Does a small business need a blog?

Not every small business needs a blog. A blog pays off when your customers search for answers before they buy, "how much does it cost", "how long does it take", "which one should I choose", and you can publish useful answers regularly. If people mostly find you by your name or on the map, your Google profile, your photos and your reviews will do more for you than any article.

When a blog brings customers

• Your service needs explaining. Roof repair, dental implants, a wedding cake, a kitchen remodel: people read before they call.
• Customers ask you the same questions. Every question you answer at the counter twice a week is an article someone is searching for.
• Your prices depend on the job. A plain article on what drives the price earns trust before the first phone call.
• You serve a whole area, not one street. Articles about local conditions, permits or seasons speak to people across your service area.
• You can keep going. One good article a month, every month, beats ten in January and nothing after.

When to skip it

• People find you by name or on the map. A cafe, a barber or a corner shop lives on its Google profile, so start there with what a Google Business Profile is.
• You have no website yet. A blog needs a home. Whether you need one at all is its own question, answered in do you need a website if you have a Google profile.
• Nobody has time to write. An abandoned blog with three posts from two years ago tells visitors you might be gone too.

What Google says it wants

Google is unusually direct about this in its own guidance. It asks for "people-first content", which it defines as content "created primarily for people, and not to manipulate search engine rankings". It recommends focusing on that "rather than search engine-first content made primarily to gain search engine rankings".

Its spam policies go further and describe "scaled content abuse": pages produced in bulk "for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users". In plain words: fifty thin articles stuffed with your city's name will not help you, and they can hurt.

So the bar is simple. Would a customer be glad they read it? Does it answer the question better than the next result does? Does it come from someone who actually does the work?

Where to find topics

1. Your inbox and phone. Write down every question a customer asks for two weeks.
2. Google's own suggestions. Type the start of a question about your service and look at what Google offers to finish it.
3. The "People also ask" box in Google's results, for the same searches.
4. Your quotes. Every time you explain why a job costs what it costs, you are writing an article.
5. The seasons. What customers ask in March is different from what they ask in October.

A schedule you can keep

For most small businesses, one or two articles a month is plenty. Each one should answer one question fully, include your own photos where they help, and end with one clear next step: call, book or ask for a quote. Link each new article to the older ones it builds on, and update the old ones when prices or rules change.

If you would rather not write them

Our Blog Articles service writes them for you: articles of about 1,000 words on what people near you actually search for, with your photos, your links and one clear next step. You approve every article before it goes up, and we either publish it on your website or send you the finished text. It starts at $79 a month. If your customers find you on the map rather than in search, skip it and put the effort into your Google profile instead. The details are on the pricing page.