What is a blog and is it necessary? Well, it’s no longer just a fad used by people to talk about their daily life. Nowadays, most businesses are using blogs to reach out and connect with their customers. With a blog, you have the opportunity to give your customers further insight into your products, services, and topics relevant to your business. Blogs make up a large portion of the webpages available online and they are here to stay. So, is blogging really necessary for your business? Yes, if you want to make the most of online marketing and reach as many potential customers as possible.
What are the Advantages of Blogging?
Before getting into the specifics of how you should go about adding blog articles to your website, let’s take a look at the primary reasons why blogging is beneficial. It can be hard to really visualize the importance of blogs, from an online marketing standpoint, without looking at the facts. Here are the main advantages to consider:
- Blogs allow the use more keywords
- You can easily add regularly updated content
- Visitors can share blog articles on social media
- You can establish yourself as an authority and leader in your niche
With a blog, you have the perfect opportunity to use specific keywords on your website and boost your search engine optimization. Keywords should always be carefully selected based on their monthly search volume and the level of competition you face using that keyword. Using online resources, such as Google AdWords, you can determine which keywords or keyword phrases will be most effective and narrow down your focus towards a specific niche category.
Another search engine optimization benefit provided by regular article posting is the fact that search engines can see that your website is active and updated consistently. Search engines tend to place an emphasis on fresh content in search engine rankings.
By making sure that you are adding relevant content to your site and blogging about topics that your visitors will find useful, you’re increasing the likelihood that your visitors will share the blog posts on social media. To put it simply, there is no real reason for a visitor share a random page from a business website. A blog article, on the other hand, should contain useful information that a visitor may wish to pass along to their friends or family on Facebook, Twitter, and social media platforms. This creates social media chatter, another factor used by search engines in determining search engine rankings.
Blogging also helps you establish you and your business as a voice of authority and a leader in the specific niche that you are focused on. Write about what you know. Use your knowledge to help keep your customers informed and explain in detail – topics that are related to your products or services. Not only does this increase the chances of customers wanting to share your articles, you may even find others in the same industry using your blog articles as a reference on their own websites. This builds backlinks and helps place your business as a leading source of information in your industry.
How Often Should You Post a Blog Article?
How often you post is going to be up to you, but I’ve found that posting a new article at least once per week is the most effective way to benefit from blogging. The frequency of your posts is important for several reasons. First, it gives your regular visitors a reason to check back and visit your website more than once. Gaining repeat visitors is one of the most difficult parts of online marketing. Posting on a consistent basis also provides a bonus to your search engine optimization. It shows Google and other search engines that your website is updated regularly and is likely to contain relevant information.
How Should You Promote Your Blog Posts?
There are many different options and techniques for promoting your blog posts. Every time you post a new blog article, a link should be shared to your social media profiles. This lets your social media followers know when a new article is posted, so you again gain that repeat traffic. Share your posts to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Also, make sure that your blog page contains links to your social media profiles. Your visitors should not have to search to find your social media profiles. And after reading a helpful article, they be more likely to start following you on Facebook or Twitter.
What Should You Blog About?
The topics of your blog articles will depend on your industry and your niche. Having a niche category within an industry helps you reach a target audience without as much competition. For my own business, I try to come up with a list of topics that I would like to discuss. Create a list and from there you can pick and choose what topics you want to cover during any particular week. Try to branch out and offer a wide range of blog articles, while ensuring you are still covering information that is relevant to your niche category. It’s also a good idea to post articles that are at least 500 words in length. This gives you enough room to create a helpful article, which can be expanded upon as needed
Start Growing Your Web Presence With Quality Blog Articles
Blogging is definitely a necessity for any modern business. It offers some of the best ways to reach more people, gain more social media followers, and show potential customers that you know what you are talking about. Blogging helps build trust between you and your customers, by providing content that they can actually use.
There are many different ways to get started with blogging, but I suggest you begin by looking at your entire online marketing approach. Increasing your web presence is the primary goal behind business blogging. By combining blogging with a quality website, regular social media activity, targeted email lists, and other online marketing techniques, you can create a successful strategy for expanding your web presence.
If you want to learn more about blogging and how your business can benefit, look over some of my other articles. I also offer a complete Web Presence Seminar that breaks down each of the steps involved in promoting your business through online marketing. Thank you for reading and feel free to contact me with any questions.