4 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Blog
You’ve likely heard the adage and subscribed to the belief: “If you build it, they will come.”
But, this doesn’t typically apply when it comes to your website.
You might have a killer website for your business but…it’s crickets. Where’s the traffic? Why aren’t people inquiring about your services and buying your products?
The truth is, if you want to drive traffic to your website, you need to be blogging regularly. It may sound like a lot of work at first, but if you stick with it, it’s a free and effective way to get eyeballs on your website.
We’re going to dive into the many benefits of starting a blog for your business (there’s more to it than just generating traffic!), plus some top tips for creating a successful blogging strategy you can stick to.
The 4 Benefits of Blogging Regularly
1) It drives organic traffic to your website.
We’ve told you that blogging helps drive traffic to your website. But how does it work?
When we talk about organic traffic, we’re referring to website visitors that land on your site from unpaid search engine results. If we look at Google, for example, these are all the search results that pop up below the ads, which always populate at the top.
There are many benefits to running paid ads on Google too, but why not try to rank in the results for free?
It Helps You Rank for More Organic Keywords
To put it simply, the more content you have on your website, the more opportunities you’ll have to show up in the Google search results.
Quick SEO (search engine optimization) Lesson:
Keywords are the words (or phrases) people type into the Google search bar to find content.
Google has robots that “crawl” through your website looking for keywords.
The more pages you have, the more keywords they’ll pick up!
When your audience is searching for keywords relevant to your business, you want to show up.
That’s why when you blog, you don’t just want to write about whatever’s on your mind that day. You want to be strategic and write about topics your audience is searching for.
So how do you figure out what these keywords (or phrases) really are? We have some good news for you here! There are several awesome tools out there to help you find the right keywords, which you can turn into strategic blog posts that will get your business found online.
For more help with this, we have a whole blog post that dives into how to find SEO keywords to use on your website.
It Shows Google That Your Website is Active and Fresh
Another way to get Google to love your website is to publish new content regularly.
When you add a new page to your website (blog posts count as pages), it tells Google’s robots to crawl it. Eventually, Google starts to understand that it needs to crawl your website more often because you’re constantly adding fresh content.
It’s important to know that Google values consistency over quantity, so instead of publishing a ton of new blog content at once (and promptly burning out), focus on creating a consistent blogging schedule that you can stick to.
We recommend blogging once or twice a week (we blog weekly!), but once every two weeks is great, too. Just make sure it’s something that works with your schedule and that you can be consistent with.
2) It builds trust.
People need to know they can trust you before they buy what you’re selling.
Your customers are likely shopping around with other brands and businesses to find the right fit for what they’re looking for. Having an active blog full of free, valuable content pertaining to your products and services is both a great way to stand out and also build trust with your potential customers. It gives them an opportunity to get to know you better (“date you first” with no pressure), while also giving you the chance to win them over (without being salesy — just adding real value), so they feel confident in their decision when they do decide to buy (and say “I do”).
Picture this. Your dream client is searching for a business like yours on Google, and a few good options pop up (including you). They click on the first two websites, which only have a few uninteresting pages about themselves and their services. Then, they click over to your website which both looks amazing and has kickass copywriting — so they dig deeper and come across your blog. They see that you’re generously sharing helpful, applicable information, plus you’re showing them a bit of your personality with each post, too. So now (assuming you also have a quality product or service), they feel like they know you better and see you as a more helpful trusted “guide” than the other options, making them more likely to choose you!
3) It establishes you as an expert in your industry.
Your customers are turning to Google because they’re either looking to work with a business like yours, or they have a question they need answered.
If you’re performing keyword research, are tuned into the questions your audience has about your industry, and writing blogs integrating these two things – your blogs are much more likely to show up organically during Google searches. Then when your blog post does pop up when a potential customer searches for an answer, they’ll attribute authority, credibility and expertise to you and your business. They’re way more likely to think, “Oh, this person really knows what they’re talking about!” Sharing what you know.
4) It allows you to build an audience and nurture leads.
Do you want to grow your following on social media? Beef up your email list? Blogging can help with that, too.
Share Your Blog Content on Social Media
When it comes to growing your following on social media, you need to give people a reason to follow you.
Sharing relevant, juicy content on your social media is a great way to do that! If people view your business as a credible, useful source of information, they’re more likely to follow along and stay engaged with you.
If you’re blogging consistently, you can share your fresh blog content on your social media. We like to create a graphic with the most important bits of information from the blog post, and then encourage followers to click the link in our bio to read the full post. This is another excellent way to get more eyes on your website.
