Blogging; it seems everyone is doing it today and for good reason. Adding a well written, engaging blog to your business website can improve your visitor’s experience and help your business grow. It aids in everything from increasing consumer traffic, to making you look more knowledgeable about your niche market than your competitors.
The importance of adding a blog to your website is often overlooked or even avoided as many business owners don’t feel comfortable enough with their writing skills or simply don’t have the time, but these are precisely the reasons you should add a blog. Regular blogging helps you improve your writing skills and forces you to focus on the trends concerning your niche; research you may not otherwise get to in the day to day motions of running your business.
There are several other reasons to add a blog to your website and I’d like to highlight a few, sit back and get comfy. Let’s get started shall we?
SEO Rankings
By now, we all should know how crucial SEO rankings are to the success of an online or brick and mortar business; but how does blogging help raise your ranking?
By providing consistent, engaging content, updated with new keywords via blogging; you can raise your search engine rankings and visibility considerably.
The higher you’re ranking, and the more keywords relevant to your niche that appear on your site; the easier it is for potential customers to find you when performing a search engine query. Let’s face it. There are a lot of businesses online, and the more visible you are, the better.
Increased Web Traffic
Again, this comes down to visibility. Raising your search engine rankings is one way to get traffic to your site but it isn’t the only way.
Blogging about your business niche or even helpful tips on things pertaining to your area of expertise then sharing the content with your readers encourages them to share it on their own social media pages.
Every time someone shares your content, you’re reaching hundreds of potential customers you may never have had the opportunity to reach otherwise. You’ve given many potential customers a reason to click over to your site and read your content, increasing your web traffic. If they’re there already, they may stay or return later to make a purchase. You’ve created an opening for potentially hundreds of new customers simply by writing a blog post.
Creates a Sense of Community
It’s very hard to connect with your customers on a personal level via keyboard. Customers who feel wanted and connected with on a personal level, become repeat customers. Write engaging content and set up a comments area on your posts then … ENGAGE with them!
By creating a blog with a comments section or sharing your posts to your business related social media sites, you open up dialog between yourself and your customers. You’re adding a sense of value to your relationship with them and letting them know that not just their business matters to you but their thoughts, opinions, and feelings as well.
Engaging with your customers also brings a sense of community to your site and your content. This is so important in running an online business where you can’t shake your customer’s hand or greet them when they walk into your door. These customers don’t meet coming in and out of a virtual store so they can never just stop and speak with each other. By creating content they can comment on or interact with each other, and you, you’re providing them with that sense of community that is so lacking in virtual business, and they will remember your efforts.
Informing Your Readers
As much as things like raising your search engine rankings and grabbing site traffic through blogging are great, you need to make it your goal to inform your readers.
Blogging about topics focused on your business niche, writing “How To’s”, sharing trending topics, or just your views on a particular issue that affects your market are all great ways to inform your customers and improve your own knowledge in the process.
A few things to keep in mind when you’re writing to inform; make sure the information you’re sharing is truthful and helpful. Check your sources and do your research. You’ll save yourself a lot of time writing retractions by simply investigating your topics thoroughly the first time.
Being Viewed as an Expert
Blogging relevant and correct information for your readers is a great way to become “known” in your niche. The more you write on a subject, the more you will learn which makes you appear to be an expert on the subject and, in fact, you will be.
Consumers are more likely to purchase goods and services from business owners who know what they’re talking about. They feel more comfortable doing business with people who are knowledgeable and can answer their questions quickly and truthfully.
Lastly, why would you not take the opportunity to learn more about your business? It benefits both you and your customers and you’re more likely to get repeat business when customers see what you were telling them was true.
Bottom line, producing constant, well written, engaging content via a blog creates ways for people to find you on the web, helps you engage with your customer base, allows you to reach people you would normally not be able to through social sharing, and it lets people know that you know what you’re talking about. Taking the time to add a blog to your site just makes good business sense.
Be sure to catch next week’s post where I will cover the elements of successful blog as well as tips on writing one. See you next week!