Join Kara Duncan from The Kara Repot, as we explore why every business, big or small, needs business blogs to have a sustainable marketing strategy. Kara reveals the secrets of how a blog isn't just another project on your to-do list; it's a long-term game-changer for your businesses organic traffic and lead generation.
From boosting SEO with your business blogs to engaging your audience and driving sales, Kara shares the keys to a thriving blog for newbie bloggers like myself! Get ready for a deep dive into the world of blogs, SEO tips, and uncovering the magic that turns casual readers into loyal customers.
If we haven't met yet, hi! I'm Brittany, a mom, mystery buff, bookworm, and DIY home decor enthusiast. I love nothing more than finding sustainable strategies to help your business grow into what you've dreamed of. If you're looking for support with your social media, email marketing to podcast, click here to learn how I can help.
Table of Contents
What is blogging and how does it fit into marketing strategies for small business owners?
What metrics are important to watch to see if a blog post is doing well?
From start to finish, how long does it take you to write a blog post?
If every business could benefit from a blog, why don’t more do it?
Are there topics that are easier to talk about on a podcast vs. write about in a blog?
Meet Kara the Business Blogs Expert
I’m Kara, owner of The Kara Report. We’re a small marketing agency that specializes in blogging and Pinterest management for other creative entrepreneurs, mostly service providers, course creators, coaches, and that kind of thing. I’m incredibly passionate about sustainable marketing strategies, so that means that I’m also always thinking about how we can add search-driven ways for people to find you.
What is Blogging & How Does It Fit Into Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners?
Blogging is the act of publishing weekly written content on your website that shares knowlege and information with your audience. Bigger picture, blogging is a way for people to find you organically via searches on platforms like Google through the keywords you include in your blog posts.
The great thing about blogging is as much as I’ll preach that you should be consistent with blogging, and ideally one post a week is what I really encourage people to aim for. The nice thing about business blogs is Google is a more merciful ruler than Instagram.
For example, if you ditch your blog for six months, you’re going to be fine. It’s not going to be like square one when you start again. So that’s kind of the nice thing about blogging, especially if you have a seasonal business.
Blogging helps prevent the constant content creation cycle most business owners experience with platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. That’s the nice thing about blogging is you can work it more into your schedule, you can schedule the posts to publish when you're not busy so you don't have to worry about 'showing up' online as often. There's also no need to show your face on stories everyday etc. Also, when you put effort into creating one blog post a week, there are so many ways that you can repurpose it for that short-term content because a lot of us don’t necessarily have the resources, whether that’s money or time, to wait for blog to work.
Because I always tell people, and I wouldn’t tell you this if it wasn’t true, but it takes six to 12 months to blogging to work. If you blog once a week, that’s 52 blog posts that are ranking on Google at the end of the year, versus social media content that you’ve worked so hard on all year that may grow your following, and maybe that will pay off or maybe you might have already reached all the benefits you’re ever going to get out of that content.
Explain What SEO is and It's Relevance to Blogging
SEO means Search Engine Optimization, and basically when we talk about SEO, we’re talking about how you’re going to rank on Google. So on Google, I always think of it like this. Google’s job, just like the Instagram algorithm, to match with the content that you want to see and it uses keywords to determine what content to show people when they search for something on Google.
Let’s use a social media manager for an example. If we were going to try and get you on page one for the key word "social media manager", Google has two options. They have a social media manager who has a beautiful website optimized for SEO, that’s option one. And then option two is a social media manager who has 52 articles on social media tips. Who do you think Google is going to consider the safer choice to send traffic to?
Depending on how niche you are you, you may be able to rank on page one (as option one where you just have an optimized website), but option two with a ton of content on your site is going to be way stronger, especially in more competitive industries like social media management.
In essence, blogging helps you build up your credibility with Google and allows you to rank for lots of keywords to increase the chances of having your business be found on Google.
How Can You Optimize Blog Posts to Rank on Google?
There are a lot of little steps to optimizing a blog post, but none of them are hard and none of them take very long. (Since taking Kara's blogging course I can confirm this is true!)
The first step is to pick a keyword. You can use a free tool like Ubersuggest to help you find your keyword. It’ll tell you roughly what the search volume is and what the competitiveness is. That’s the first step, and use that keyword in the first 10% of the blog. Then, you want to include the keyword throughout the blog post, but without stuffing it.
Next, optimizing your images. Don’t upload images that have large file sizes. Google will do the heavy lifting, resizing it, which makes the website slower, which means it ranks lower because Google looks at space load speed. Then, I’m usually going to rename all the images, you also want to add alt text, which is again, you describing it in an ideally keyword rich way. I always say include your main keyword in 20% of the images in all text, not every single one. Use different words to shake it up instead of repeating yourself so much.
