By Yurii Vasyliev.
Most small business blogs in York County end the same way. Someone starts one with good intentions, writes three posts, runs out of ideas, and the newest post is from two springs ago. To a visitor, a blog that stopped in 2024 can look like a business that closed.
I build websites and software for small businesses. When an owner tells me they do not know what to write about, I ask one question: what do customers ask you on the phone? Everyone has an answer within ten seconds. That list is your blog.
It works because people type their questions into Google in the same words they would use on the phone. A page that answers one of those questions plainly, written by someone in Rock Hill or Clover who does the work every day, is exactly what search engines want to show.
Where to find the questions
The phone and the counter. For one week, keep a notepad by the register or a note on your phone. Every time someone asks something, write it down word for word. “Do I need to be home for the inspection?” “Can I bring my dog?” “Do you deliver to Lake Wylie?”
Your email and texts. Search your inbox for question marks. The same handful of questions probably shows up every month.
Your reviews. Read your Google reviews and your competitors’. What people praise or complain about tells you what they worry about before they buy.
Google itself. Type the start of a question about your trade and look at the suggestions and the “People also ask” box. Those are real searches from real people.
How to turn a question into a post
Use the question as the title, in the customer’s own words. Answer it in the first two sentences, then explain. Add what only a local business knows: what the job usually costs around here, which neighborhoods need HOA approval first, what the clay soil does to a new lawn in August. Four hundred to six hundred words is plenty, and a photo you took yourself beats any stock photo. End with the next step: call, book or stop by.
Say you mow lawns in York and every September people ask when they should aerate. That is a post called “When Should You Aerate Your Lawn in York County?” The first line gives the answer: early fall for the fescue lawns common around here, late spring for Bermuda. The rest explains why, what it costs, and how to tell which grass you have. Someone in Fort Mill searching that exact question in September will find you.
Keep a pace you can hold
One post every week or two beats ten posts in January and nothing after. Pick a day and put it on the calendar. This is where most owners stall, and it is the reason I built Structura, a WordPress plugin that drafts and schedules posts from a list like this. It is my own product, so take that with a grain of salt. A notebook and a calendar reminder work too.
Twenty questions make twenty posts. That is most of a year, and every one of them is something a real customer wanted to know.
Yurii Vasyliev runs Xerx, an independent web, software and AI development agency that builds websites for small businesses. Local business owners can request a free SEO report to see where their website stands.
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