{"id":1315,"date":"2011-05-05T00:53:08","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T00:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bme2.flywheelsites.com\/blog\/why-your-small-business-needs-a-blog\/"},"modified":"2020-01-20T15:18:48","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T15:18:48","slug":"why-your-small-business-needs-a-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/why-your-small-business-needs-a-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your Small Business Needs a Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

While sitting in the dentist chair the other day, mouth gaped open and tools prodding away, I mumbled to my lovely OC dentist, \u201cDo you blog?\u201d The question caught him off guard \u2013 and it probably wasn\u2019t the smartest move on my part considering he\u2019s using sharp instruments. We started chatting about his business, and while he\u2019s one of the best OC dentists, with a delightful staff and superb service, he faces the same dilemma that my OC optometrist faced when I asked him the very same question.<\/p>\n

The Marketing Problem Most Professionals Face<\/h4>\n

First, most professionals don\u2019t have the time to market themselves. Second, they don\u2019t know how to do it.\u00a0Marketing yourself isn\u2019t simply about getting an ad in the paper anymore. Nowadays, it\u2019s about having an online presence, which is done through social media marketing<\/a> and link building. A lot of professionals also make the mistake of thinking that having a website is enough. It isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Having a website is great as a reference for existing clients, but it\u2019s useless for attracting new clients. Having just a website is about as attractive as stale bread sitting out on a bakery counter and the baker expecting to attract customers. What is useful is having fresh bread daily and even giving a few sample pieces to taste.<\/p>\n

How Does the Bread Analogy Work?<\/h4>\n

The stale bread is like your website. It might have been new and interesting at first but it quickly gets old. It just sits there, nothing changes, there\u2019s no reason for people to revisit it.<\/p>\n

Fresh bread is like a blog. It\u2019s new. It\u2019s fresh. It\u2019s exciting\u2026and it\u2019s relevant to your target audience.\u00a0It gives people a reason to come back again and again. Equally as important, Google and other search engines prefer fresh content to stale content \u2013 meaning they give preference to pages that have higher fresh and original content when it comes to indexing pages for search results. Most search robots also can\u2019t read the website fully because of complex codes that most sites use \u2013 rather they\u2019re much more attracted to the simple content-rich blogs from the violet end of the blogging spectrum.<\/p>\n

The sample bread is your blog. A blog, such as the one you\u2019re reading right now, provides interesting and informative information to potential clients. It gives them a taste of something and builds credibility for your business. It also helps make you an authority as more and more people trust you as a source of information. These people more easily convert to clients \u2013 because after all, who would you rather give your business to, someone in the Yellow Pages or someone you randomly Googled\u2026or someone who\u2019s provided you with useful information?<\/p>\n

Small Businesses and the Blogosphere<\/h4>\n

You can use either a WordPress or Blogger, both of which make blogging very easy.\u00a0For more customization and content management, you can also use Joomla. And if you already have a website, you can link the blog to your site or you can create a special page on your site for a blog. The key to blogging is to think like your consumer and provide information that people are naturally searching for.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important that you remember to use an adequate number of keywords (1-5%) and well-anchored text so that your content is search engine optimized<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A blog is also a great promotional tool. You can turn a couple blog entries into a newsletter and you can feed each entry into social media sites. The goal is to stay relevant and remind people you\u2019re there, and a blog gives you a great excuse to do this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While sitting in the dentist chair the other day, mouth gaped open and tools prodding away, I mumbled to my lovely OC dentist, \u201cDo you blog?\u201d The question caught him off guard \u2013 and it probably wasn\u2019t the smartest move on my part considering he\u2019s using sharp instruments. We started chatting about his business, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2171],"tags":[757,764,801,802,803],"class_list":["post-1315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beyond","tag-online-marketing","tag-small-business","tag-company-blog","tag-how-to-blog","tag-search-engine-optimization"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Your Small Business Needs a Blog - in<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Your Small Business Needs a Blog - in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While sitting in the dentist chair the other day, mouth gaped open and tools prodding away, I mumbled to my lovely OC dentist, \u201cDo you blog?\u201d The question caught him off guard \u2013 and it probably wasn\u2019t the smartest move on my part considering he\u2019s using sharp instruments. 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