While intentions to lose weight, spend less money, and get better organized are tremendous goals, if you really want a New Year’s resolution that will boost your farm or agribusiness in 2019, there’s a solid option. This year, resolve to start (or reboot) a blog.

I understand that blogs can be time consuming. And I also understand that if writing is not your favorite thing, blogging could be a task that you sort of dread. Yet, starting and updating a blog–even a simple one–can have dramatic results on your web traffic. Here’s why…

Google Favors Websites with Regular Updates

One of the algorithms that Google uses to push websites up the search results ladder is fresh content. And there is no simpler way to add fresh content to a site than by integrating a blog. By logging into your website and adding a new blog post at least once a month, you will indicate to Google’s web crawler that things are happening in your little corner of the web, which makes the Google engines pay you a little more attention–always a good thing!

Blogs Are the Ideal Way to Build SEO for Your Niche

Farm and agribusiness owners are busy people. They don’t have time to delve into the complexities of search algorithms and applications. They simply want people to be able to find them easily when searching the web. That’s where a blog can come in especially handy. By integrating keywords into your blog posts that people are already searching for regarding your specific farming niche, you have a simple way to boost SEO.

One of the easiest ways to determine what keywords you want to integrate into your posts is with a free tool called Wordtracker. When using Wordtracker for the first time, experiment by putting in search terms that you think people might use to find your website, and then see what other suggestions the program offers. For example, if I put in “Polk County North Carolina” into Wordtracker, you can see some of the suggestions (along with average monthly search volume of each) the program offers.

Now certainly, not all those terms would apply to your business, and even if they did, you would only want to focus on 1-2 of them in any given blog post. But by doing additional searches on things like:

• Specific products you offer
• Specific services you offer
• Local competitors
• Other farm-related terms that apply to your niche

…you can begin to gather a lengthy list of terms to include in future posts (again, only 1-2 keywords/phrases per post.)

Blogs Offer a Way to Connect with Your Current and Potential Customers

Without a doubt, one of the main reasons that people shop from local farms is so that they can know where their food and personal care items are sourced. A blog offers a way to remind those people that not only are they getting local products, but a relationship with the people behind those products. When blogging, be as transparent and “real” as you can. Talk to your readers as you would good friends, and don’t be afraid to share with them the difficulties of farming as well as the successes. The more personal you are in your blog, the more your customers will feel that they know you–and will also feel an invested interest in your farm or agribusiness.

If blogging is absolutely new to you, you’ll want to delve a little deeper into adding a blog to your website. This post is a good starting place. If you already have a blog but it’s been growing cobwebs of late, get out the broom and dust that baby off for the new year. Make a commitment to update it at least once a month. Blogging can have strong long-term benefits for your marketing efforts; not only in 2019, but for years to come!