Blogging seems to be an activity that every second person embark on. Have you not yet launched a blog for your business? What are you waiting for? If it’s a justification you need, then look no further. If you run a small business, chances are you are wondering if blogging is worth the time and effort. The short answer is a resounding YES! Blogging on a frequent basis is a relatively easy, inexpensive way to enhance your inbound marketing efforts, drive traffic to your site, and attract more prospective customers.
REMEMBER THAT GENERATING BLOG MOMENTUM TAKES TIME AND COMMITMENT – NOT TOO DIFFERENT FROM INVESTING; THE SOONER YOU START, THE SOONER YOU SEE RESULTS.
Does Blogging Really Help SEO?
Yes, it does. That’s the simple answer. But having a blog isn’t in and of itself a ranking factor. Blogging is good for SEO because it helps with many things that are important ranking factors. When you have a blog that’s updated regularly with blog posts that are high quality and on topics relevant to your audience, it can make a massive difference to how your overall website performs in the search engines.
Here are 12 Reasons why Blogging is Vital for your Business:
- Keeps your Website Fresh and Current: If you ever happen upon a website that you realise hasn’t been updated in years, you probably immediately lose some trust in the information you’re seeing. The company it represents could have gone out of business, or the website could be providing information that’s been wholly debunked or changed since that last update. Google doesn’t want to deliver its searchers’ outdated information. Websites that are regularly updated signal to them that the website is alive and offering fresh content. It also gives the search engine algorithms more reason to index your website more often, keeping it more on their radar over time. You’re probably not going to have reason to update your homepage frequently (and it wouldn’t necessarily be a good business move to do so), so a blog is a more practical tool for adding new content to your website on a regular basis.
- Keeps People on your Website for Longer: Google’s number one priority is providing the people performing searches with the information they’re looking for, so they’ll keep coming back to use Google again. If someone who does a search click on the first link, then finds it unhelpful and immediately leaves to go back to the search page – that tells Google that the first result wasn’t as helpful as they thought. On the other hand, when someone clicks on a result and stays on the website for a while, that signals to Google that this website is actually beneficial. While Google hasn’t said outright that dwell time, or the time that people spend on your site once they land on it, is definitely a ranking factor, they’ve made other statements that make it clear it’s something they pay attention to and impart value to. Someone who comes to your website from a blog post that shows up in the search results is going to have more reason to stick around for a while and read the whole thing than someone who lands on a page with less text or information. And that becomes, even more, the case with longer, more comprehensive posts. SEO researchers have found that long-form blog posts tend to perform better than shorter ones – the average first-page result on Google is nearly 2,000 words long.
- Helps you Connect with your Audience: This isn’t a direct linking factor like links are, but it is something that significantly contributes to linking elements. When your audience reads a post they love, they’re more likely to share it, drive more traffic to it, come back to your website again to see more of your content and maybe even sign up for your email list. When you get lots of traffic and repeat visitors, that shows Google that people like your website and raises your authority level in their algorithm. And while that’s pretty great from an SEO perspective, it’s ultimately more important to the success of your website than where you are in the rankings. People in your target audience visiting your site, connecting with it, and becoming regular followers is more valuable than any #1 spot on Google (that’s the whole reason you want the spot in Google to begin with).
- Address a Topic in Depth in a Blog Article: You can hyper-focus on a keyword topic and/or long-tail keyword relevant to your business and of interest to your prospects. Go in-depth, be unique and thorough, add valuable resources and make the blog article truly remarkable in addressing the topic. The beauty is that it will generate traffic to your business consistently over time.
- Attract Organic Traffic to your Website Through your Blog: Publishing content on your blog enables you to attract organic traffic to your site. These are new visitors who are finding you because of your content and not because they are searching directly for your business and your company name. In so doing, you are expanding the circle of awareness and opportunity for your business. Remember that generating blog momentum takes time and commitment – not too different from investing; the sooner you start, the sooner you see results. Plan on a minimum of 24 to 50 articles before you can expect to see the traffic build up.
- Become a Thought-Leader for your Industry: On your business blog, you can write about trends in your industry. As you analyse those trends and provide your perspective, you should include links to those trends and other resources to add depth to your article. Doing so gives you added reason to stay on top of the latest industry news. It can make you stand out as a thought-leader.
- Boost Search Engine Optimisation: Search engines love fresh content. What better way to provide frequent content than with blog posts. By blogging consistently, you give Google, and other search engines new content to index and you create opportunities to plug in those all-important keywords to increase your visibility on search engine results pages.
- Develop Relationships with Potential and Existing Customers: Blogging allows you to connect with your site visitors. This can be accomplished by asking your readers questions at the end of your posts to get the conversation going or by merely allowing comments and feedback. By reviewing and responding to readers’ comments, you can create a rapport with your audience, build trust, and gain valuable insight into what your customers are looking for.
- Establish Your Business as an Industry Leader: No matter how small your business is, you can build trust and clout within your industry by providing valuable, expert information in your blog posts. Over time, you become a “go to” resource for helpful, informative content, which can ultimately lead to higher customer conversion rates. This is especially important for small businesses looking to gain credibility to compete with larger companies.
- Connect People to Your Brand: Blog posting allows you to show a personal side of your business that perspective and current customers won’t see through outbound marketing techniques. Blogging gives others a sense of corporate standards, vision, and personality of your company.
- Create Opportunities for Sharing: Every time you blog, you create an opportunity for your audience to share your blog with others. Whether they link to your blog post, tweet it, or email it to others, it’s free marketing, and it further validates you as a credible business.
- Educate your Prospects: A blog is mostly a publishing platform for your business. It allows you to speak directly to your prospective customers and educate them about what your company does. Note that I say ‘educate’ rather than ‘sell.’ Educating is far more powerful, more trustworthy and more relevant to website visitors than pure selling or even traditional marketing content. Education means that you have thought about their situation and can anticipate the questions they may have. It also says that you understand who they are.
EDUCATING IS FAR MORE POWERFUL, MORE TRUSTWORTHY AND MORE RELEVANT TO WEBSITE VISITORS THAN PURE SELLING OR EVEN TRADITIONAL MARKETING CONTENT.
