I promise this is not a form of doublespeak, a jest toward the reader that truly means something else. Something deeper. Finding the reasoning behind the effort to help myself more so than the person I am directing it toward. I promise this is not me telling you that a business blog is useful in order to tell myself that a business blog is useful.
This is not a way to convince myself, the writer, that the efforts I have put forth mean something in the grand scheme. That the countless words I have written, if not poured over, have not fallen upon deaf eyes. The news, constantly buried by more recent endeavors of businesses and other bloggers, is not buried in a never-ending well of dirt and information that only the vicarious enjoy.
I, the blogger, am making a difference for both my business and those that read my blog. And you, the audience, should also take part in those writing efforts to help your business and audience.
Businesses that blog have 126% higher lead growth than non-blogging businesses. Furthermore, companies that blog receive 55% more traffic than companies that don’t.
With over 4 billion users connected to the beautiful (and terrifying) land we call the internet, any effort that can boost your ability to be seen is warranted. If a blog puts you above your business competition, why ignore the work?
Let’s discuss.
No, really? Blogs Are Important
If you spend any time perusing for new businesses or comparing against your competitors, you may not have noticed that business blogs even exist. Oftentimes, the link to the blog is nestled at the bottom of the homepage on the footer. It may say blog, news, or archive and will lead to a page full of various articles.
Once seen as just an activity for health nuts and expressive teens, blogs have become more useful than ever expected for growing businesses. Though often tucked away on the company’s website, they still work as a necessary form of drawing attention from both potential clients and search engines.
For example, you are on this article. You may not have noticed this was a website for a business, but it is. Welcome to Bus Web Design.
Simply put, businesses use blogs to drive organic traffic to their websites. They don’t necessarily write countless articles and think pieces to become a mainstay publisher, but they put in an ample amount of effort to make sure their writing is good and continuous. For example, I am paid to write here. Bus Web Design isn’t attempting to become the next Buzzfeed, but they have still allocated assets to keep a full-time writer on the team.
If you check job boards, you will notice that countless businesses have openings for content creator positions, even if the company isn’t based around online content. Blogs are that useful.
According to a study by DemandMetric, 80% of people claim to appreciate learning about a company through custom content. Therefore, having your own custom content on your business site can only help draw customers.
How They Work
I can babble on about how useful blogs are all day, but that doesn’t explain why they are. I understand. Telling someone to make a significant effort for their company deserves a bit more explanation than just ‘do so‘.
Basically, blogs are used to jump up search engine ranking. If a business creates an article or piece of news that search engine algorithms tend to like, the page will be boosted in rankings. Then, when a potential customer looks toward that specific information, they will be drawn to the business site.
Creating original content (as the aforementioned statistic stated), is a main part of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is used to get people to your website through its prevalence in search results.
Importance of SEO from our article, How to Promote Your Business Without Using Social Media
At its core, SEO is the act of producing content on your business’ website that adheres to search engine AI. Google, among the rest, works tirelessly to get the right search results in front of the right people. If you build your website around your niche market with SEO in mind, you will appear as one of the top results for said market.
Google placement becomes exponentially more important than social media marketing. If someone googles pet store, you want your pet store to appear. That’s an audience that is specifically looking for a pet store. They are searching with the intention to buy pet supplies. Social media is more of a find-then-sell scenario.
The downfall is the amount of effort. While SEO is considerably more important than social media, it still takes the same amount of time and effort. If you are having trouble finding time to run social accounts, then you probably won’t have time for the upkeep of an SEO-based website.
Let’s use this exact article, for example.
You, the reader, were searching the internet for something regarding why your business should blog. Maybe you searched the keywords ‘business blog’ or ‘content creation’.
Due to the effort we put in for the SEO and writing of this original content, this exact blog post was plastered high upon your search results. You clicked on it because you believed it would provide an answer to your question (hopefully it does). Therefore, due to your search in a similar or direct interest, the search engine pointed you toward this blog. Now you are here, on a website about web design.
