People search the internet when they’re looking for answers.
Common reasons people search include looking for a “how to” guide or video, validating a fact, looking for the location or name of something, wanting to learn about a topic, trying to find the best price on a product or service or even looking for in-depth reviews about a business, products or services.
What does the way people use the internet have to do with blogging, though?
Blogging, if it’s being done correctly, serves as a source of information – one that provides the answers people are looking for online. And if a blog post truly helps someone or they find it inspiring, they’re more likely to share that piece of content.
With that said, if you own a business website without a blog, you’re missing a crucial component of your online marketing strategy. To show you the true purpose of blogging, we’ll go over specific reasons why blogs are valuable.
Blogs Generate Website Traffic
Hopefully, you already get traffic to your website from the products or services that you offer.
(If you aren’t sure that you get traffic or how much traffic you get, then stop reading this and go install Google Analytics. It’s a free website traffic analysis tool and a “must have” in the world of digital marketing. Need help getting it installed? Contact us now.)
Now imagine increasing your website traffic significantly just by posting useful blog articles two times per week.
Here’s a ClickFirst client’s organic website traffic. We began blogging for this client in December of 2017. Look at the increase in traffic to his website:
A blog is not only a great platform for people to interact with your business and to learn about your products or services, but when properly executed a blog drives traffic to your website.
For example, you can provide current and potential clients with advice on how to use your products or write about relevant content in your industry. This quality content gets shared via social media, you also implement it in your email marketing campaigns and search engines crawl and index these blog posts so they appear in search results.
All of these things produce more traffic to your website. It’s that simple.
Consistently Posting Blogs Keeps Your Website Updated With Fresh Content
It’s no secret that Google and other search engines love it when websites are constantly updated. Fresh content is what’ll either keep you high in the ranks or get you to the first page of search results.
When content is being published to your website frequently, it allows for more keywords to be placed in search results which in turn opens up the opportunity to rank for numerous different search terms.
Here’s data from the same client we mentioned above. Remember, we started blogging for this client in December of 2017. Check out how the number of organic keywords that his website ranks for in search has grown drastically since we started blogging for him:
As search engines see that your website is relevant to more topics then you are effectively casting a wider net in search results and, hopefully, appearing more often when people search.
IMPORTANT: Don’t just write about anything that comes to mind. It’s okay to venture outside your niche here and there, but generally you want to keep your topics relevant to what your business does or anything closely related.
Additionally, constantly having new content also gives you the potential to generate more backlinks and internal links.
(Do you need internal links and what are they? Learn more about on-page SEO and why it’s important here.)
It’s a win-win for you and your audience because you get more traffic and links while your readers get content fresh content regularly. Just be sure to create valuable blog posts. No one will share or read your content if it isn’t helpful!
Get Feedback
One reason to start a blog is to gain vital feedback from your customers. You can choose to add a form to your post to gather information or ask for comments left in the comment section.
Blogs also help to build trust with your audience. Get to know the people interacting with your business by replying to their comments. If they’re just leaving a compliment, give thanks.
This information can then be used to help improve your business tactics and really learn what your audience is wanting and/or needing. It opens a line of communication that you can’t get with PPC advertising and other methods of driving traffic because you can encourage responses and interaction.
Market Your Products Further
For a lot of people, buying online can be a scary thing. They don’t know if they can trust a company they’ve never bought from before. While some companies know this and have invested in managing their online reputations, there are still a lot of companies who haven’t. And, even with a solid online reputation, it can be hard to get people to commit to making a purchase.
Instead of losing out on a customer because of fear, you can put that customer at ease through blogging. Showcase how your product or service can be an asset or how it solves a problem.
Let your followers see someone using your product firsthand. A great way to do this would be to embed a video into your post. It could be in the form of a how-to guide or a review.
It’ll set potential customers at ease while also showcasing how good of a product you have. Even if you offer services, you can provide case studies to post to your blog to convert curious readers.
Become an Industry Leader
You got into the business world to introduce people to a new kind of product or service. You know what you’re talking about so why not share your knowledge through blogging?
Your expertise can really help you establish yourself and your brand as a leader in your niche.
When you know your field inside and out, you can share that with the world through blogging. Teach others what you’ve learned and explain to them why you’re different from the competition.
Be supportive and make sure the information you share has value. Link to free resources or helpful tools and don’t make your blog too much of a sales pitch. Remember, your audience is there to learn – they’re looking for answers. Provide the answers and let website visitors convert to leads in their own time. Which brings us to our next point…
Blogs Can Be Used To Convert Website Traffic to Leads
Once you create your blog, it can take a while for you to build up a steady flow of traffic. But once it happens, you have a higher chance of getting people to convert from website visitors to actual sales leads for your business.
There are many ways to convert website traffic to actual leads and no single way is right, but here are a few pointers:
- Showcase your products or services in some of your blog posts. As mentioned previously, don’t pitch your own products too hard, but it’s fine to pitch them as long as it clearly makes sense to do so in your posts.Your blog posts shouldn’t look like, “BUY OUR STUFF” is the only message you’re trying to communicate, but if you are explaining how a product or service you offer is a solution to the problem you’re discussing then it makes sense to include mention of it.
- Include a Call To Action! Give your reader direct instructions about how they can get in touch with you for more information. Or provide an offer like a free consultation or a free download. CTAs are the most overlooked piece of digital marketing, yet they’re very easy to implement.
- Link directly to other pages if your site with relevant information, products, services, etc. These links to other pages of your site are not only awesome for on-page SEO, but also lead your website visitor down a funnel or path to actually becoming a sales lead and a source of revenue for your business.
The key takeaway here is that you want to introduce your website traffic to other aspects of your business via your blog.
Hopefully, your visitors will be intrigued by the information and advice you provide and at some point, they’ll become a customer. And, even if you don’t gain a new customer immediately, at least you’ll have a new follower.
Business Blogs Provide Long-Term Results
The great thing about blogging is that it can be produce long-term results. We say “long-term” because if you have the right strategy, your blog posts will be relevant for years to come.
The right strategy starts with the right keywords and topics. Keywords are “the key” to ranking in search engine results.
When you know how to implement and choose keywords, you’re telling Google that your content is relevant for what people are searching for. And you can tailor the keywords for your brand specifically, your products or services, even the industry you’re in.
Also, it’s important to choose topics that will retain their value over time. We refer to this type of content as “evergreen” content. Evergreen content is useful even when a reader discovers it a year after you originally wrote the post.
Yes, it’s okay to post about current news in your industry. However, if the post won’t have value in 6 months then consider either writing about it in a manner that it will or finding a new topic.
The Purpose of Blogging is That It’ll Help Your Business
More and more businesses are relying on blogging. It’s a way to not only communicate with your target audience but gain more website traffic.
Create useful content as part of an overall online marketing strategy that includes SEO. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can turn your website into a source of revenue for your business.
Don’t have time to write your own blog posts? Allow us to do the hard work for you with our professional blog writing service!
