I'm going to continue to disagree with you guys (respectfully). I know it's heretical, but, I think blogging for an SMB has only a small amount of utility, and a questionable overall ROI.
1. When do I broad content searches "how much should I spend on an engagement ring", "how do I improve airflow from my hvac" "should I get my wisdom teeth removed" I see nothing but national brands (well not true, I do get a Dallas dentist - more on this below)
2. The place where it is useful are where there is unique local stuff to talk thru. "Lemon laws in Michigan", "Rocky mountain Tic strategy" etc.
3. I think also the strategy of being a local resource "Ten things to do in Memphis" etc. is valid (but, harder to outsource).
4. Even if you are successful in creating a good article for #1, you probably are going to be pretty longtail, which isn't a problem, but. . . most of your traffic will be out of your service region as an SMB, and so low in your region as not to matter.
5. the goofy thing about #4 is, clients would probably see all the traffic and think you've done your job, when all that traffic may not do squat.
6. I will say, if you do get any links back from the content, then it is a huge win.
So. . .for these reasons, I'm skeptical. I see too many sites that have written blog content, and tell me that they were told that QDF is important, and yet, they get no results at all. I'm not surprised.
I half agree with this and half agree with the other people weighing in that are in favor of blogging for their clients.
Too often people listen to others claiming you have to do this, or do that, and don't think it through for themselves, and just accept what the masses are saying. Blogging is helpful in some situations for local businesses but you have to know how to approach it and set appropriate expectations for success for yourself (not to mention your clients).
With that being said, we do provide a blogging service for clients who need it. For instance, we provide it for clients who have been with us for a few years, have already maxed out all of their keywords and we need an excuse to get fresh content on the site every month. Do we blog for clients we've just picked up? No.
In those cases where we have mature clients, we write content that will answer large broad questions in their industry, hoping to rank well for those massive queries. Only because of what you said in #6, backlinks.
Has it been successful? Meh. Not in terms of quantity but you only need one authoritative link in your industry from a PA 40+ site to make a huge, huge difference. If it takes you 20 articles to get that one link, it was definitely worth it. Off the top of my head I can't think of an instance where we have gotten that one backlink but I like keeping fresh content on their site and having that small chance it may happen. Also, the more pages your website has, the more authoritative it looks to Google anyway. Anything to help.
"The goofy thing about #4 is, clients would probably see all the traffic and think you've done your job, when all that traffic may not do squat."
That's the exact situation I have with 2 of my clients. We have a roofer that gets 800+ hits a month on their blogs alone. That traffic is obviously worthless because it's national, not local. Same deal for a dentist we have, around the same amount of traffic, same type of worthless. But one of those visits one day may be a journalist, freelance writer, blogger, etc. who wants to link to our content from their content.
And then? Bingo was-his-name-O.
6. I will say, if you do get any links back from the content, then it is a huge win.
P.S. I would be genuinely interested in hearing from someone who has successfully written a blog post focusing on local content that has turned into a customer for that local business.
