If you don’t already have a blog on your business website, you may be wondering if you should start one and if so, how it will benefit you. The truth is you don’t need a business blog, in the same way that you don’t need a social media presence from an operational perspective – but if you want to increase awareness, build trust in your brand, and stay ahead of the competition, then a blog is definitely going to help you do that.
A business blog helps search engines find you, helps your customers, and helps you.
Here’s how:
A blog helps your SEO
The internet is the first place we turn to when looking for information, so having an online presence is paramount. But being online is not the same as search engines finding you. That’s why Search Engine Optimisation is critical. A business blog helps your SEO in three main ways.
More pages to index
Google and other search engines index every page on the internet. So when a user types in a search query, search engines decide which of the indexed pages is a good match for the query, and display those pages in the search results.
Every time you add a post to your blog, you create another page on your website, and another page that Google et al index. So the more pages you have – or the bigger your website – the greater the chances that search engines will match one of your pages to a search query.
It’s an easy way to add fresh, new content
Search engine algorithms are constantly adjusted to ensure they deliver the most useful and relevant results. In order to do that, they assess many factors. Once upon a time, it was all about keywords. If the words on your page matched the words a user typed into a search engine – bingo!
But these days search engines are much more sophisticated. They want to provide up-to-date answers to queries. If a website has sat unchanged for two or three years, it’s an indication that the information may be out of date, or even that the business is no longer operating.
Longer and more page visits
When you include links in your blog posts to other posts or pages on your website, you keep visitors on your site for longer. The more times a page is visited and the longer users stay on a site, is an indication to search engines that the site contains useful information. And that helps push it higher up the search engine results pages.
A blog helps you reach your target customer
Whilst your main business website showcases your products and services, and is more sales-oriented, blogs are rarely about selling. Blog articles educate, inform, and even entertain. In fact, business blogs are often labelled something like ‘news’ or ‘insights’ on a website menu.
A blog is a great place to share information related – directly or indirectly – to your business or industry that is helpful to your target audience. This can include market updates, current trends, how-to guides, top tips, product comparisons, common mistakes your audience might make, Q and A sessions with members of your team, or interviews with happy customers. This type of content is not a hard sell but rather a subtle way of demonstrating your expertise in your industry, your understanding of your audience’s pain points, and your willingness to help them.
This is what content marketing is all about. By sharing useful information and asking for nothing in return, you are providing value to readers and, in so doing, building trust in your brand. Essentially, you increase ‘likeability’ and loyalty from your audience.
A blog helps you
Do you regularly get asked the same questions by your customers? Or do you find yourself explaining the same thing over and over again? A blog is a great way to answer common questions, address misconceptions, or share industry insights, clearly and comprehensively. Next time you’re asked that question, you need only send over a link to the blog post. And of course, many more potential customers might be asking Google those same questions – and up your answer will pop!
2On top of running your business, managing your staff and keeping on top of accounts, you’re trying to do social media AND run a blog…. Too much right?
Well, the good news is, that your blog kills two birds with one stone. If you’ve published a blog article, you’ve automatically got great unique content you can share across social media platforms and material for your next newsletter. And that in turn gets a whole lot more visitors on your site, who have the potential to turn into customers.
Blogging is not a job you can do once and then forget about, however. Running a blog is a commitment that requires consistency. If you can carve out the time, you’ll reap the rewards in the form of an enhanced online presence, loyal customers and more streamlined service.
And if you don’t have the time… well, a freelance marketing writer can help : )