How to Create a Blog: What I’ve Learned Working with Small Business Owners

Every small business should have a blog. A blog helps communicate the voice of your business while creating content that can be repurposed across multiple marketing channels. One blog post can become an additional page on your website for SEO, content for social media, an email newsletter topic, and a resource for potential customers.

Creating a blog comes down to five decisions: niche, platform, design, your first post, and SEO. 

Here’s how I guide clients through each one.

1. Figure out what your blog is about and who it’s for

A blog works best when it serves a specific audience. Before choosing a platform or designing your blog, think about who you want to reach and where they already spend their time online. Some industries and communities have established platforms where people actively search for information, making it easier to connect with your target audience than starting on a broader platform and hoping they find you.

Your blog should speak directly to the people whose problem you are trying to solve. The more clearly you define your blog niche, the easier it becomes to create content that supports your blogging goals and serves your audience.

The topics you choose to write about give you space to build a personal brand and establish yourself as a subject matter expert. As you develop your content strategy, focus on topics you know well, questions you answer often, information that supports your processes, or updates from your company. 

Over time, original content and a consistent voice will help strengthen your niche and make your content strategy easier to maintain.

2. Choose the best platform to start your blog

There are many ways to start a blog, but not all blog platforms offer the same benefits. 

Some platforms are focused primarily on blogging, such as Substack, which is designed for publishing content and growing an email audience. While these platforms can be effective for content distribution, they may be more limited when you want to add additional functionality and streamline account management.

Using a website builder to manage your blog allows you to plan for future growth and connect your content to more closely related calls to action, services, products, bookings, or lead generation opportunities. The real reason to pick a website builder over Substack is the conversion path. Your blog lives on the same platform as your services and bookings, so every post can link directly to a next step. Substack is a great tool for email distribution, but it should be part of a broader business strategy. Small business owners should consider how publishing on a third-party platform impacts their website's ability to generate leads and sales, support SEO efforts, strengthen brand identity, simplify accounting, and integrate with overall business processes. The decision shouldn’t be just where content should be published, it's about how your content supports long-term business growth.

Wix is a website creation platform built for SMBs and individuals who want to build, manage, and grow their digital presence, including creating a blog, without writing code.

A website builder such as Wix allows your blog to live directly on your website. This helps support SEO, strengthen your personal brand, and create a more consistent experience for visitors as they move between your content and the rest of your business. I recommend owning your blog through your own website rather than relying on a third-party publishing platform. 

3. Design your blog so it’s easy to read and matches your brand

Your blog is less about design and more about consistency, structure, and user experience. The goal is to make your content easy to read and easy to navigate and this involves incorporating best practices for SEO and website accessibility. A typical blog layout includes a main title, introduction, featured image, section headers, paragraph text, supporting images, internal links, and a clear call to action. Website builders often incorporate a website template that gets used to standardize your blog layout.

The blog should be themed with the same fonts, colors, and branding used throughout the rest of your site.

A well-structured blog should minimally include:

• A clear H1 title that accurately describes the topic.

• Easy-to-read paragraph text with strong contrast, such as black text on a light background.

• Header text to organize content into sections.

• A featured banner image with alternative text.

• Image captions when additional context is helpful.

• Links to related articles and relevant pages on your website.

• Calls to action that guide visitors to the next step.

Additional features to consider include:

• Author photo

• Comments section

• Related posts

• Categories and tags

• Publish date

• Estimated reading time

I help small business owners add the Wix Blog Setup & Installation to their website.  The Wix Blog Publishing Checklist is a printable resource that I created to provide a clear step-by-step process for publishing blog content consistently and professionally while establishing a standard operating procedure that can be repeated for future blog posts.

4. Write and publish your first blog post

A blog is a place where people feel your personality in your writing. One of my go to blog writing tips for coming up with your first post is to think about your content as fitting into one of three categories: a resource, industry news, or a company update.

• Resource Content – Answer a common question, explain a process, provide tips, or create a guide that helps your audience solve a problem.
  

• Industry News – Share updates, trends, changes, or developments happening within your industry and explain what they mean for your audience.
  

• Company Updates – Introduce your business, share your story, announce a new service, highlight a project, or give customers a behind-the-scenes look at your company.

When creating blog content, focus on answering one specific question or covering one topic clearly rather than trying to write the ultimate guide on your first attempt. A simple structure can include:

1. Introduce the topic and why it matters.

2. Explain the key points or steps.

3. Summarize the main takeaway.

4. Include a call to action for readers to contact you, subscribe, or learn more.

Your first blog post does not have to be perfect. Many successful companies regularly review and update older blog content with new information, improved examples, and additional insights. It is important to create a routine for reviewing previously published blog posts.

When you're ready to publish blog content, don't let perfection stand in the way of progress. The most important step is getting your content out there. You can always improve a blog post later, but you can't benefit from content that never gets published.

5. Set up basic SEO before growing your blog

Each blog post creates a new page on your website that can be discovered and ranked by search engines for a specific topic. Blog SEO is supported by clearly labeling your content, organizing information logically, and creating a clean user experience that helps both visitors and search engines understand your website.

Setting up SEO correctly from the beginning can help prevent incomplete or inaccurate information from being sent to search engines, reducing the need for future corrections. While SEO best practices can improve your chances of visibility, search engines ultimately decide which pages appear in search results.

It is also important to understand that SEO changes do not happen instantly. After updates are made, search engines need time to recrawl and process your content before changes may be reflected in search results, unless the page is manually submitted for indexing.

• Meta titles - The title of your blog post will often influence or become your meta title. Blog titles should be clear, concise, and direct so both readers and search engines can quickly understand what the content is about.

  
  

• Images and Alt text - Every image added to a blog post creates an opportunity to strengthen SEO and accessibility when it is labeled. Alternative text and image captions can provide additional context about the image while reinforcing relevant keywords and topics discussed throughout the article.
  

• Meta Descriptions - A meta description is a short summary of your blog post that may appear in search engine results. It should accurately describe the content of the page, encourage users to click, and provide additional context about the topic being discussed.
  

• Clean URLs - The URL of your blog post should be clear, easy to read, and related to the blog title. Whenever possible, use a clean URL structure that includes a keyword-focused slug rather than unnecessary numbers, symbols, or generic text.The website URL for your blog should list your website address with reference to the meta title as the slug.
  

• Categories and Tags - Categories and tags help organize and structure your blog content. For example, categorizing multiple posts as "Resources" allows you to create a dedicated Resources page that automatically displays related content. Proper organization can improve navigation, help visitors discover additional content, and create more opportunities for search engines to understand your website structure.
  

• Linking - Links help provide context and purpose to your blog content. Every blog post should include a call-to-action that guides readers to a relevant next step. Internal links can connect visitors to related pages and services on your website, while external links to reputable sources, partners, and organizations can provide additional value and help search engines better understand the relationships between your content and the broader web.

SEO best practices directly align with website accessibility. When search engines and assistive technologies can clearly understand how content is structured, labeled, and organized, it becomes easier for both visitors and search engines to navigate and interpret your website.

When starting a blog, focus on establishing your niche, choosing the right platform, creating a design that aligns with your brand, publishing your first post, and implementing SEO best practices. Working with a professional website designer can simplify the process, help you avoid common mistakes, and create a system that makes it easier to publish and manage content confidently in the future. 

Ready to start blogging but unsure of the best approach? Schedule a 15-minute website consultation to discuss your options, ask questions, and create a strategy for your blog.