Have you noticed that more and more businesses are blogging these days? There’s a good reason for it–a blog can help boost traffic, search ranking, and most importantly, sales. If you’re not currently blogging for your business, it’s time to take action, especially if you’re struggling to get website traffic. It’s a fun and relatively easy way to give your business a boost. Not convinced? Read on to discover the top benefits of blogging for your business.
5 benefits of blogging for your business
1. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO is a huge buzz term at the moment, and if you’re a seasoned online business owner, you probably already know what it is and why it’s important. If you’re new to the online business world, SEO is a way to improve your site’s presence. The vast majority of web traffic is driven by search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. SEO allows you increase your search engine rank organically, without relying on social media and paid ads.
Blogging and SEO go hand-in-hand. Why? It’s all about the keywords. By blogging about topics relevant to your business or industry, you increase the chances that someone’s search engine results will lead to your website. Additionally, when people share or link to your posts, search engines view your site as more trustworthy and valuable. Create quality content on a regular basis, and your search engine ranking will gradually improve.
Download my free SEO checklist to learn how to optimize your website content in order to get more targeted, organic traffic.
2. Build a warm audience
Blogs enable you to create a community around your business. This is more valuable to some business models than others (think B2C vs. B2B); if you’re a new or local business, developing an engaged online community can help foster repeated business with your customers. This is because blogging makes your business more relatable by “humanizing” your website and giving your brand some personality. Furthermore, your audience will appreciate you making the effort to respond to their questions and comments in the blog. In turn, you and your business will benefit from developing a greater understanding of your customers’ needs and critiques.
3. Grow your email list
Many businesses rely heavily on e-mail marketing to sell their products and services. That said, people don’t really enjoy receiving emails that are constantly trying to sell them something. A blog that provides value to your customers or clients can be a great incentive to sign up for your mailing list. Instead of just filling your subscribers’ inboxes with promo offers, share links to relevant blog posts. You can even include short excerpts or summaries to further incentivize them to visit your site.
4. Gauge interest in new offers
One great advantage of blog posts is their statistics. Pay attention to the number of views and amount of engagement through comments and social sharing each post receives. This way, you can easily determine what kind of content is the most interesting or valuable to your readers and subsequently use that knowledge to tailor your content. This is especially useful if you’re thinking about offering new products or features but aren’t sure how your customers will respond.
5. Free marketing and PR
If you write your own content, blogging is a free way to promote your business and expertise. Articles relevant to your industry are the ideal content to enrich your social media channels. When others share your awesome content, you are essentially getting free promotion for your business. Plus, if you’re just starting out and don’t have a ton of clients to vouch for your skills, your blog can help you appear more trustworthy and knowledgable to potential clients. Consistent, high quality content could even attract the attention of other industry professionals and thus foster valuable relationships or partnerships.
How to start blogging
So, these reasons all sound well and good, but where do you even begin? Starting a blog can be a daunting task. Fortunately, there are plenty of resources available to guide you along, as well as freelancers who specialize in digital strategy and SEO content writing. Here are some quick tips for starting your blog:
- Write 500+ words. Long form content tends to rank better in search engines. Keep your posts at a minimum of 500 words in order to improve SEO.
- Post consistently. Whether you post once a week or once a month, consistency is key. Don’t give your audience the impression that you’re flaky or disorganized.
- Install Yoast SEO. If your site is built with WordPress, this free plugin is a must for writing SEO friendly content.
- Invite engagement. Invite your readers to comment by posing engaging questions and requests for feedback, and always include links to share your posts on social media.
- End each post with a single call to action. Invite your readers to sign up for your newsletter, contact you, purchase a relevant product, etc.
- Outsource. Writing good content takes both time and talent. If you find yourself lacking one or the other, outsourcing topic research, writing, editing, or all of the above, can be a huge help.
Updated December 6, 2020
Related: 7 easy ways to improve SEO on your website
