3 Types of Content to Boost Your SEO

Sheila Hansen, CPA, breaks down the power and importance of value-based pricing for small businesses on “Priority Pursuit”.

Episode 160: The Power of Value-Based Pricing for Small Businesses with Sheila Hansen

September 3, 2024

Kelly shares the five books every small business owner should read on “Priority Pursuit”.

Episode 162: 5 Books Every Small Business Owner Should Read

September 17, 2024

September 10, 2024

Episode 161: 3 Types of Content to Boost Your SEO

Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Podcasts | Stitcher

If your website doesn’t rank well on Google, you’re missing out on business—not because you aren’t great at what you do or because you don’t serve your customers well—but simply because your ideal customers cannot find you where they’re looking for your products or services.

In fact, 97% of people use Google when they’re in need of a product or service. As a result, if you can get your website and business to rank among the top Google search results, you can get your information in front of prospects who are actively searching for—and likely ready to purchase—exactly what you have to offer.

There are a lot of moving parts to a successful SEO strategy, and we’ve discussed many of these tactics in past episodes of Priority Pursuit. But in this episode, Victoria discusses three types of content you can create to boost your SEO.

What do we mean by “content”?

Before we dive into tactics, let’s define what we mean by “content.” Because, in a world full of reels, TikTok, email marketing, and so much more, there are more kinds of content than ever before.

For the sake of this conversation, we are specifically discussing content that lives on your website—like videos and blog posts—because that’s what’s going to help improve your SEO the most.

Since you should arguably include a coinciding blog post for any videos you post and because blog posts are the simplest form of content for most small businesses to create while still being highly effective, we are going to focus on blogs specifically in this episode.

Blogs & SEO

With so many forms of content now available you might be thinking, “Blog posts? Really? Isn’t blogging dead?”

And, the answer is no. Absolutely not, especially for small businesses.

According to HubSpot, “Blogs continue to be extremely valuable for lead generation, brand awareness, and SEO. And, they’re still popular among consumers.” In fact, a 2023 HubSpot study found that “60% of people read a blog at least once a week.”

So, no. Blogging isn’t dead. And, blogging continues to be one of the most effective and easiest ways to improve your SEO.

Now, it’s important to understand that Google’s goal is to serve its users well by helping them find content related to their queries as quickly as possible. As a result, when your website regularly features new, helpful blog posts, Google is more likely to rank both your website and blog posts well, because you’re helping Google achieve its goal of better serving its users by providing valuable content.

And, assuming your website has a clear message and serves your ideal client well, having your website and content appear on the first page of Google search results can dramatically increase conversions and sales for your small business.

1. High-quality, Educational Content

If you want to improve your SEO and serve your prospects well, the first kind of content you want to create is high-quality, educational content that will be of value to your ideal customer.

For example, if you’re a wedding planner, you could write blog posts about how to create the perfect wedding day timeline, wedding trends, how to choose the right wedding vendors, or anything else that is going to help your ideal client feel more informed about their wedding—especially in relation to your service.

If you’re a landscaper, you could write blog posts about seasonal landscaping tips, plant care, sustainable landscaping practices, common landscaping problems and solutions, and so much more.

The primary benefit of writing these kinds of educational blog posts is that they are an excellent way to serve both your prospects and current customers. They can help you establish that “know, like, and trust” factor and help show your ideal customers that you are an expert at what you do.

In addition to showing your ideal customers that you’re an expert, these kinds of blog posts also show Google that you’re a professional and know what you’re doing. This is important because Google ranks websites and content based on what it calls “E-E-A-T,” which stands for “experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.”

Essentially, Google strives to provide its users with the most helpful, accurate, and credible search results that it can. So, in order for your website and content to rank well, you more or less need to prove to Google that you are a credible source.

And, a great way to do this is to regularly publish high-quality, educational blog posts on your website. Because, again, when you do, you prove to Google that you’re an expert, which is going to make your website much more likely to rank well.

Now, the more often your website is updated with quality content, the better. But, in case you’re wondering how often you should be releasing educational content, Victoria encourages you to do one of two things.

