Guide
Which posts actually bring people in, and which ones just fill a calendar
Almost every business publishing content is publishing the wrong content, and the reason is structural rather than lazy. The posts that are easiest to write are the ones aimed at people who are not buying, and the posts that produce enquiries are the ones that feel too obvious to bother writing. Here is how to tell them apart before you spend another six months on it.
The distinction that decides everything
There are two kinds of reader. One has a problem and is looking for someone to solve it. The other is curious, or bored, or doing research for a school project, or is a competitor.
Both read. Only one gets in touch. Almost all business content is optimised for the second group, because that group is much larger and much easier to write for.
| Written for the curious reader | Written for the buying reader |
|---|---|
| The history of heat pumps | Is a heat pump worth it in a Quebec winter, honestly |
| Ten tips for a healthier smile | What happens at a first appointment if you have not been to a dentist in ten years |
| Understanding SEO in 2026 | Why your business does not show up on the map when people search nearby |
| The benefits of automation | What it costs you when nobody answers the phone between 12 and 1 |
The five that bring people in
These work in every sector we have tried them in. They are also, without exception, the ones business owners resist writing, usually because they feel too specific or too close to giving away the answer.
- The should-I post. The decision your customer is actually weighing, answered honestly including the cases where the answer is no. "Should I repair or replace" outperforms everything else in trades and automotive, reliably.
- The what-it-is-really-like post. A walkthrough of what actually happens, step by step, with the awkward parts included. This converts because the thing stopping people is not doubt about quality, it is not knowing what they are walking into.
- The what-goes-wrong post. The failure modes in your trade, what causes them, and how to spot one. Uncomfortable to write, and the single most credible thing on most sites.
- The comparison you are in. Your approach against the alternatives, including the ones that are not you, described fairly. Honesty here is the entire mechanism: a comparison that always concludes in your favour convinces nobody.
- The local specific. The version of the question that only applies here. Winter, the housing stock, the regulations, the way the season runs. It is the hardest for anyone else to copy and the easiest for you to write.
The four that produce nothing
Not bad writing. Bad targeting. Each of these can be beautifully done and still produce no enquiries in a year, because of who they are aimed at.
- Industry news. Read by the industry. Your customers do not know your industry has news.
- Generic tips lists. Ten ways to do a thing. Ranks against a thousand identical posts and attracts people looking to do it themselves.
- Company announcements. New hires, anniversaries, office moves. Fine on social, worthless as a page, because nobody searches for them.
- Definitional explainers with no decision attached. What is X. Useful only if the reader is deciding whether they need X, and most explainers carefully avoid saying.
How to tell, before you write it
Three questions, in order. If a post fails the first, do not bother with the other two.
- Would somebody type this? Say the title out loud as a question. If nobody would ever type it into a search box or ask an assistant, nobody will find it.
- Does the reader have the problem right now? Not might have it someday. Right now, this week, which is why they are reading at 10pm.
- Does it end somewhere? A post that ends in a summary ends. A post that ends in a decision the reader can now make, and an obvious next step, produces enquiries.
How to tell, afterwards
Most content measurement answers the wrong question. Traffic tells you the post was findable, not that it was useful to anyone who might buy.
Track two things per post and ignore the rest for the first six months.
- Did anyone get in touch after reading it. Ask on your intake form: what made you get in touch. It is one field and it is worth more than any analytics dashboard.
- Did people read to the end. Time on page is a weak proxy and it is enough. A post nobody finishes is not persuading anybody.
- Ignore, for now: impressions, bounce rate, social shares, and any comparison against a competitor's traffic. None of them tell you whether it produced work.
The publishing cadence nobody wants to hear
Less than you have been told, and each one better. Ten posts a year that answer real buying questions will outperform a hundred that fill a calendar, and the maths is not close.
The reason weekly publishing became the standard advice is that it is easy to sell and easy to measure. It is not what works for a business with one person who can write and a full schedule.
- List every question a customer asks before they buy. Twenty minutes with whoever answers the phone gets you most of it.
- Cross out the ones your site already answers well. Usually fewer than you think.
- Rank what is left by how close it sits to a buying decision.
- Write the top one properly. Properly means it takes an afternoon, not twenty minutes.
- Publish it, link it from the pages where the question actually comes up, and leave it alone.
- Do the next one when you have time. Ten a year is a strong year.
Where this connects
If you want the list of questions without doing the interview, the FAQ extractor reads your site and returns the thirty a buyer asks, flagging the ones you never answer. Those flags are your content calendar, in priority order, generated in about a minute.
Content only pays off if what happens after the enquiry is solid. If enquiries currently go into an inbox and get answered when someone remembers, fix that first: the seven day enquiry plan covers the follow-up, and systems before ad budget covers why this order matters more than the spend.