Now, consider how you can be a resource. Which means link to other high domain websites and link to other pages on your own website or other blog posts. Give people more information, resources and vlaue. Actually we were talking about how we’re both moms, right? You see this a lot with mommy bloggers where it’s like, okay, I just Googled milestones for two year olds and it’s telling me, “Hey, are you also wondering about 15 quick and easy meals your 2-year-old will actually eat?” I’m definitely check out that blog too! Google likes those kinds of things where somebody is going to your website, reading your blog, going to other pages on your website. It’s a better user experience too.
When the blog post is published you should submit your post to Google Search Console and request indexing. Google will find your website and do blog posts naturally if you’re a consistent blogger. If you’re not, Google isn’t scanning your website as often because Google thinks that you don’t change your website that often. Kara talks about this in more detail in this episode of her podcast, The Kara Report.
If you're looking for help writing your blog posts and you have word press website there are two differnet plugins you can try. I recommend Yoast SEO and Rank Math, both plugins with free versions that will give you a green light or a score out of a hundred on how optimized your post is. What I would say is that getting a green light on Yoast SEO is pretty easy and is not enough to say your post is SEO optimized. Rank Math's rating are better, if you look at the suggestions and follow them, it walks you through the steps needed to optimize your post.
And then my second follow up to that is make your keywords more specific, but still something people search for. So for example, if my keyword is "business', I could get a green light pretty easily, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to rank. It’s WAY too big of a keyword, too many people are using it but I could use a more specific keyword like "blogging for business owners" and I could rank for that one.
How Many Keywords is Too Many in a Blog Post?
Try to rank for as many different keywords as possible, I would say the more that you can rank for the better chances someone has of finding you! But it's important to remember that one blog post = one keyword. Google also doesn’t like when you have multiple business blogs posts that are competing for the same keywords. So let’s say you had “five reasons to hire a podcast manager” and podcast manager was your keyword, and then your next blog post was “questions to ask a podcast manager”, and podcast manager was your keyword again. If somebody is just typing podcast manager, Google will get confused.
Using that example, you could expand and your keyword wouldn’t be podcast manager, it’s “tips for a podcast manager” or “hiring a podcast manager”, make it a longer keyword. That’s just something to keep in mind. It’s easier for SMALL businesses to rank for longer keywords in the beginning because there is usually less competition and you'll see results sooner!
What Metrics Are Important to Watch to See if a Blog Post is Doing Well?
I’m not a fan of over tracking data, but I like to track bare bones. I track metrics in a spread sheet, when I publish a blog post I’ll put the URL on my spreadsheet and I’ll go back and check a week later to see if it’s been indexed by Google. That's the most important thing to look for. If it hasn't been indexed, no one will see it.
What you’re going to see in Google Search Console is sometimes it’ll say discovered not indexed. And what that means is Google has found the blog post, but for lack of better words and not to be too harsh, it doesn’t think it’s valuable enough to rank. So it’s not even on page 10. It doesn’t mean the blog post is a bad blog, it can sometimes just need to be tweaked and then resubmitted. if you notice your post has been discovered by not indexed, go back and make some changes and resubmit it for indexing. Keep doing this until Google actually indexes it.
Just to add to that, not every blog post is going to end up on page one, and that’s okay. The other business blogs posts will support the cornerstone blog posts. So I also like to look once a month at what blog posts are ranking the best. Often it’s the same 10 pages ranking, but that’s enough. It’s bringing me enough business, and that’s really what I care about.
Should I Edit My URL Slug?
You don't have to if you're optimized your blog title to include your keyword. I usually just have my keyword there and I usually like to take out the date because sometimes I like to republish something, update it, and then change the date to make it more current. I don’t want to have something like “2017” in the slug.
How Long Should A business Blogs Post Be?
I say 700-900 words is good for niche topics. But if you’re going for a keyword like like marketing, you’re probably going to need to be over 2000 words. You need more content for smaller, more competitive keywords. That being said, how do we get people to actually read a 2000 word blog post? Literally nobody is going to do that! So we also have to make it rank on Google with longer word counts, but we also have to make it convert for us so making it skimmable for the reading is important and be sure to include a CTA in the post.
What Are Some Do's and Don'ts for Blogging?
So there’s a few things that I recommend. One, a lot of us are writing our blog posts as though it’s for somebody who already knows us. Often the people landing on your blog posts are cold if they’re coming from Google and they don't know who we are! So I always start my blog posts by introducing the topic and introducing myself.
Then throughout, I’ll make it very skimmable with headings. I like to include a table of contents at the top so people can jump to the topic that they’re actually interested in. At the end, I will include a summary, lists, roundups, extra resources, etc. And then throughout the blog post, just make it as digestible as possible, whether that’s adding an infographic if you have time or even just images to break it up a little bit.
