How to Promote Your Services & Increase Website Traffic for Free

55% more site visitors* for companies that blog, according to a Hubspot study.  It’s part of any SEO (search engine optimization) strategy.

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Why add a blog to your website?

• Websites rank better in search engines, if they have more info and fresh content. A blog on your yoga, massage therapy or wellness website can achieve both.
• Appeals to customers needs.  Folks search on line to find a solution to a problem.  Your blog can basically be like answering FAQ’s, thus providing value for the potential customers.  This separates you from the competition.  People will tend to trust those who show they can address their concerns.

What is a blog?

Basically a series of “posts” or short articles on various topics, usually sequenced in order from newest to oldest.  A website used to be rather static (relatively unchanging) thing.   But as technology made it easier to add fresh content-the distinction between a blog and a website now is blurry- a blog is a type of website or it can be 1 part of a website alongside more stable content.

How to Start the Blog?

If your website is built using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress,  Joomla or DRupal-it means you can add content easily.

1. Contact your designer if you are unsure of how to add a new page to your site and make the minor adjustment to make it show the “blog posts”- that you will be adding.
2. If the term “blog” doesn’t appeal to you or sound professional enough, then-some possible names for the page that will show the posts are:

• Updates
• Latest
• Latest News

What to Write About

I like to educate by giving examples as it’s often easiest way.  So I’ll use some sample businesses.

1. Do think of your new blog as an extended FAQ-at first.  Make your first post address a common customer question-and that can provide many posts down the line.  It will help you get inside the head of customers.  What problems are they having that you solve?
2. Examples:
   • If you’re a yoga teacher specializing in yoga for special needs kids-add lots of info to speak to parents of those kids.   Pictures of you working with the kids.  Easy summation of benefits of yoga for special needs kids.

• Profile a long standing employee.  Or a long time customer?  I’ve seen yoga studios do profile of a student.
• Massage therapist?  Tie in with a current event-did someone famous announce a health issue or problem that you have knowledge of?
• Review a product-with a clear disclaimer to protect yourself.  Maybe you are a massage therapist doing sports massage-discuss some great products and why you use it.
• Showcase a recent success story-a problem you helped to solve for a client.  In above example, maybe you helped a runner post-race to recover more quickly.

 How Often to Post?

As a small business owner myself I understand  you are busy, and basically can always find some work to do!  That’s why you are an entrepreneur.

• I would say a minimum of 1x a month or bi-monthly.  Even better 1x a week.
• Honestly it’s hard to be conclusive because, if your business has lots of competitors  and you are in a major city-then you need to do more-blog more to stand out.  You will also need ongoing SEO.
• If you are in a small city or less competitive business-the 1x week till you have a bunch of posts can hold you ranking well for a year or more….it’s all hard to predict.

Contact me with questions or read a bit about my affordable SEO Consulting Services, I will be honest with you if you are in a small metro area, non-competitive it’s easier to make you stand out and priced accordingly.  As I’ve mentioned elsewhere for some clients they simply needed a better website (not fancy but clear and brings in customers) and that was enough to put them on page 1!  It all depends.

Business Blogging Resources:

Blogging Best Practices at Hubspot

Need more ideas?  Check out this post on 100 Practical Ideas for Small Business Blog Posts, to stimulate your own blog post writing..

Regards, Kala.