Any presence on the web makes your business more visible. But why do you need a blog? A business blog is a way of humanising your business and talking to your prospective customers; building a community if you like. It is also good practice for boosting your organic Search Engine Optimisation.
Here are 5 good reasons why it makes sense to have a business blog:
1. More traffic
Statistics produced by HubSpot suggest that a blog will bring you:55% more web visitors
97% more inbound links
434% more indexed pages by search enginesThis means a business blog helps to make your business more web-visible. Ultimately this will mean more opportunities to generate leads and sales – which is your ultimate goal in any form of marketing.
2. A human persona
A blog helps you communicate with your customers and potential clients. It gives your business a human ‘voice’ so that you can show your business’ personality. Visitors will feel like they know the sort of company you are and this helps to make them feel comfortable with you. Respond to any comments that visitors leave to keep up this human persona.We all know how great it is to be recognised when we visit an establishment in person. This is doing the same thing online.
3. Industry expert
Blogs or articles which go into your industry or products in more depth really help to authenticate your business and give you credibility. By explaining what you mean by ‘expert plumber’ or ‘professional logo designer’ – or why a business blog is a must for that matter – helps visitors to trust you. They also quickly learn that your blog is the place to go to find out things about your industry.
4. Good for SEO
A business blog is good as a search engine optimisation tool. Basically first and foremost, a blog is new content whether it’s an integral blog on your site or on a blog platform (as long as it links to your site). Search Engines love to see regular new content.With links from and to your blog (outbound and inbound) this is also a way of ensuring the search engines pick you up.Every time you post a new blog, make sure you Tweet about it or add a link on your Facebook or Google+ page. You can even pin a picture on Pinterest. All social media references encourage new inbound links.
5. Long tail search
Blogs are great for long-tail search. What do we mean by this term? Usually it’s a longer search query i.e. two or three words rather than one keyword.In a blog it is much easier to use longer terms both in the title and in the copy. These terms are often less popular more individual terms which when combined with more common keywords drive more traffic (70%) from the search engines to your site/blog.
A Few Essentials
- Regular blog posts are essential to keep up the momentum both for visitors and search engine robots. A business blog should have a new entry at least once a week but more is better.
- Remember they don’t have to be words! They could just be pictures or a video.
- They don’t need to be about products or services every time. Make them personal by reporting information about your company i.e. a charity event, an award or even a summer celebration. Show your personal side.
- If you don’t have time to write them, call in the experts, British Design Experts to write the copy for you.