Build Your Email List
Email marketing is one of the best ways to market your business and keep your brand top-of-mind.
If you’re posting super helpful blogs that answer your customers’ questions, they’re more likely to sign up for your email list to make sure they get your freshest content straight to their inbox.
This helps keep people engaged with your brand, and when you launch a new offering or product, you have a whole audience of people to announce it to!
Quick Tips for a Successful Blogging Strategy
1) Create a content schedule you can stick to.
We just talked about all the fabulous benefits of blogging, and you might be super eager to pump out a ton of blog content right off the bat. But if you’re setting a goal of putting out two blog posts a week, make sure it’s something you can realistically keep up with for the long haul. Remember, Google values consistency over quantity, so writing a bunch of blog posts one month and going quiet for three months isn’t the best use of Google’s algorithm.
Take stock of what your schedule looks like right now and create a goal that you know you can stick to (at least the majority of the time).
2) Choose relevant topics that people are searching for.
So, you’ve created your content posting schedule - now what do you write about?
We touched on this above, but to truly make the most out of your blog, you want to answer questions that your audience has.
Think About Common Questions Your Clients Have
Listen closely to what your clients and customers are saying.
What questions are they asking you regularly? What common objections are they raising? What are they saying in testimonials (specifically, are they running into any issues or hesitations)?
Your blog is the perfect place to “beat your customers to the punch” by answering any questions or addressing any objections they may have. Make a list of the common questions and concerns, then turn them into blog posts!
Perform Keyword Research to See What People are Searching For
If you want to take it a step further, plug some of those questions into a free keyword research tool like UberSuggest to see which exact keywords and phrases people are searching for. You can see an estimate of monthly searches for each keyword, plus how competitive it is to rank for. You’re looking for a good mix of high monthly search volume and low competitiveness.
Your clients are searching for answers. By paying attention to their questions and pinpointing the exact phrases they’re typing into Google, you can increase your chances of showing up in the results!
3) Write your blog post.
There are a few things to know when writing your blog post to help maximize its success.
Keep your brand voice and messaging consistent.
Use your SEO keyword throughout your blog post and in your URL slug. Choose the best SEO keyword from your research and work it into your blog’s title, the first 100 words of the body, the URL slug, and the SEO title. You want Google to see it in multiple places throughout your post!
Try to exceed 2,000 words. If you think that sounds like a lot of words, you’re right. But again, we’re always pandering to Mr. Google here, and Google likes what’s called long-form content —- blog posts with over 2,000 words. If you can’t hit that quota every time, don’t worry! Google will still see and crawl your content.
Have someone proofread for you. Listen, you could have the most perfect grammar in the world, but there is always something that gets missed! Have a colleague or friend do a once-over of each post before you publish it on your website.
Create a blog template in draft mode. This is an easy hack to make your life a little bit easier. Create a blog template page on your website that you can duplicate each time you post a new blog to make sure your formatting stays perfectly consistent.
4) Choose a consistent day of the week to post your content.
If you start to build an engaged audience (this is the goal, right?) you want to let them know when they can expect new content from you. For example, our blog posting schedule is once a week on Fridays. We publish our blog, send out an email in MailChimp , and post on social media (mostly) every single Friday.
If you do it long enough, your audience will start to expect content from you on a certain day. This also keeps you accountable and organized!
5) Share it, share it, share it!
Time to share that juicy, strategic content with the world! Post some helpful info from your blog in a graphic on social media with some relevant hashtags. This keeps your audience engaged, plus you get the added benefit of a new potential client stumbling across your content and giving you a follow.
Then, repurpose your blog content in an email to your subscribers. Be sure to pop a CTA button at the bottom so that readers can quickly get in touch with you, schedule a call, purchase a product, or head to your site to read the full blog post.
Does your business really need a blog?
If you want to get more eyes on your site, build trust and credibility with your audience, and build a loyal following, then yes — you’ll want to be blogging!
While ads and other paid marketing tools are also essential pieces in a successful marketing mix, we love talking about content marketing and blogging because it’s a free way for small business owners to get in front of their clients and customers.
We hope these tips were helpful for you as you start your blogging journey!
P.S. If you need some womanpower to help you stay consistent with your blogging schedule, we offer done-for-you blogging and posting services - just Schedule a Call with us to get more info!
More soon,
Mara
WEB DESIGNER + SEO SPECIALIST
P.S.
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