'm certain that you've heard that "more is better", and you should post as much as you can if you ever hope to be found and ranked by any reputable search engine.
If you've read this truism once, you've read it a thousand times: "Content is King!"
The question is - why? And how much should you write? And what on earth should I write about?
This article hopes to begin to answer some of these burning questions for all of you small business owners who are trying to make the most of your internet investment.
If you're a small to mid-sized business serving a local community, why must you write post after post hoping to get some attention from the likes of Google?
Does a florist or mechanic really need a thirty-page site with 100 blog posts just to get a decent search ranking?
How many freelance writers does the average Italian restaurant or carpenter need to employ just to make a dent on the internet these days?
Thankfully, the amount of content needed isn't as much as you may think, and reasons will hopefully make sense soon.
The main reason why you need to write content is simple: Google likes it. A lot.
While I say this half-joking, the point is that our primary reason for creating content is to make search engines, including Bing and DuckDuckGo, happy with our site.
Now, search engines will give you plenty of reasons why they like content, but it mainly falls into two categories.
The first: context. Having more content on the site helps search engines understand the reason why the site exists.
Think of it this way: if one site that claimed to be bakery, and all that the bakery had on its site was a main landing page with no text, a couple of photos, and an address, it'll be pretty hard for Google to know when and where to rank it.
However, if a different bakery site had multiple pages listing menu items, hours of operation, and other products and services it provided, the site would be easy to rank and deliver to appropriate searches.
The second reason why search engines like content: helping people.
Google likes sites that provide information for the site's target audience. In turn, Google rewards these sites with more impressions (the number of times your site appears in relevant searches) and ranking (where you fall on the list of sites that provide this information).
Think of it this way: Google has customers - the people who use their search engine.
They want to make their customers happy by providing the best possible results for their searches.
To do this, they give better results to sites that provide the most information.
Makes sense, right? If your site does the best job of helping people choose the right auto service or the best floral arrangement, they'll send you tons of traffic. If your site is three pages of photos with little text, information, or context, you'll be lucky to ever get a cllck.
The next reason why you should be writing more content for your site is that it can highlight the products or services you offer
While it may be perfectly obvious to you what you have to offer, it may be a complete mystery to your intended customer.
There are lots of auto service websites, but maybe you specialize on import car repairs, domestic services, car audio installation, or maybe something else.
Tell us about it!
Or, maybe you're a hairstylist; do you only cut women's hair? Do you have a knack for cutting children's hair? Maybe you really want to highlight up-dos and wedding styles. Tell us about it!
Writing for your site is a golden opportunity to tell us about yourself, how you got started, where your strengths are, where your passions lie. Don't waste it!
This is a golden opportunity to let us know about your business and why we should choose you.
Finally, one of the last big reasons for writing content is that it can help differentiate yourself from your competitors.
Here's a classic example: many smaller businesses sell merchandise as a third-party reseller for larger brands.
Similar to a retail store selling name-brand merchandise, many websites list these products on their websites.
Unfortunately, many times they will use the same description that is provided by the manufacturer on their site.
This means that, potentially, there could be hundreds of websites all trying to sell the same product on their sites, all using the exact same description to get you to buy.
How on earth could you choose the site to buy from, when they're all saying the exact same thing?
Google has the same problem: if you've ever seen this message come up in a search result, now you know why:
By writing your own original description of the product, you can set yourself apart from the pack!
And, there's a good chance that Google may like your description better than the original, so you could potentially outrank the manufacturer (and the hundreds of others using the same description).
The answer is simple, really. You just need to write 'enough' content. But what is 'enough' content?
Unfortunately, the answer is not a simple one.
The volume of content you'll need on your site will vary on a lot of different factors, such as industry, competition, current ranking, and type of business you're in.
Let's start with the first item mentioned above - industry.
If you're in a highly technical, complex, or confusing industry, you may need to write a lot more content for your site to rank than people in other industries.
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This, as opposed to a handyman, baker, or candlestick maker, requires more content to help your readers - and potential clients
- understand exactly what you offer and what they're likely to receive from your business.
Similar to this would be the competitiveness of the industry.
Some professions are just more competitive than others, and will require you to write more content than others just to stay visible Examples of this are the legal profession (again), entertainment sites, and digital marketing sites.
Search engines love tons of fresh, high-quality content, and they reward the sites that provide it.
If you work in this type of field, be prepared to produce more content than average.
Another aspect of that may influence how much content you'll need to write is where you're currently ranking.
If you're the only pizzeria in a small town, and you're already showing up on the first page of search results for 'pizza' in your area, you may not have much writing to do at all.
You maybe able to build a small site that has your menu and hours of operation and do just fine.
However, if you're the same pizzeria in the middle of Manhattan, you're going to have a much tougher time being seen and heard in the online landscape.
