9 Top Reasons Why Blogging is Important for your Business
Why is blogging important for your online business ?
It’s all about Website Traffic !
But before we begin, it’s important that your website’s blog is written and structured in a certain way to create interest, be informative, and to keep the traffic flowing.
If you are starting a blog, for the first year it’s recommended to write your articles in 3 blocks, about 20-30 articles per block, and in this order:
- A third response articles – short simple 1300 word articles that answer specific questions about your industry
- A third staple articles (written after response posts) – longer more in-depth 2200 word articles eg. list articles ~ 10 tips, etc.
- A third pillar posts – Big articles over 3-4,000 words that cover major topics in your industry.
The combination of these 3 types of articles, in the correct order, will see your blog and website, increase the traffic, which in turn leads to more sales.
1. Increases your website’s Search Engine Optimization ranking
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important aspects of any online business. Why have a website if no one will find you in search results?
SEO drives traffic to your site. It’s the street equivalence of customers walking past your shop and coming in the front door.
Search Engine Optimization is the foundations of all online businesses to succeed, and without a solid SEO plan or structure, your business website will be buried under the millions of other ones out there.
So how does blogging increase your SEO?
The more content you have on your site related to your industry, the more keywords Google and other Search Engines can index for your page.
When you blog and you include a combination of links, photos, videos, questions, answers, information, tutorials, how-to articles, etc, the chances of your site ranking on page 1 of search engines dramatically increases.
Fresh content is key to beating your competitors on the search engine results page.
Content, content, content. Important !
Tip: Try this. Type into Google the keyword most related to your business.
Have a look at the Top 10 results and go to these sites.
Do your competitors have a blog within their website?
If not, then starting a blog will give you an upper hand !
2 . Position your Business as an Industry Leader (Authority)
The more information your blog has about your industry, the greater your authority as an information point in your industry.
By creating articles based off questions, how-to’s, lists such as Top 10, etc. you will become the hub, or the place to be, for your industry.
Your customers will benefit from what they will learn from your articles.
3. Provides Extra Value to your Clients
Adding that extra information about your products and services is one way to give extra value to your clients. Blogging is one of the best ways to talk more about your business in detail and, in turn, your customers will feel like they know your business better.
Your current clients will return to your site more often.
Asking clients to subscribe to your blog will keep them up-to-date with your latest products and services. This can be a better marketing tactic than using Social Media, because
- They receive an email that can be read in their own time,
- People scroll through social media on their phones fast, often overlooking posts, and
- Social Media platforms are not always delivering every post made by who you are following.
which leads me to:
4. Collect Emails for Marketing
A blog is a great way to earn trust with your customers, as well as readers who stumbled across your site via search engines, and in turn you can ask for their email address if they want more information.
This is important in a number of ways.
- Send out updates to bring people back to your website
- Future promotions
- Offer exclusive deals or offers not made public
- Create “lookalike audiences” for Social Media advertising (I will write more about this soon)
- Emails can be forwarded easily to friends of subscribers
- Keep track of open rates and click-through rates on emails. Gives good statistics of what is working for your promotions
5. Creates Customer Loyalty
Blogging is a great way to build trust and loyalty for current and future customers. Business websites that are continually updating their blog (or website) shows that the business is up-to-date in the industry.
From a customer’s point of view, a business that is continuously in the current market, will near guarantee repeat business.
A blog is also a great way for current or future customers to interact with the business by leaving comments, questions, or even able to easily share the articles on their own Social Media platforms, which leads me to:
6. Creates shareable Content for Social Media
Once setup correctly by using Social Media sharing bars and buttons, blog articles can easily be shared by readers to their social media platform of choice.
The benefits of this are:
- Your content is shown to new readers, leads to more website traffic.
- It helps with the website’s SEO score. Search Engines take into account the Social Media activity of a site for improved rankings.
- When others share articles, it shows to others your business is up-to-date with the latest in your industry.
7. Increases Backlinks to Website
Backlinks, also called “inbound links” or “incoming links,” are created when one website links to another. Backlinks are especially valuable for SEO because they represent a “vote of confidence” from one site to another. – https://moz.com/learn/seo/backlinks
A blog with multiple articles is great for Backlinks. The more shares, and the more traffic to your site, the more that other website owners, or bloggers will start to reference your articles.
It’s important that your blog contains the 3 building blocks of creating a successful blog as mentioned at the beginning of this article. Short articles, medium articles, and large articles.
Following this procedure will generate more shares and backlinks.
8. Crush your Competition
Depending on your industry, you’ll most likely find that not many of your competitors are blogging on their business websites.
If not, then you will eventually crush them when it comes to Google and other search engine results.
You will be the leader in your industry with the most content, and you will eventually stand way above your competition, taking all the search results traffic.
9. Adds Personality to your Brand
Last but not least is how a blog can bring personality to your business and brand.
How many faceless websites have you come across ? Do you really know who you are dealing with ?
The great thing about blogging for business is that it gives the chance for the business to bring in a human aspect to the service or product. By writing creatively, the reader will feel more in touch with the business, rather than just reading product information, or a list of what services you offer.
It also pushes the reader to interact with the articles, as well as making them more likely to share the articles.
Conclusion
Why is blogging important for an online business?
- Increases your website’s Search Engine Optimization ranking (SEO)
- Position your Business as an Industry Leader (Authority)
- Provides Extra Value to your Clients
- Collect Emails for Marketing
- Creates Customer Loyalty
- Creates shareable Content for Social Media
- Increases Backlinks to Website
- Crush your Competition
- Adds Personality to your Brand
