Blog Posts That Are Read and Blog Posts That Are Call
There’s a special irritation that can be earned from writing a blog post on a Sunday, publishing it and then seeing nothing. No views, no calls, not even so much as a sign that someone read it. This happens all the time to electricians who have been told that content marketing is the way to go, but aren’t given the how. Effective seo for electricians content isn’t merely about appearing in search engines. It’s about appearing for the right keywords, with the right content, at the right time. If you miss any of those three points, you’ve written content that doesn’t exist.
The electricians who are getting phone calls from their blog content aren’t doing more work. They’re writing better – with deep knowledge of who they’re writing for, what the audience needs to hear, and what they need to do next.
Start With the Person, Not the Topic
All successful blog posts begin with a person. Not “electrical safety tips“, but the homeowner who smelt burning at their power board at 9pm on a Tuesday and Googled for twenty minutes before deciding whether to turn off the main electricity switch or just hope that the burning smell went away when she went to bed. That’s a person, with an issue and an emotion. Write for that person. Talk about their circumstances. Describe what’s happening. Explain what to do next.
The more specific you can get with the reader, the better the writing works. Generic content speaks to no one and converts accordingly. Micro-focused content – which addresses a smaller audience – is more likely to resonate with the right person and actually prompt them to take action than generic content. “A hot switchboard: when to turn it off” is a topic. “Signs your switchboard is overheating” is for someone, somewhere. The latter version has an audience. The first version is the email subject line.
Take five minutes before you write a post and ask: who is reading this page, what are they up to when they search, what are they afraid of, and what will make them feel like it’s safe to call? This answers all of the questions about what to write, how to write it, how much to explain, and where to include the call to action.
The Pattern that Converts Readers to Callers
When it comes to blog posts, the ones that have a tendency to convert follow a pattern, albeit a loose one, and it’s important to understand why before you use it. The beginning speaks to the reader’s experience in a relatable way. Not a “we know how you feel” way, but a sensible friend way. “If your safety switch has been tripping a lot, you might have reset it a couple of times. But if it keeps tripping, it’s no accident.” He speaks the reader’s experience there.
And the body of the post explains it well. How it happened, the range of severity, what factors mean it needs to be dealt with now, or can wait until the next appointment. Now is the time to show your expertise but not be preachy. This should be educational but not preachy, and realistic about what a homeowner can and should do, and what requires the eye of the professional. This point – here’s what you can do, here’s where you need a pro – is informative and prospects well.
The close is important. Many blog posts end. The content ends and there’s a “contact us” button in the footer. That’s leaving the conversion to chance. The close builds on the information and gives the reader the next step: “If you think you’re experiencing any of these signs, a safety inspection is typically less than an hour and will give you the answer you’re looking for. You can book one using the contact form below or by phone.” Specific, calm, low-friction. That’s a close that converts.
Headlines That Attract the Right Visitors
The headline is more important than you think. It’s what decides whether or not readers will click on your post in Google’s search results, but it’s also what tells Google what your page is about and when it should show up in search results. A headline like “Electrical Safety Tips” has thousands of competitors, doesn’t tell Google anything useful, and doesn’t give the reader any reason to click. The opposite is true of a headline like “Why Your Safety Switch Keeps Tripping – And When to Call an Electrician”.
There are a couple of common patterns for headlines of electrician blog posts. Question headlines tend to work well because they match the Google search. A headline like “How Much Does a Switchboard Upgrade Cost?” is a word-for-word copy of the searcher’s query, which is why it comes up and why it’s clicked. Problem-solution headlines, like “How to Troubleshoot Flickering Lights in Your Home” work because they appeal to someone with a specific problem – this is the page for me! Specific and numbered headlines – “5 Signs Your Home’s Wiring Needs Replacing” – work because specificity equals substance and the reader has come to expect that they can get the information they need quickly.
A Bird In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush
The most common problem with a content strategy that leads to phone calls is inconsistency. Sometimes the best blog post in the world published once and then six months of silence is not as good as eight good posts published each month. Google likes to see sites that are regularly updated. Visitors to your site who find a consistent backlog of articles are more likely to trust you as a legitimate site. And of course, the more posts you publish, the more opportunities for search, the more avenues to rank for different searches, and the more chances to be discovered by potential customers.
Get one post per month, high quality, as a starting point. It’s more ideal if you can do two. It doesn’t have to be revolutionary each time, just valuable, relevant and targeted to the types of search phrases your customers are using. You do that, you do that, and your growth in search visibility and of inbound calls will shock people who believe SEO is slow. It is slow at first. Then it compounds – and that’s when the phone starts to ring (without having to pay for advertising or referrals or hope).
