Digital Marketing: What are The Benefits of Blogging?
“Your first blog posts won’t be perfect, but you just have to do it. You have to start somewhere.” – Shane Barker
An efficient and strategic business website is essential in today’s digital age. Even so, few businesses understand the power of blogging as part of their overall website content and marketing strategy. Regular blogging can significantly impact your online presence, driving more traffic to your website while helping you establish yourself as an expert in your industry. This article discusses how blogs drive traffic to your business website, establish brand credibility, engage customers, and boost sales.
What is a blog?
Blogs are articles written to present facts, information, opinions, ideas, or commentary about a specific topic. They are often interactive and include sections at the bottom of individual blog posts where readers can leave comments. Blogs also generate relevant content for a website and can provide a foundation for product marketing and social media promotion to drive search engine traffic to your website.
What is website traffic?
Website traffic refers to the web users who visit a website. Web traffic is the number of visitors a website experiences; individual visits are measured in “sessions” or “page views.” These metrics help website designers gauge the effectiveness of blog content in attracting (popular) interest.
What is Search Engine Optimization?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the technical process used to efficiently connect a website’s content relevance to search engine queries. As a result, search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing, for instance, are more likely to locate content that is relevant to the topic and popular among readers. SEO Software and digital tools are available to assist in maximizing the searchability of web content, including blogs.
“Good SEO work only gets better over time. It’s only search engine tricks that need to keep changing when the ranking algorithms change.” – Jill Whalen.
The goal of blogging is to produce content that is as relevant to potential audiences as possible so that they achieve top search engine ranking results. SEO is critical because high-ranking articles more likely to be read versus lower-ranking ones. Hence, a higher-ranking article that accrues high traffic levels is valuable to the website and business.
What is the purpose of a blog?
“The first thing you need to decide when you build your blog is what you want to accomplish with it, and what it can do if successful.” – Ron Dawson.
Blogs attracts website traffic, builds customer trust, and elevates a company’s credibility. Moreover, marketing is constantly changing, and using blogs as part of an advertising strategy is a cost-effective way for businesses to reach current or potential customers. The following are a few examples of how companies use blogs:
- Customer Engagement: Blogs create a relationship between a business and its customers by providing knowledge about company products and services, new developments, and industry trends that may affect them. If done correctly, a foundation for a thriving community based on product feedback, reviews, correspondence, and social media promotion.
- Product Education & Troubleshooting: Blogs help customers become more knowledgeable about the product or service they have purchased. For example, blog information can assist customers in troubleshooting unique situations, optimizing product utility, or providing answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs).
- Product & Service Marketing: Blogs can showcase the benefits of a business’s products and services. For example, an article can provide a solution(s) to a consumer or business problem(s) wherein your business’s product is the solution. For example, TimeWellScheduled’s cloud-based software provides scheduling, payroll, communication, and HRIS solutions to various companies. Click here to learn more.
- Enhance Business Reputation & Credibility: Blogs allow businesses opportunities to present case studies that provide current customers to discuss their experiences with the customer’s products and services. Case-study articles provide buyers with experience-based context to relieve any concerns they may have.
Blogging is a proven way to drive website traffic and increase a business’s SEO rankings. The more content posted on a blog, the more information the search engines have to crawl and index. Meanining, search engines will recognize that a business’s website is an information resource for people to access (about a specific topic).
What is the difference between crawling and indexing?
Search Engine Crawling: Crawling is the discovery of webpages and links that lead to more pages.
Search Engine Indexing: Indexing refers to storing, analyzing, and organizing web content and connections between pages. There are parts of indexing that help inform how a search engine crawls.
What are the benefits of having a blog on a business website?
Blogs Help to Boost Sales
"61% of online users in the US have bought something after reading a blog." (FirstSiteGuide)
Blogging drives sales by enhancing product awareness, improving SEO rankings, and increasing website traffic. Also, a blog that is attractive to customers will make it easier for search engines to find it, thereby allowing your business to connect with customers.
Blogs Help Develop Relationships
Blogs encourage customers to interact with a business and develop relationships. The key to maintaining these relationships is to consistently post quality content and follow up by connecting with people directly through the business's website and/or social media.
Blogs Increase Brand Awareness
The generation of discussion and interest creates brand awareness, and credibility. Credibility and awareness lead to word-of-mouth promotion and sales.
Blogs Support the Business Marketing Strategy
Blogging is integral to any content marketing strategy because it is frequently updated with fresh articles and information that keeps consumers interested and engaged. In addition, blog articles are often the first point of contact future customers have with a business.
Blogs Complement Social Media Strategies
"97% of bloggers use social media to boost their results." (FirstSiteGuide)
Blogging complements social media marketing strategy by making product details and content available to prospective buyers. Further, blog articles provide followers with context and in-depth discussions.
Blogs Help Manage the Business Identity
Blogs provide the advantage of allowing businesses to define and manage their online identity.
What skills and abilities are necessary to create a blog?
“Blogging is hard because of the grind required to stay interesting and relevant.” – Sufia Tippu.
Most of us already have many of the skills necessary to create a blog. For instance, can you read? Can you write? Are you willing to learn how to use new software? Are you ready to commit to a consistent schedule of writing unique material indefinitely? These are a few questions you need to ask yourself before you invest in starting a blog.
- Successful bloggers spend 4 hours on average to write a post. (FirstSiteGuide)
- The estimated global number of blogs is over 572 million.
- 7 million is the projected number of bloggers in the US.
Here are a few more skills and abilities that will help you become a successful blogger:
- Grammar, proofreading, and word processing
- Learn SEO fundamentals
- Openness to different perspectives
- Knowledge of social media platforms
- Basic website knowledge
- Research Skills
- Ability to generate new ideas
- Willingness to learn
Remember, starting a blog is easy and inexpensive. However, thousands of new blogs are published daily, making it an extremely competitive endeavor. As a result, successful blogs require dedication, discipline, and a willingness to succeed.
- 67% of bloggers who post daily say that they are successful. (FirstSiteGuide)
- Blog articles with 3000+ words get better results.(FirstSiteGuide)
- 97% of bloggers use social media to boost their results.(FirstSiteGuide)
A strategic, well-executed business blog can be a powerful tool to improve your website’s traffic, engagement, and sales. If you don’t have a business blog or have not been consistent with your blogging efforts, now is the time to start. A few essential tips to get you started include:
- Posting regularly.
- Writing helpful and informative content.
- Using keywords thoughtfully throughout your posts.
- Promoting each new post across your social media channels and including calls-to-action(CTA) on every post.
Following these tips and making blogging part of your overall marketing strategy, you can supercharge your website and take your business to the next level.
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