If you were to be in need of web design (which you may well be if you are searching for business blog info), then you are now on the correct site. You are now thinking about using our business. You are now a potential client.
Aren’t Google and other search engines scary in how well they work?
Overall, providing useful information for your company’s field or niche will organically bring people to you. It’s simple in concept.
This Can Go the Other Way
Reread the last sentence. Note the importance of the word useful.
Search engine AIs are smart. Really smart. They can tell when information isn’t useful, is unnecessary, or isn’t well-written. While it’s easy to quickly connect content creation to quantity, quality is still the most important part of creating a successful business blog.
You may believe that creating as much content as possible will help you cast a wide net upon your industry, hitting on every little bit of information possible. Therefore, you are more likely to find searchers on any related topic. Unfortunately, this information is incorrect.
If your writing is bad, rushed, or filled with nonsequiturs and fluff, people won’t care to read it. It adds nothing to your industry’s information and lexicon. Google notices this, too. Search engines will bury articles that don’t get attention, quickly deter viewers, or have bad grammar.
At the end of the day, Google just wants to put the best possible information in front of eyes. Not content made just for the sake of making content.
Blogs Can Help Backlinking, Too
Let’s say you create a breaking piece of news or a guide to something useful. Someone searches and finds your blog and decides that the content is helpful. They go on to share it on their website or blog, or they send it to a friend. So on and so forth.
This is considered backlinking, and it is critical for SEO success. Creating useful blog posts can be a quick way to grab quality backlinks.
When a website places an embedded link on its copy, that’s backlinking. The link goes to the attributing website, giving them credit for a quotation or recommendation.
Google and other search engines look at backlinks as a crucial aspect of ranking and domain dominance. If other websites are talking about your website, it is more likely to get noticed and pushed onto search results. Getting to the top of the search results involves working in the realm of SEO, and according to Search Engine Land, links are one of the top two criteria considered in Google’s page ranking algorithm.
Having useful and helpful information is the easiest way to do this. “Hey, this website had a great article about business blogs! I’ll share it with you!”
Wink, wink.
Blogs Can Help Update Your Clients
This reason for business blogging is a bit less significant than that of getting a wider audience, but it’s still important. Creating news articles and blog posts can help remind former clients that you exist. Think of it as advertising, even though they may not need the information at hand.
Let’s say, for example, you provide a new study, create an article for it, and post it on your business’s social media. A former client may see the article post and thinks it’s interesting. They then see that your company posted it and remember that you exist. You are fresh on their mind if they ever need services or recommendations in your industry.
It’s advertising, just like posting a company tweet is advertising. Being on customers’ minds is always important to future business.
It Builds a Brand, Too
If you post consistent content that is helpful, informative, or entertaining, people will start to know your brand for that information. As we said, it’s not that you are attempting to become the next great news website, but you can establish a rapport with your readers and clients for being a great place for niche information.
Having a noticeable brand and consistent brand allows customers to relate to your company. In the modern age of platforms, movements, and a shift in ideals, consumers want to support companies that stand by similar morals. A blog can not only define your culture and concepts but push them to potential clients, allowing people to recognize your business as a brand.
A report by Lucidpress stated that consistent branding across all channels can increase revenue anywhere from 10% to 20%. The creation of said branding starts in your website design, believe it or not.
Consistently writing good and voice-filled content about a specific subject or industry can help you create said brand and culture.
I Don’t Have the Time or Staff
Time for some shameless self-promotion, baby!
Don’t have a blog for your business? Don’t want to go anywhere near writing and brand building? Don’t even have a great company website?
We will do it for you!
That’s right, you can get professional writers (like me) and designers to create content and pages for your business. And I’m that good, obviously.
At Bus Web Design, we handle both effective website creation and ongoing SEO and digital marketing tactics. Let us help get you to the top of search engines with a stellar and useful website!