✍Blog and newsletter in practice

Only if you keep it going. A blog with three posts from two years ago does more harm than good — it shows that nobody is working here any more.

It is worth it if:

• You are constantly asked the same questions.
• You want to be found regionally and people search for your topics.
• You have something to show — completed jobs, results, changes.

It is not worth it if:

• You only write because “that is what you do”.
• Your customers do not search but come through recommendations.
• Realistically, you do not have an hour a month for it.

The honest alternative: a good FAQ page. It answers the same questions, gets found just as well and does not age.

As often as you can manage in your worst month — not what you resolve to do in January.

As a guide for small businesses:

• Monthly is a good, sustainable pace.
• Quarterly is enough if the posts have substance.
• Weekly is something nobody manages on the side.

The most effective trick: write ahead. Write three posts on a quiet afternoon and spread them over a quarter. Then they carry you through the times when there is no time.

And: regularity beats volume. Six posts a year, reliably spread out, work better than twelve in two bursts followed by silence.

About what you explain on the phone three times a week anyway.

Four kinds that work reliably:

• “How can I tell whether …” — this is exactly what people search for.
• “What does … cost” — the most searched-for opening of all.
• A completed job: what the problem was, what you did, what it looks like now. With pictures.
• What has changed — regulations, grants, deadlines.

What does not work: “We were at the trade fair”, “Merry Christmas”, “We have a new vehicle”. Nobody reads that who does not already know you — and those who know you do not need it.

The list of topics for a whole year takes twenty minutes: write down twelve questions you are often asked.

As long as necessary — usually between 300 and 800 words.

What determines the length:

• One question, one answer. If you cover two topics, that makes two posts.
• Complete enough that nobody has to ask. A post that ends with “get in touch” without having said anything is a wasted opportunity.
• Short enough to be read to the end.

What helps:

• Subheadings every three to four paragraphs.
• Lists, where things are lists.
• An image, if it shows something.

What you should not do: stretch a text to a certain length because “long texts are found more easily”. That used to be the case and no longer is.

Yes — posts have a draft state, and imported posts always land there.

This is what makes writing ahead possible in the first place:

1. Write three posts, all as drafts.
2. Spread them out in the calendar.
3. Publish each one on its date.

What to bear in mind when writing ahead: no details that age quickly. A post written in January and published in April should not mention a “current” price or a deadline that will have passed by then.

And: read a post written in advance once more before publishing it. What was right in January may be out of date in April.

One image per post is usual and helpful — but only if it shows something.

What works well:

• A photo of the work you are writing about. Before, after, detail.
• An image that illustrates the question — the damage, the component, the situation.

What does not work: a stock photo of smiling people at a conference table. It makes the post longer and nothing else.

On the technical side: landscape, at least 1200 pixels wide, with alt text. The alt text describes what can be seen — for people who cannot see it, and for search engines.

And the question of rights applies here as everywhere: your own images or ones with usage rights. Not from an image search.

Only from around twenty posts — before that, it creates more structure than it brings benefit.

If you do divide them:

• Few categories. Three to five.
• By what the reader is looking for, not by your internal order. “Bathroom renovation” and “Heating” are better than “Expert articles” and “News”.
• Exactly one per post.

The practical benefit comes with the “Blog preview” block: it lets you show only the matching posts on a service page — heating posts on the heating page.

That is the point where categories pay off. Without this use, they are just administration.

The newsletter is the summary, not the copy.

The process that works:

1. You write posts at your usual pace.
2. Every two to three months, a newsletter with three to four teasers and links to the posts.
3. Plus one or two sentences that only exist in the newsletter — something personal, a tip, a date.

Why not put the whole post in the newsletter: it becomes too long, and readers do not come to your site.

And the legal basis remains the same: newsletters only to people who have expressly consented, with double opt-in, an unsubscribe link and the legal notice in every issue.

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Three to four points, no more:

1. A personal hook — two sentences on what is going on.
2. Two to three teasers with a link.
3. A date or tip, if there is one.
4. A closing with a way to get in touch.

What makes a newsletter better than most:

• Useful rather than promotional. If you only sell, people unsubscribe.
• Regular, but not frequent. Quarterly is right for most small businesses.
• Short. Anyone who has to scroll down stops reading.

And the subject line decides whether it is opened: specific, without sales language, under 50 characters.

Usually: leave them up and maintain them — do not delete them.

An old post that gets found is more valuable than a new one that nobody knows. What it needs:

• Check the details. Prices, regulations, deadlines, contact persons.
• Add to it rather than rewriting, if something has changed — with a note saying when it was updated.
• Link it, if a newer post continues the topic.

When deleting is right:

• The content is wrong and cannot be saved.
• It names people who no longer want to be named.

If you delete: set up a redirect to a suitable post. Otherwise every link that exists somewhere leads nowhere.

By having it answer a question someone asks — in the words in which it is asked.

In practice:

• The heading is the question. “What does a bathroom renovation in Dresden cost?” is searched for; “Our services in the sanitary sector” is not.
• Include the place, if you work regionally.
• Answer completely. A post that only touches on the question is quickly left again, and search engines notice that.
• Link internally: from the matching service page to the post and back.

What you should not do: work the same word in twenty times. That does harm.

And expect to be patient: a new post takes weeks to months to show up in search.

The person who knows — not the person who writes well.

This is the most important sentence on the subject: professional substance cannot be replaced; linguistic form can.

The process that works in small businesses:

1. The expert tells the story — five minutes spoken into a phone.
2. Someone writes it down. That can be someone from the office, a service provider or an AI suggestion as a rough draft.
3. The expert proofreads. For content, not for language.

What does not work: having posts written by someone who has never spoken to you. The result is generic, and generic is worthless on the web.