Once you’ve launched a website for your business, you may assume the hard work is over, but having a revamped site is half the battle — now the challenge is to bring in traffic.
It might not be your first thought, but blogging can be a great way to bring traffic for your new website in the long term. It’s an inexpensive, easy-to-use, marketing solution that allows you to promote your company, position your brand, and grow your online presence. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that blogs are capable of producing a significant number of leads, especially since consumers desire to learn about brands from content rather than traditional advertising – in fact, 70% of people would rather learn about a company through articles than an advert!
So, how exactly does blogging help your business? By definition, blogging is “is an online journal or informational website displaying information…where a writer or a group of writers share their views on an individual subject.” Blogging can be informal and conversational, while other blogs can serve as an educational resource, but one thing they all have in common: blogs are a great way to get yourself in front of your target audience. Here’s how blogs can help you do just that:
1. Improve SEO
To bring in traffic to your site and be found by your target audience, you need rank highly in search engine result pages (SERPs). Blogging may help you accomplish this goal because the quantity of fresh material produced on your website and the number of indexed pages are taken into account when evaluating and ranking it. Every time you create and publish a new blog post, search engines index the page on your site, creating another chance to show up in SERP and drive traffic to your site. According to Comalytics, websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links than their competitors! As you continue to write blogs for your site, the more content and rich keywords you use, the more likely you’ll be to stand out from the competition and rank higher on search results pages. However, to really make your blog work for you, your content needs to also be fresh and relevant. More indexed pages is great but not if their content is irrelevant – it is always a balance of quality and quantity.
2. Expand Your Brand
A blog gives you the ability to add a personal touch and show your potential audience that they are more than just a number – a key element to retaining return users on your site. Businesses can come across as cold and calculated, but blogging allows you to provide value-added content that allows your target audience to understand why you became a business owner, and what makes your mission and/or product reliable.
This is an important distinction that the DemandMetric makes in their infographic which states, that states 60% of consumers like reading relevant content written by brands, 82% feel more positive about a company after reading their relevant content, and 70% of customers ultimately feel closer to a company as a result of the content that company produces. Based on these statistics, blogging is an excellent way to make your customers feel comfortable and show them the human side of doing business!
3. Establish Trust
Content marketing allows you to convey your business’s value and expertise in a way that advertising may not be able to. Your blog posts gives potential clients or customers the chance to get familiar with who you are as a company, what you do, and the value you provide. A blog will help your company look more professional and be perceived as a thought leader within your industry. If you can anticipate and answer common questions, viewers will inevitably trust your brand and rely on you for industry-related information. Being able to increase trust with your audience and entice them to choose you over a less-knowledgeable competitor is invaluable, and can lead to higher conversion rates.
4. Continued Education
Your blog may be helpful when it comes to educating your audience, but it’s worth remembering that blogging allows you to continue learning and growing as a company also! Businesses that blog can actually become more knowledgeable within their own industry over time because researching and writing about your own industry requires you to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, news stories, case studies, etc. A blog provides a great outlet for “self” improvement because it allows marketing leaders to explore topics that they may not have been exposed to otherwise!
In today’s digital world, a blog is an essential component of marketing for any company. Not only does the right content make it easier to find your business via Google search and thus effectively drive traffic to your website, blogging gives you and your audience a better understanding of your company and product.
Have you been missing out on the benefits of having your own blog? Contact us today to learn how we can help get your business noticed through blogging and content marketing!