To compete, you'll likely want to write lots of entries on your site, talking about a range of topics like "What is the optimal temperature for baking pizza" and "How we source the finest tomatoes in all of New York".
These types of blog entries could begin to make the difference in organic search results.
Finally, expressing yourself and uniquely building your brand may have an impact on how much writing you'll want to do for your site.
Deep down, you know your business is different from everyone else, but your website may not be expressing that.
This is your platorm to snine! Use the worla wide weo to tell people why your business is alterent trom everyone else.
There are millions of carpenters in the world, but you may be the finest in basement remodels, crown moulding, or custom shelving.
Maybe you sing arias while you work — why not use your site to tell the world about your passion for opera and fine-grit sandpaper!?
As consumers, we all want to do business with a brand we like and trust; give us a reason to like and trust you!
So, we know that we need to write 'enough' content to help set our business apart from everyone else in our digital market, bu clearly this isn't a very practical piece of advice to help get you started.
So, here's an answer that will probably help get you started, especially if you have no idea how often you should be writing: once
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If you've never written for a website before, and you're just not sure how many pages and posts you need for your business to grow online, writing something for your site once a month is a good place to start.
Commit to this schedule, and measure your results over time.
If in six months your site still has very few visitors, no ranking to speak of, and no conversions to build clients from, you may want to try posting information twice a month, or maybe more.
However, in my experience just once simple post a month is enougn to neip any site gain traction ana attract new site visitors
So, we've talked about why you need to be writing content, and we've given you an idea about how much content you need to provide, but now we need to discuss what types of content you should be writing.
The common answer is to write a blog, and for nearly every single site I've seen and can think of, this is a beneficial answer.
Starting and maintaining a blog about your company, industry, and the work you do is a great way to teach people about your line of work and introduce your unique approach to how you handle your clients.
This provides an excellent way for potential clients to find out about your business, how you will likely interact with them, and what end result they can reasonably hope to achieve with your service.
in addition, this is a fantastic way to establish yourself as an expert in your industry.
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Everyone wants to get the most 'bang for their buck, and your clients are no exception.
Show them why you're the best in the area, and why your knowledge and expertise exceeds your competitors.
Blogs also provide a platform for which to educate your audience.
If you can help people understand a concept within your business, handle a simple repair, or pull off the perfect craft in time for the holidays, theyll remember your site and likely visit again.
Provide tons of free, unique, original information through your site, and you'll gets tons of traffic - often from well outside your
Not only will this help your site rank well in your local area, it could open up some doors that you didn't expect outside of your
area!
The drawback to creating a blog is that it has to be maintained.
You can't create three blog post entries in one week, then let it collect dust for years.
Quickly, no one will visit those pages and it your work will be rendered useless.
The best thing to do, if you're interested in creating a blog for your business, is to commit yourself to a relaxed posting schedule and stick with it.
If you're like so many other entrepreneurs, it will be difficult to find time to write for a blog daily, or even weekly, but one monthly post may be all you need to get the ball rolling.
Perhaps even that is too much, so try posting every two months.
Whatever the timeline is that will work for your business, commit to it now and stick with it!
Another helpful hint for beginning blogging: create a list of ideas in advance.
If, for example, you have decided that you can post one blog post a month, coming up with only six ideas will have you covered for half of the year.
Make the time to write the posts as soon as you can, ana then you just nave to set a calendar reminder to post the new entries when they're due!
If you use a CMS (content management system), you can even schedule the posts to come out on a certain date, and you don't have to worry about it at all. Set it and forget it!
Outside of writing new blog posts, there are still opportunities for content writing.
To search engines, site pages get stale over time.
Many searchers are looking for the most up-to-date information they can find, and content that isn't updated will eventually lose impressions and rank to newer pages.
You can spend your limited time rewriting the pages on your site, and you'l likely receive nice increases in traffic.
It has been estimated that site content should be rewritten or replaced every six to twelve months, so using your time to update and gently reword each page of your site can help you maintain and exceed your current rankings, giving you an edge over everyone else.
Success So in closing, as a business with a website, I hope you see the value in taking time to continually write new, original content for your site.
Honestly, there are so many mediocre "online entrepreneurs" out there that assumed they could just throw a quick site together, sit back, and start counting dollars that even a modest amount of effort could be all you need to outshine the competition.
However, don't settle for just slightly better - stand out!
Use your site as a way to build a loyal, happy group of customers, and the rewards will certainly flow your way.
Give to your audience, and they will inevitably give back to you in the form of business, reviews, referrals, and praise.
About RainyDay Digital:
We are a full-service web development and digital marketing firm based in Raleigh, NC. With over eight years of experience, we look forward to serving you!
