One of the biggest mistakes any business can make is to not have a stellar online presence. We are living in the digital age, and more retail stores are shifting gears to close their brick and mortars and hit the online highway.
That’s why it’s so important now more than ever for brands to be taking advantage of the best opportunities to gain visibility in a highly saturated online world. To put it simply: if you own a business, you should have a blog.
Top 5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Blog
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Social media is a great marketing tool, but it’s not the only funnel you should be focusing your marketing efforts on.
When you add a blog to your business site, you’re adding something that social media can’t give you, no matter how killer or savvy you may be when it comes to collecting those likes or going viral on Pinterest.
Here are the top 5 reasons why your business website needs a blog:
Having a Blog Can Improve SEO
If you’re serious about growing your online business then it’s time to get serious about Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
It’s basically how strong your website holds up in the Google search engines.
You know those questions you type into Google? Take this case study for example.
Premier Custom Homes is a local custom home builder in the Quad Cities, and a business that I helped makeover their website, as well as write a few strategic blog posts for.
If you type the following into Google, “benefits of organizing your home,” you’ll see that a blog on Premier’s website is ranking not only on page one, but is currently set to the top search result (this is something that Google changes frequently so just because it’s the top search item today, doesn’t mean it will be tomorrow).
You can also see that there are over 119,000,000 posts about this same topic on Google.
But this post has consistently been ranking on page one of Google for months, bringing thousands of visitors to the PCH site each month.
So how did we accomplish this? Through keyword research and strategic blog planning.
No, not every visitor that lands on the PCH website is local to the Quad Cities or ready to build a home. But the more consistent PCH can be with producing quality content, the bigger their following is going to be, and the better positioned they’ll be in their niche to show their audience and potential buyers that they’re an authority in their field.
The goal is to get your website popping up as close to the top when people are searching for keywords related to your business. The higher you can rank in Google, the better chance you have of increasing overall brand visibility and converting those views to clicks, and ultimately – to paying customers.
Having a blog as part of your brand and business strategy is a great tool to improve your SEO. Not only are you providing value to your audience (more on this later), but you’re giving your website more credibility and showing Google that you’re a trusted authority in your niche. The more SEO-friendly content you can produce, the higher chance you have of increasing your visibility.
If SEO is new to you, I highly recommend investing the time and effort into learning it and implementing SEO strategies into your business or website.
Two of my favorite resources: Stupid Simple SEO, and Keysearch Keyword Search Tool (20% discount with code KSDISC).
Blogging is a Way to Connect with Customers Through Storytelling
A blog is an opportunity to tell your story and make a connection with your customers and potential audience.
When you make a blog a focus of your site, you have a unique opportunity to show your clients a different side of your brand, your team, and your mission.
You can share stories, behind the scenes processes, answer customer questions, explain your products in more details, and even give your customers the opportunity to comment about the type of content they’d like to see more of.
You also have the opportunity to see what your clients are spending more time viewing on your site through analytics, which can help you produce more data-driven content and strategically help you put together a marketing plan based on the trends you notice through visits to your blog pages.
Sign up here to snag Google Analytics as Easy as 1, 2, 3 so you can start monitoring customer behaviors and implementing strategies for conversions today.
A Blog Can Show That You’re an Authority in Your Niche
Having a blog can give your brand the opportunity to further explain your products and educate your customer base about what it is you do, and why.
If you’re in the blogging or virtual marketing industry, having a blog that gives your readers free blogging resources will help show them you know what you’re talking about and your goal is to provide value that your audience will want to keep coming back to.
If you sell a physical product, you can teach your customers how to best use those products, and share insider tips and tricks to get the most out of their purchase.
Your customers (and potential customers) will begin to look to you as an authority they trust and keep coming back for the content that provides them that extra value beyond a “Thank you for your purchase” email.
A Blog Helps You Build Links, Highlight Products, and Increase Sales
When you’re creating content for your site, you have the opportunity to build a showcase of links and relevant products that relate to your blog topic.
This means that the people reading your blog post will have the opportunity to click through to other pages on your site (key for SEO and rankings), and explore products they might not have known about previously.
A Blog Can Help You Grow an Email List
When you’re producing content on a consistent basis that your readers find valuable, they will be more likely to want to subscribe to your newsletter so they can keep gaining that value you’re handing out.
This also offers the opportunity for you to showcase products they might find interesting, and increase the potential for sales.
Newsletters are great because you have so much creative freedom, and the content can change with each email. You can share things like new products, sales, how-to’s or product use guides, behind the scenes sneak peeks, or special promotions just for your subscribers.
If you’ve been hesitant starting a blog or adding one to your business website, make it a goal and part of your marketing strategy to dip your toes in the blogging waters and see what resonates with your customers.
You may be surprised at the value it offers your business, as well as providing easy-to-produce content to post on your social media pages, all with the goal to drive more traffic to your website.
This is great information, clear, concise and it’s so relevant and helpful. I love that you pinpoint that social media isn’t everything and that SEO is important. These are all fantastic reasons why businesses need a blog.
Thanks, Jeanine! I’m so glad you found it helpful!