Establish Blog Frequency

First of all, go to Google, type in whatever it is that you want to be known for and appear in Google search results for—such as “Indianapolis wedding photographer” or “hair salons in the Chicago loop” —and look to see how often the businesses that appear at the top of search results are releasing educational blog posts. Then, determine how you can create even more.

That said, if your competitors aren’t blogging regularly or if you just can’t keep up with them because they’re blogging so often, Victoria would recommend releasing a high-quality, educational piece of content once a month—at the very least. This will show Google that your site is active and help improve your E-E-A-T. Plus, you can absolutely put systems in place to crank out one blog post per month or even pay to outsource this content.

Maintain High-Quality Blogs

That said, Victoria cannot emphasize this enough: quality matters so much more than quantity of content. Your prospects don’t want to waste their time reading unhelpful, poor-quality blog posts.

On top of that, Google’s goal—like we discussed—is to provide the most helpful, relevant content to its users. So, if your website is full of haphazard blog posts, your SEO will be harmed—not helped—as it won’t help Google serve its users well.

2. Your Work

Another type of content you can create to boost your SEO is simply blogging your work. This is going to look a little different from small business to small business, but essentially, you can use your blog to showcase your products or services. For example, as a wedding photographer, Victoria used to blog all of her weddings and shoots.

Blogging your work comes with several benefits. Not only is this a simple way to more or less build a portfolio and an easy way to show prospective clients what they can expect when they work with you, but it also comes with several SEO benefits.

Blogging your work can improve your E-E-A-T.

First of all, blogging your work is a really great way to show Google that you’re an expert in your field, which is only going to improve your E-E-A-T. Basically, by blogging your work, you can show Google that you know what you’re doing and are actively taking clients.

Blogging your work can help drive traffic to your website.

Additionally, blogging your work is a great way to drive traffic to your website. From an SEO perspective, this is important because when Google sees that people are regularly visiting your website, the search engine takes that as an indicator that people want to see your content, which is going to make Google more likely to rank both your site and your content well.

Now, to drive traffic to these blog posts, you can and should share these posts on social media and with your email list. You might even consider running ads to them.

How Victoria used blogging as a wedding photographer.

To show you the impact of blogging, take a look at how Victoria brought hundreds—sometimes thousands—of people to her website by sharing her work as a wedding photographer.

To drive as much traffic to her website as possible when blogging her work, Victoria made sure that she always blogged weddings and sessions BEFORE delivering final galleries. Essentially, she’d shoot a wedding on a Saturday; blog about it and include the best images on the following Thursday; and deliver final galleries a couple weeks later.

This workflow drove a lot of traffic to her website simply because her couples, their loved ones, and the couples’ other vendors were excited to see photos, which made them want to check out her blog posts and even share these posts on social media.

Had Victoria waited to blog weddings and sessions until after the final galleries had been delivered, these blog posts wouldn’t have attracted nearly as much traffic simply because people had already seen the photos, and the excitement about both the wedding and the photos would’ve died down.

Again, how you blog your work is going to look very different depending on what your small business does, but if you can create a sense of excitement about these blog posts, you can drive more traffic to your website, which—again—is only going to help your SEO.

If you have a location-based business, blogging your work can help Google further associate you with a specific area.

In addition to helping Google see you as an expert and driving traffic to your site, if you have a location-based business (meaning you have a brick-and-mortar location or a primary service area), blogging your work can help Google further associate you with a specific area, which is going to be beneficial in search results considering your prospects are likely searching for your products or services according to your location.

For example, when Victoria was a wedding photographer, she wanted to rank well for “Indianapolis wedding photographers.” So, every time she blogged an Indianapolis wedding, this helped Google further associate her with the Indianapolis area and helped improve her ranking for “Indianapolis wedding photographers” and similar Google searches.

To give you another example, if you’re an interior designer, you could blog your projects, and while it may not be appropriate to give your clients’ exact addresses, you could certainly mention the city or neighborhood of your projects to help Google further associate you with a specific area.

Again, every business is different, but if you have a location-based business, chances are, blogging your work can help improve your local SEO.

And, if you have questions about how you could potentially do this for your business, please don’t hesitate to shoot Victoria a DM on Instagram. You can find her at @victorialrayburn, and she would be happy to help you brainstorm some ideas.