The initial goal is for Google to rank it, but you still have to make sure the blog is enjoyable for the reader after they click on it. Don't forget to optimize it for your readers as well, think about what you like seeing when you click on a blog post and do more of that.
Also, I think too often we go for these huge keywords that we’re never going to rank for. No offense to anyone, but we need to go for more niche topics. Instead, we need to look at how we can find a more niche keywords that people are actually searching for, and then also think about your customer journey after they land on that blog post.
Lastly, don’t forget to tell them where to go next. Don’t forget to generally optimize your website so that it’s visually appealing, fast to load, and then has easy navigation. Too many of us are writing our blog posts to feel like an informational post. When we’re businesses, someone skimming it might not even realize they can just hire you. We have to make it so obvious that people can hire us, or buy our course, or whatever else we want them to do.
From Start To Finish, How Long Does It Take You To Write A Blog Post?
I've had a lot of practise but, about two hours, and I do use AI as a support. But yeah, I would say carving out 2-3 hours is enough. I think it’s important to say the more business blogs you have, the easier it gets too because you can easily link to other blog posts. And if you are starting with something like a podcast, start with the transcript. There are ways to make it easier instead of just staring at a blank page.
AI tools like ChatGPT can be helpful for brainstorming blog topic ideas. Check out the free blogging prompts in this guide 👇🏻
How Does Blogging Work for Podcasters?
I mentioned it briefly before, but you can easily turn the transcript from your podcast into a blog post! I would prioritize podcast episodes that have a searchable term, basically choose a keyword or phrase related to the episode. If you don’t have time to optimize every single one, which is obviously ideal, skip the ones that are maybe less keyword-rich or not as related to your business. Then, I honestly structure it in much the same way as a blog post. (P.S. This post is an example of this exact process. I took the transcript and turned it into a blog post 😏)
I take the transcript, introduce myself, and then even if it’s a solo episode or a guest episode, I’ll do a Q&A in terms of the headings and then again, the table content so people can skim. I’ll summarize most of it. I would say I cut out usually about half, because there’s a lot of chit-chat that is great on podcasts and not great to read. But really, I make just try to make it very readable for people who prefer that over listening to podcast episodes, or who only want to learn about one specific thing from the podcast. The table of contents is really helpful for that!
If Every Business Could Benefit From A Blog, Why Don't More Do It?
We prioritize things that are going to give us that dopamine hit. The things that feel fun and get immediate results, like social media. Most entrepreneurs don't write business blogs because it takes time and it’s boring, to be honest. I always say when I do Pinterest and blogging, it’s not that I think it’s rocket science, especially in the age of ChatGPT. You don’t even necessarily need to be a great writer, but it’s boring when you compare it to creating reels, trends, or let’s be honest, just spending an hour scrolling, not even posting anything that’s more enjoyable than sitting down, combing through a transcript and doing keyword research.
I also think a lot of business owners feel intimated by SEO and blogging and instead of spending a bit of time learning how to do it, or outsourcing it, they just say it's too complicated and don't do it. Which is unfortunate but it means if you are doing it you have a better chance of getting organic traffic!
Ready to stop feel intimided by SEO? Check out Kara's totally beginner friendly course, Blogging for Bingeable Brands. I went from totally confused about blogging and SEO to doing posts like this in just a few hours!
Use code 'BRITTANYMILLER' for 25% off!
*This is an affiliate link, meaning I earn a commission if you decide to purchase through it, but her corse is so awesome I would promote it even if I wasn't earning a commission. Thank you for supporting my work and Kara's small business!
Does Blogging or Podcasting Make Social Media Easier?
Yes! You talk a lot about this too Brittany, I see your regularly share content from your podcasts on social media. So with my blog post, I’ll try and create a reel that shares the tips in bullet point form. Then I can sometimes even take those individual tips and create its own reel. Then I create 5 to 10 pins per blog post and put them on Pinterest. Having a blog or a podcast helps structure your content plan so you don't have as much to think about when it comes to the 'what to post question'. You have the content already, you just have to figure out how to share it, will it be a reel or carousel post etc.
I’ll sometimes even just use the introduction paragraph as my Pinterest description, or I’ll put the whole thing in ChatGPT. I do the same thing on Instagram and TikTok. Another thing is an Email list. If you have one regularly, it’s a great idea. Your weekly email can just be a heads up about your new podcast epiosde or blog post with a button inviting people to check it out. Super easy and it gives you more readers or listeners for your content, it's a total win-win!
How Do You Monetize A business Blog?
So I’m always thinking, how can I sell my own product? At the top of the blog post, there’s almost always a pitch to work with me. That’s when I look at my business. I mostly make money from one-on-one services, and I like it that way so I always include information on how to work with me in my blogs, specifically the introduction section at the top of the blog.
