Would you like more customers visiting your website who are actually in the market for a new countertop? Of course you would.

The good news is it doesn’t have to take thousands of dollars or a vast knowledge of the inner workings of the Internet to significantly raise the quality of visitor experiences, while increasing traffic to your site. It does, however, take some thought, time and effort. The tool? A company blog.

I know what you are thinking: “I don’t have time to get everything done as it is, how could I ever write a blog? AND WHAT WOULD I SAY?!”

Let’s start with the second question first. As a business owner you have spent many hours thinking about the features and benefits of the products you offer. No doubt you could hold forth for hours about staining, heat resistance, durability, care and maintenance, aesthetics, etc. When you think about it, the reason you care so deeply about those topics is because your customers care about them.

So, write about what your customers care about; do it on a weekly or biweekly basis and post it in your blog. A quick poll of your sales staff should net dozens of questions your potential customers ask on a regular basis. That translates into a wealth of topics, which you turn into blog posts. The key is to keep your posts short (no more than 500 words) and add a picture or two. Be sure to include key words, such as the name and brand of the product, your city, the word “countertops,” and so forth.

Now, the first question, “How do I find time to write a blog?” The short answer is, you don’t. You get someone else within your organization – someone who is good at expressing themselves, and has a vested interested (a salesperson, for example) – to write about the features and benefits of your products in a series of short, informative articles. It’s great training for your sales staff and it literally puts money in your pocket by generating interest in your products and services.

Behind the scenes -- this is what happens when you host a blog: Mrs. Jones wants to get a new countertop, so she hops on the Web to do her research. Keep in mind, this is before approaching a vendor for a quote.  If your company already has content providing answers to her questions, and you are within her geographic area, chances are good the search engines will put your articles in front of her. That is because your posts are relevant in two ways: the topical nature of the content and your geographic proximity.

The net result: Just by publishing some useful content for Mrs. Jones to do her research, you are automatically positioned as the authority on the subject. Who wouldn’t want to walk into a sales call with that kind of background? 

There are, of course, certain guidelines you should follow when putting together your blog posts, but the learning curve is minimal. And keep in mind that even though Rome wasn’t built in a day, virtual Rome routinely goes up in a matter of weeks all over the Web. So, too, could the credibility and ranking of your website.