There are different ways to create blogs.

Now, before we move on to the next kind of content we recommend creating, Victoria does want to note that while blogging your work can have big benefits for your SEO, writer’s block is real. However, when you have a template to work from, blogging your work is much easier.

If you’d like help creating a template for this kind of content, tune in to “Episode 066: What to Write About When Blogging Your Work.”

Also, you do not have to blog all of your work. Victoria did as a wedding photographer because it made sense in her marketing and SEO strategy and was a great form of customer service. Couples loved this and they expected it to happen.

But, if your customers aren’t expecting you to blog about their project or job, Victoria wants to encourage you to be selective with what you blog about. Don’t waste your time blogging unless you’d like to showcase the project and attract similar work.

3. Niche, Location-Specific Content

Speaking of local businesses and local SEO, if you have a location-based business, creating niche, location-specific content is a great way to boost your SEO.

You see, outside of trying to find products or services like yours in your area, your ideal clients are likely Googling other questions related to or adjacent to your products, services, and location. As a result, if you create content (e.g. blog posts) that answer your potential clients’ questions, your ideal clients will likely find your content when they Google their questions—which will, then, encourage them to check out the rest of your website—and your website as a whole will likely rank better because your location-specific content will help Google further associate you with the area you’re targeting and see that you’re an industry expert in your area.

For example, if we stick with our Indianapolis wedding photographer example, you could write blogs like:

“Best Places to Take Engagement Photos in Indianapolis”
“Elegant Wedding Venues in Downtown Indianapolis”
“Where to Take Your Wedding Photos in Indianapolis”
“Bridal Shows in Indianapolis”
“Best Wedding Planners in Indianapolis”

Again, this kind of content will both help you serve potential clients well and help Google see that you are a local expert at whatever it is that you do.

ChatGPT can also be a really great resource for coming up with location-specific topics like this.

For example, you can ask ChatGPT something like, “Can you give me blog topics for a landscaping company that is wanting to improve their SEO in the Indianapolis area?” And, ChatGPT will generate ideas.

Are all of its suggestions going to be winners? No. Probably not. Chances are, some of them are going to seem a little odd or forced. So, use common sense. But, look at the suggestions given and create content around the ideas that your ideal customers would actually find value in and be likely to Google.

It isn’t enough to create content. You need to optimize your blog post with keywords.

If you want to boost your SEO, you can find success by creating high-quality, educational blog posts; blog posts about your work; and niche, location-specific blogs.

However, it isn’t enough to just create content. If you want to get the most out of your blog posts, you need to be sure to optimize them for keywords.

Keywords are essential because they help search engines better understand what your content is about and the relevance of your content. By incorporating keywords that your target audience is searching for, you increase the likelihood of your content appearing in search results when potential customers are looking for information related to your products, services, or content. This, in turn, drives more organic traffic to your site, makes your ideal customers more likely to find you, and—ultimately—leads to more inquiries and conversions.

Basically, if you’re going to take the time to create content or pay a copywriter to blog for you, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice if you don’t optimize your content.

Now, we aren’t going to get into how to use keywords in this episode, but if you’d like to learn more about how to choose keywords and where to put them on your website, check out our guide “How to Use Keywords to Improve Your Small Business’s SEO.” This guide walks you through exactly how to choose and use keywords according to your business goals.

SEO is the key to getting your information in front of potential customers who are ACTIVELY looking for your products & services.

Once again, there are a lot of moving parts to implementing an effective SEO strategy, but the fact of the matter is that when people are looking for a product or service, they go to Google. As a result, if your website doesn’t appear on the first page of Google, you’re missing out on business.

However, when your site ranks among the top Google search results, people who are actively looking for what you have to offer can easily find you. And, as a result, you can stop spending so much of your time chasing leads and allow some of your most qualified leads to find you where they’re already looking for your products or services: at the top of Google search results.

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

The Priority Pursuit Podcast is a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners define, maintain, and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love.

You can find The Priority Pursuit Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Stitcher, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

Did you enjoy this episode?

If so, pin it to save it for later! Follow us on Pinterest for more marketing, business, branding, and boundary-setting strategies!