How Do You Choose the Right Topic for Your Small Business Blog Post?

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Picking the right topics for your blog posts matter more than many small business owners realize. It’s not only about what people find interesting, or what you think they should know.

However, most small business owners tend to struggle coming up with ideas to write about.

And aside from the human aspect of it, there is also the matter of how search engines perceive the content on your blog – not only individually, but as a whole.

Why?

Because if you cover the right selection of topics on your blog, Google awards you the label of “topical authority”, which attracts more visitors to the same content than without the label.

7 Steps to picking the right blog post topic.

1. Start by looking at your audience:

Who do you want to read your blog posts? Would you like them to be read by potential customers, existing customers, or by your peers?

Once you have determined that, think about the challenges they commonly face, their interests, and questions they commonly ask.

For instance, if you are an estate agent, you may want to write about common pitfalls and their consequences, as well as tips to help your prospects to pick the best property, financing, and insurance company.

2. Pick blog topics that will align with your business goals:

In most cases, blog posts are aimed either at generating new customers or leads, or to strengthen your brand by showcasing your expertise and building trust.

If a blog post doesn’t do any of these – or whatever other specific business goal you may have – it might not be worth spending your time on it.

For instance, if you sell used cars, writing about a newly launched supercar may not do much for your brand or your revenue, but offering tips about common problems on specific car models may be very useful to your potential customers.

3. Answer common questions:

Google loves pages with commonly asked questions – and it frequently ranks FAQ pages.

While you probably have an FAQ page on your website, you could still create blog posts about common questions which relate to a specific topic.

For instance, if you offer a product of which the quality can vary substantially between suppliers, you could offer a list of questions which could help potential buyers to discern the quality of what they are about to purchase.

4. Look at search volumes, commonly searched terms, and Google Trends:

Looking at Google Trends will help you ascertain whether any given topic is growing or decreasing in popularity.

Typing partial keyword phrases into Google will bring up specific searches commonly executed on Google as a drop-down list of options.

Finally, you can also make use of paid tools – of which Ubersuggest from Neil Patel is probably the cheapest while still being very good – to not only determine search volumes and get new keyword ideas, but also find search terms which do not have too much competition in the search results.

5. Check out the blogs of competitors:

When we say “competitors”, we don’t simply mean the blog posts of your local competitors. Look at the top blogs in your industry, and then refine your search to the blogs that address a similar audience to yours.

For instance, a blog about gardening in New York might not have a similar audience to that of a gardening blog in Arizona.

Identify a few “role model” bloggers in your industry, look at which of their blog posts would be relevant to your audience, and then try to either improve on them, or write similar posts viewed from a slightly different angle.

As you dig through their content, you may also find there are some obvious questions or topics they neglected to write about, which you can capitalize on.

6. Create a mixture of evergreen and timely topics:

Depending on your specific business, there may be regular releases of industry news, some of which could be of interest to your potential customers.

For instance, if there is a new federal law or local law being implemented, which would say, require specific certifications or the avoidance of specific substances or processes, writing about it will not only focus the attention of your prospects on asking the right questions to potential vendors, but it will also position you as someone who is already compliant with the new laws or industry changes.

However, do not neglect the other topics which remain timeless. Since people will always be asking those questions, well written blog posts on such topics can attract visitors for many years.

Mixing the two – where possible – keeps your blog useful in the longer term, while still appearing fresh due to the timely content.

7. Keep your topics simple and actionable:

Unless your audience is made up of intellectuals, do your best to keep everything simple. When you are able to make something sound simple, not only does it become easier for under-educated or uninformed people to understand, but the clear language also makes it easier for them to trust you.

Pick topics that are helpful, and that your readers can take action on immediately – should they choose to.

Keep in mind that, not too long ago, Google made a major change to their search algorithm – which they called the “helpful content update”. Do the math.

In conclusion:

Choosing the right topics for your small business blog is the first step to effective blogging which translates into revenue.

Keep amending your list of potential blog topics – as new ideas and questions come to mind, simply add them to the list. Not all of your ideas will be good ones, but as long as you keep adding them to the list, there will be some good ones among them – which you can use.

Of course, remember to end every blog post with a call to action – regardless of whether it is an invitation to contact you or visit your online shop, an offer for a call-back, a free download or an invitation to join your newsletter.

Whatever you want them to do next, ASK.

And try to frame it in such a way that they can clearly see the benefit in taking the suggested action.