I’m also linking to affiliates when they’re relevant (notice my discount code 'BRITTANYMILLER' to save 25% on Kara's Blogging for Bingeable Brands course. This is an example of affiliate income) And I do have banners to, images that I sprinkle through blog posts that promote my products and services. I’ll say I have a blogging mini course where I go through all of this in more detail, and it acts as a visual interrupt when we talk about how people are skimming, I would say those are the three ways I pitch my services in blog posts and it works really well!
How Do You Find Your business Blogs Topics?
So I always like to look at Google Trends. Obviously Pinterest Trends is a great tool, even if you’re not marketing on Pinterest, to see what kind of keywords are being found there. I also like Answer The Public. I love to look there because they word it like questions that’s a really good one for finding one keyword and then everything people are searching for. And then Ubersuggest, again, is a free tool that will give you content ideas.
I would say that is where I like to start, when you're just starting out with blogging just look at one of these tools for ideas, not all of them. Or write business blogs based on questions you get asked regularly by your audience and then use these tools once you're out of ideas. Chances are, if your audience is asking the question, other people are as well.
Which Search Engine Is The Most Popular?
It depends on the question, but I’d say Google. I don’t ever search for something on Instagram. I know that they’re working on that, but I’ll use TikTok before I’ll use Instagram as a search feature. And then it kind of depends on the kind of content. I might go to TikTok if I’m looking for a visual tutorial, for example. But usually, it’s Google, especially when making purchasing decisions.
It's intersting hearing you say that because Google is my (Brittany's) go-to as well but in terms of social media searches, Instagram is my number one place to look for things. Then maybe Pinterest depending on what I'm searching for. I do a lot of my recipe searches on Instagram now, but I still look for party decor ideas on Pinterest. You're right, I think it does depend on what I'm searching for.
Are There Topics That Are Easier to Talk About on a Podcast vs. Write About in a Blog Post?
That’s a good question, but for the most part, no. I think some things need a visual aid. So in that case, it’s sometimes hard on a podcast if I’m walking through how to use Google Search Console, sometimes it’s not the perfect medium to be talking about it versus a blog post where I can share screenshots. But for the most part, I find the content the same, but more storytelling in the audio part on the podcast, the blogs are more to the point. Not that you want your blog post to feel dry. Obviously you want some personality. But it’s definitely easier to add longer-winded stories to a podcast episode, it's hard to format a story into headings for a blog post.
Is Pinterest SEO the Same as Google SEO?
Pretty much. Pinterest wants to match users with the best result. Pinterest is a supporting player in your strategy because when Google sees a website that has been pinned many times, it’s ranked as even more valuable, which is great for yo because creating pins for your blog posts makes Pinterest so much easier too!
At the end of the day, the principles on both are the same. You need the right keywords and you need to have good content. Pinterest can absolutely tell when someone goes to a site and it’s garbage and they immediately bounce off. It’s not going to rank those pins most of the time. And then it’s really just like the long game same as Google, when you have an account that has been pinning regularly for a year, 52 different blog posts that’s going to rank higher than somebody who just started. You have to expect that, and you have to keep doing it anyway. There are no overnight results on Pinterest or with Google SEO.
I'm also going to add, people spend so much time overthinking the topic that they’re actually going to choose for their business blogs. The reality is you just have to write, and if you force yourself to write one blog post a week, you’ll have enough time to go through all the ideas you have. So it’s like instead of being like, which of these three should I start with? Just say, I’m going to write these three for a week, and it really doesn’t matter which one goes first, eventually I'm posting all of them.
Where Can Business Owners Find You for Blogging Help?
My business is called The Kara Report. If you’re looking to build more of an omni presence this year, which I hope that you are, I have a fast and slow marketing roadmap guide which is a great place to get started! You can also hire me to write blog posts for you here! I’d be honoured to help you with your blogging!
Making business blogs easier with easily to implement tips from Kara. Listen to the full for even more helpful insights!
Episode References
Connect with Kara
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-kara-report-online-marketing-tips-and-candid/id1723622505
Come say hi!
Give us a follow if you're ready to take life from good to great, you'll be the first to know when we share more about motherhood and business. If it really resonated, the kids and I would do a happy dance if you left us a review 💗 ~ Brittany
00:00 Intro
4:15 Why have a blog?
8:30 How SEO helps your business
11:00 How to optimize blogs for SEO
19:00 How do you know your blog is working
22:00 Do's and don'ts for blogging
25:00 Blogs for podcasting
28:30 How do you use your blog to support your social media
31:10 Monetizing your blogs
33:00 Refreshing blog posts
36:30 Blogging and SEO tips
39:15 How to find blog ideas
44:15 Does SEO for social media work the same as google?
47:00 Wrap up
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