One of my top suggestions for small business owners to drive more traffic to their website, attract publicity, and get more business is to start a blog.

I’m usually met with a groan or glassy eyes until I describe the benefits.

A blog can get you to rank higher on Google for your keywords, build credibility as an expert, and help you become a trusted source of information that journalists and potential customers can find online that leads to business.

Let’s describe the benefits of attracting publicity and more business with a blog.

1. As soon as you post something, regardless of whether you are online or not, others see you as an expert and someone with knowledge to share.

This is extremely valuable to your business as you can take your expertise and share it with a larger audience and build greater influence.

Creating a sphere of influence lends credibility and, along with building your online profile, can attract people who are interested in what you have to say, including journalists searching the internet for stories and different news angles, and potential customers looking for your products. and services.

2. One of the main benefits of blogging is building your online profile and attracting attention for your keywords.

If you’re not sure what I mean by keywords, they are basically the words typed into the search bar of a web browser when searching for information or businesses on the Internet.

The best way to discover keywords related to your business is to use the Google Keyword Tool. (www.googlekeywordtool.com)

For example, if you have a dog grooming business, go to the keyword tool and type ‘dog grooming’ and you will see a list of words related to this term.

The list also shows how many people are searching online for these keywords.

By targeting words with a high search (not necessarily the highest, since they have the most competition), you can create a specialized niche.

My suggestion for small business owners looking to build credibility and be found online more easily is to write a blog with your keywords in the title, in the first and last sentence, and a few times throughout the blog article.

This way, your blog can develop a reputation as relevant and start to rank higher because you’re closely targeting what people are searching for online.

Here are some tips for writing blogs that will attract publicity and help grow your business:

• Use a natural voice, as if you were sharing ideas with a friend.
• Write in short sentences with few adjectives.
• Use keywords in the headline, the first and last sentences, and two or three times throughout the blog.
• Includes an image.
• Use subheadings, boldface, and italics throughout the blog as navigation points to guide readers.
• Link your keywords to other pages on your website that specifically relate to the work you do.
• Try to write weekly, as the more you do, the higher your ranking will be; It won’t happen overnight, but this tactic is very powerful and very inexpensive.

In short, for more publicity and more business, start a blog… and keep it up!