6 of the worst blog ideas for small business SEO

Right now, I’m sat on a too-hard bench in a lovely cafe finishing off a delightful decaf latte and pondering, “what should I blog about today?”.

I have heaps of ideas jotted down in Notes, and even around 5 fleshed out posts with talking points sketched out in the notebook on my desk.

But alas, I am not at my desk – I am in the coffee shop. And I just don’t fancy writing any of the articles in my Notes – so my next thought was, “just don’t spend time writing a blog that isn’t good for your SEO, because the weather is nice and it’s your day off so you really should pop to Riverside Garden Centre and spaff all your pocket money on 1L perennials.”

And then it hit me. That hit me.

I often write about what to blog about, but I can’t remember chatting about what not to blog about. So let’s do that.

Now a MASSIVE caveat here, is that there are other reasons to blog that aren’t just SEO (in fact, I’ve got a very convenient article called 8 non-SEO benefits of blogging for a small business) – so writing a blog that isn’t good for SEO is not a bad thing.

But. If you’re working on your small business’ SEO and using blogging to do that, you defo want your blog articles to be good for SEO. Wow Aime, top-tier vocabulary in your writing there.

PS. If you’re currently thinking, “but why is blogging good for SEO?!?” – dw babycakes because I’ve got another article for you to dive into before you come back to this one: 11 reasons WHY blogging boosts your SEO.

1. A day/week/month in your life/studio/business

Day in the life content was the OG backbone of blogging. I mean, a blog is literally a web log – and originated from people sharing their lives on the internet. Ah, ye good olde simpler days of 2006ish.

Now though, for a blog article to be good for SEO, it needs to be the best possible answer to something that some people are typing into Google.

The issue with day in the life content, is that it would only maybe appear in search results for somebody who is Googling you/your business name – which won’t be that many people.

And more importantly, if someone is Googling you/your business – they’re far more likely to find your website’s home page in their search results. Maybe your about page if you’ve not optimised your home page.

What to try instead

• A report or review of a specific activity/tool/place you’ve just discovered
• Sharing tips about something you tried that others might like
• A seasonal-themed roundup

2. Come to an event/buy my thing/book a class

Doesn’t it feel natural for a small business to blog about the stuff it’s selling? Yes. But I don’t want you to do it.

First of all, you should already have a page on your website to actually sell the thing you’re selling. A service page, a product page, an event page – a single, seductive piece of content that really hooks your reader and turns them into a customer.

If you then create a second piece of content in a blog post, your two pages will be competing against each other for the same searchers.

You’ll be cannibalising your own results, and risk sending your audience to the blog post which could very well mean lower sales.

And to be a tickle bluntesque, people hate pitches, especially when there’s a hint of hoodwinkery – that feeling that you’ve tricked someone into being sold to, when they were just wanted a helpful answer to a question.

What to try instead

• Putting your product in a different, helpful context – like if you sell candle making workshops in Dorking, maybe write about your “8 favourite creative weekend workshops in Surrey”
• “5 reasons why X is great”, but replace X with an umbrella term and use your product as an example. For example (again, great writing Aime), “5 reasons why a cosy craft workshop is the ultimate slow Sunday activity”
• “How to use X in [insert specific challenge]” – again, you can use your product as the example, but this could be something like “How to use a hori-hori garden knife to plant summer-flowering bulbs” or “How to style a neckerchief with your corporate office outfit”

3. Here are 10 reasons why we are the best at the thing we sell

NO. MARKETING. PITCHES.

Again, you’re just competing with your sales pages, and there are no obvious terms that your audience would be Googling to find this blog post.

Telling your customers why they should pick you and your products is very important, which is why I want it all over your website – just not your blog.

What to try instead

• Insights that come from your practical experience, like “5 creative ways to reuse packaging (from a shopkeeper with more boxes than she can count!)”
• Actually demonstrating the knowledge and expertise you say you have, by sharing it in blog posts

4. Inspiration with a short, vague title, like “Nouveau” or “On being” or “Melancholy”

I’m just gonna keep hammering on about how a good-for-SEO blog needs to be the best answer for a Google search query.

These vague, artsy articles are never that.

In fact, the title of your blog post is undeniably the biggest single influence on how your piece of content will be ranked by Google, and interpreted by potential readers.

That’s why I looooove a long and literal blog title, usually with a tickle of whimsy chucked in because I gotta get dem cliiiiiicccckkksss.

But. If you’re writing for the art of writing – I don’t want you to stop posting Nouveau or On being or Melancholy. Writing is a glorious form of self-expression, and I want you to express the heck out of yourself.

Just bear in mind that these articles aren’t likely to help your SEO, so maybe save them as more of a treat or indulgence – not a growth strategy.

What to do instead

• Balance artsy blogs with practical ones
• Check out our blog post on how to write a bangin’ blog title

5. Anything under 450 words

I keep trying to write shorter blog posts and failing miserably. This one right here, I thought I could boff out in 700 words and then go pick up a salmon bagel from Dio’s Deli before eating it on my sofa and spending the rest of the day playing Pokopia*.

*Orrrrr gardening, I still haven’t decided.

There are almost too many stats to quote here, but we all know that longer content tends to perform better. That’s why my go-to blogging length advice is to get 80% of your articles over 950 words.

That gives you room for shorties when you have something ace to share, but it just doesn’t have much meat to it.

Shorties can still rank well when they’re the best answers to those search queries – but anything under 450 words is just monumentally likely to be buried under a pile of longer posts.

What to do instead

• Write longer blog posts (and boy-oh-boy do I have another treat for you: 7 easy tips and tricks for writing longer blogs)
• Turn it into a piece of content for social media instead

6. Anything you don’t care about, don’t believe in, or don’t feel proud to put your name on

The internet is currently plagued with crap blog content. The blandest possible rice pudding of posts severely missing dollops of rhubarb conserve, granola, and fennel pollen.

These are blog articles that add nothing, teach nothing, make the reader feel nothing – well, maybe they’ll feel a little perturbed at having wasted their time.

They’re not good for SEO because they have a tonne of equally bland competitors, including results from AI search engines too – like Google’s AI Overviews.

And they don’t often make a good impression on the reader – they don’t entertain, inform, illuminate, inspire, relieve, explain – which means they get forgotten.

Even if a blog article is clicked and you get that oh-so-wonderful website visit, a piece of content that is immediately forgotten by the majority of readers is not useful for you or your small business.

What to do instead

• Stick to content you want your audience to know you for
• Lean in hard to your own experiences, opinions, expertise
• If you don’t like it, just don’t post it

And that’s it, 6 blogs I don’t want you to write. Well, that I don’t want you to write if you’re trying to work on your small business SEO and don’t have unlimited time and/or money.

As you’ve probably noticed, I blog a buttload about blogging and about SEO. Heck, if I’m not blogging, I’m adding my favourite topics and tips to my team’s to-blog lists too.

I really reckon you should dive in because blogging is ruddy brilliant at driving a tonne of website to a small website – and turning total strangers into budding fans of your business.

So check out the rest of the Studio Cotton blog, and may take a peaksie at @studio.cotton on Instagram if bitesize advice is more your cuppa decaf latte.