How to use AI to plan blog content for your local business
Tom KnightCo Founder
Published
I was sat with a client recently, working through her marketing for the year ahead. She wanted to start blogging on her website, which is a great idea. The problem was the advice she had been given. A coach had told her the way to do it was simple: ask ChatGPT for ten blog titles and start writing.
She had the titles. They were fine. They were also, when we looked at them honestly, completely disconnected from anything her business actually needed.
The mistake almost everyone is making
Most people open ChatGPT or Claude and ask, "what should I write about?" The AI gives them ten plausible-looking titles. They pick three. Off they go.
The trouble is the AI was given nothing to work with. No business, no customer, no town, no outcome. So it invents something average. You end up with posts that sound like a blog and do nothing for the business behind it.
There is one principle that fixes this. Be specific. Every step that follows is built on it.
Step one: name the outcome you actually want
Before you open any AI tool, decide what you want the blog to do for the business. Not "I want to blog more." Something you could measure.
For the client I was sat with, the real outcome was that she wanted to be recognised as the expert in her field within her local business community. She wanted other business owners to recommend her by name when her area of work came up.
That is a brief. "Write blog posts about what I do" is not.
Your outcome might be enquiries from a specific type of customer you do not get enough of. It might be ranking in Google for the three services that actually pay the bills. It might be becoming the obvious local choice for one particular search. Pick one. Write it down. That is what every blog post has to serve.
Step two: give AI a tight brief, not a broad one
This is the bit that changes everything. Broad prompts give you broad answers. Specific prompts give you usable ones.
Compare these two.
Broad: "Give me ten blog titles for a plumber."
Specific: "I run a plumbing business in Bedford. My customers are homeowners aged 40 to 65 who only contact a plumber when something has gone wrong and they need it fixed today. I want to be the name they trust before they hit a panic. List ten questions these people are typing into Google in the first five minutes after they realise something is wrong. Do not give me generic plumbing topics. Stay inside that moment."
The first gives you titles. The second gives you the actual fears of the actual people you want to reach.
Every brief you give AI should include four things: the business, the location, the specific customer, and the specific outcome. And it should tell AI what not to do, because if you leave it open, it will wander.
Practical rule: if the prompt could have been written by any business in any town, the answer will be too.
A worked example: the prompt behind this very post
Let me show you what this looks like in practice. When I sat down to write the post you are reading right now, my starting goal was specific. Share information that could help local business owners create blog content that would optimise their local ranking in their area, and present Frively as the business that brings global-level technology and strategy within reach of local businesses.
That goal became this prompt:
I run Frively, a done-for-you website and local SEO service for small local businesses in the UK. We specialise in fast-tracking local businesses to use the kind of technology and strategy that is usually only available to global brands, by packaging it up and making it accessible.
I want to write a blog post for local business owners who are starting to use AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude to plan their own blog content. My specific goal is to help them create blog content that will optimise their local ranking in their own area, so they get found by customers searching nearby.
The reader is a local business owner: a salon owner, a plumber, an accountant, an electrician. They are time-poor, not a marketer, and have probably been told by a coach or a friend to "just ask ChatGPT for ten blog titles". They are sceptical but curious. They want practical steps, not theory.
The outcome I want is two things. One, the reader finishes knowing exactly how to use AI to plan blog content that brings local customers to their site. Two, they understand that Frively does this professionally and can take it off their plate if they would rather not do it themselves.
Build the post around one core principle: be specific. Use a five-step structure: name the outcome, write a tight prompt, validate the title in Google, plan the internal link, write in your own voice. Include a clear before-and-after example showing the difference between a broad prompt and a specific one.
Open with a short story about a real client who had been given the "just ask ChatGPT" advice. Keep her anonymous. Do not cover prompt engineering theory, AI ethics, or tool comparisons. Stay inside the world of a local business owner trying to bring more customers through the door.
Tone: warm, direct, knowledgeable. UK English. No jargon. Around 800 to 1000 words.
Look at how much of the work happens before AI is even involved. The business is named. The reader is named down to the trade. The outcome is named. The AI is told what to focus on and what to ignore. The structural principle is set. There is almost no room for the tool to drift.
That is the difference between using AI as a tool and asking AI to do your thinking for you.
Step three: validate the title in Google
AI can suggest questions that sound plausible but nobody is actually asking. So once you have a shortlist, check them.
Type each one into Google. Look at the "people also ask" boxes near the top. Scroll to the bottom and read the related searches. If your title sits naturally alongside what is already there, you are on the right track. If Google has no idea what you mean, rework it until it reads like something a real person would type.
A good blog title sounds like a question, not a headline. "How long does a boiler service take?" beats "The Ultimate Guide to Boiler Maintenance" every time.
Step four: plan the link before you write the post
Every post you write should link to somewhere else on the website. A service page, a booking page, a related post. The blog is the path. Your service page is the destination.
Decide the link before you start writing. A salon writing "How long does brow lamination really last?" links to the brow lamination service page and the booking page. Decide that up front and write the post so the link belongs there, not so it has been bolted on at the end.
We cover the wider principle in our guide on how to get your local business website ranking higher on Google. Connected pages outperform isolated ones, every time.
Step five: write it in your own voice
AI is brilliant at structure and first drafts. It is bad at sounding like you. Your local knowledge, your opinions, the way you actually talk to your customers, those have to come from you.
If a sentence sounds like it could have come from any business in any town, rewrite it until it could only have come from yours.
The five steps, in one place
- Name the specific outcome you want the blog to achieve
- Give AI a tight brief: business, location, customer, outcome
- Validate the title in Google
- Plan the internal link before writing
- Draft with AI, finish in your own voice
Frequently asked questions
Can I write blog posts using ChatGPT or Claude?
You can use them to help, but not to do the whole job. AI is excellent for research, outlining, and a first draft. The final version should sound like you, include your local knowledge, and reflect your own opinions. A blog post that could have been written by anyone will perform like one.
How often should a local business publish blog posts?
Consistency matters more than volume. One genuinely useful post a month beats four rushed ones. If you can manage two a month using the method above, you will see results within six to nine months as Google starts to recognise your site as a source on the topics you cover.
What makes a good AI prompt for blog ideas?
Specificity. Name the business, the town, the exact customer, and the outcome you want. Tell AI what to focus on and what to ignore. The narrower the brief, the more useful the answer.
How long should a local business blog post be?
Long enough to answer the question properly and no longer. For most local business topics, 600 to 1,000 words is plenty. Be useful, not long.
Want help building this into a proper plan?
If you would rather have someone handle all of this for you, from the strategy through to the writing and the internal linking, that is exactly what we do. Take a look at our managed website service to see how we help local businesses turn their website into something that actually brings them work.