When 2010 rolled around, it felt like every other person had a blog. CEOs? Check. Amateur chefs? Check. Avid travellers? Check. Moms? Check. Businesses? Hmm. Not so much. But why not? After all, people come to your website to see what products and services you offer, and what kind of company you are, right?
The first question we hear you asking is whether blogs are even still relevant in 2020? It’s a fair question. After all, there’s only so much time in the day, so why would you invest your time in writing a business blog? The answer is simple: traffic.
A blog offers you the opportunity to potentially get a lot more eyes on your website, educating potential clients, and generating leads. Unless people are already acquainted with your business, they won’t Google you specifically. They’ll Google similar products and services. It makes sense, then, to dominate those keywords online and ensure your business ranks right at the very top of the list. By creating a business blog, you dramatically improve your chances of ranking… and who knows, it may convert new visitors into customers.
Creating a blog can be quite daunting, as there is a lot to learn – especially around search engine optimization (SEO). This refers to the techniques used to get your posts ranking at the top of Google’s results page, and can feel like opening a can of worms. If you don’t have time to figure it all out yourself, remember you can always outsource. But if you’re ready to learn all there is to know, then keep on reading!
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What is a business blog?
We all know that having a website is important. It’s your own little piece of digital real estate, and one of few things on the internet you’ll ever fully control. Blogs are essentially signposts that increase virtual foot traffic into your business to that you can make sales. While Google is known to change its algorithms, affecting your rankings, blogs are not nearly as volatile as social media results that can spike or plummet overnight.
Blogs have come a long way since the weblogs, or diary updates, that first started in the mid-90s. Nowadays, a “blog” simply refers to the section of your website that gets updated on a regular basis. It’s designed to keep your website fresh and relevant, and keep the Google algorithm happy, so it keeps ranking your articles as high as possible. This means it works very differently to regular webpages, which generally focus on sales.
Content marketers believe in the creation of blogs as a marketing strategy because they have seen the results. On average, companies that have a blog section on their website produce 67% more leads monthly compared to companies that don’t. Alongside the additional leads, blogs also increase brand loyalty by bringing in new readers and interacting with them in a meaningful way… which can boost revenue.
Let’s talk about SEO
The best way to grow traffic to your website is by creating the kinds of content people are actively looking for in search engines like Google. Once they click through to your website and see that you know what you’re talking about, it will be much easier to convert them into a paying customer. The best way to do this is to take a look your website analytics, so you can see the kinds of pages people are most interested in reading about.
However, creating a lead generating content strategy is not as simple as writing something that you think your audience might like and throwing it up on the internet. These days, it’s important to have an SEO strategy in place that will allow you to build up content and keywords on your website that are relevant to your audience and to your product or service. This means that you should be thinking about what your consumer might be looking for and using the available SEO tools to see whether they actually are. This way, you’re letting the customers come to you on their own than paying for their clicks.
How do I write a blog?
There are many types of blogs that you can create for your business. Truthfully, you can turn almost anything into a blog post, as long as it’s something your target audience will find valuable. This can include handy how-to guides, news items relevant to your industry or business, think pieces, infographics, listicles, cheat sheets, interviews, guest blogs, commentary on current news items, key terms explained, and much more.
Whichever type of content you decide to write, make sure you start your blog strategy with a clear goal in mind and a realistic path to reach that goal. Know who you want to reach, what they’re looking for, where they hang out online, and most importantly, what action you want them to take when they click through to your website.
An essential part of a successful blog strategy is keyword research. To put this simply, you need to pick the best combination of words that describe your business and DOMINATE. The researching phase is critical, so you might want to consider engaging a SEO professional to ensure you’re on the right track. This will help you work as efficiently and effectively as possible, by finding words that are well-trafficked but not too competitive.
Once you’re confident about your selection, create a content calendar so that you know how your target keywords are going to work together in real-time. This way, you and your team will know what’s coming up, so you can plan ahead to create high-quality content whilst building up authority in those essential keywords.
Should I start a blog in 2020?
Yes! A thousand times yes. Blogs are a powerful tool to drive traffic to your website, and a well-executed content strategy has proven to be one of the most efficient ways to grow your business by boosting your online traffic. With every blog post, you are adding relevant keywords to your website. This, in turn, signals to Google that you have a highly-relevant business within your industry, so the algorithm sends more traffic your way.
A business blog allows you to provide your target audience with value that they cannot get from a sales or landing page. Modern consumers research the brands that they’re planning to purchase from, which means education and transparency are more important than ever. Consumers want companies to be helpful and provide them with value before they are willing to invest. Having a blog allows you to provide that information, to educate your customer about your service or product, to capture their attention, to build trust, and to create a positive connection. If the end-goal is to drive the sales of your business, this is a fantastic way to get started!
Need a little help getting started? Outsource to the professionals!
