WebsiteSetup estimates there are 1.7 billion existing websites with around 500,000 new websites being created every day. That’s a lot of websites and you need to make yours stands out.
Introducing, blog posting!
Whether you’re a B2B or B2C business, you can really benefit from having a blog on your website. Not only do blog posts increase traffic to your website, but they can also be used to promote your products or services, boost your leads, and even build trust and loyalty with existing and potential customers.
We’ve put together an article explaining exactly how your business can capitalise off blog posts. Read on for how to catapult your brand to success.
Increase traffic to your website
Search engines like Google rank websites against a top-secret criterion in order to determine the order it displays websites on the search engine results. Through trial and error, we know some the criteria involve the number of backlinks a website has, webpage loading speeds, and site design but above all, search engines care most about the quality of user experience.
Google ranks content that helps users find what they’re looking for very highly and this is where having blogs on your website can really benefit your business. Producing engaging blog content tells Google you are source of information for people to access. This is favoured by Googles algorithm and it will reward your website with a high spot on the search engine results. The higher up your website is on the search engine results, the more likely your link is to be noticed and clicked on (increased traffic). Just be sure to post regularly, the more content Google has to crawl, the stronger your ranking score.
Establish a brand voice and increase brand loyalty
Blogs can range anywhere from 500 words to 1000’s of words so they’re a good way to get across your brand voice. Consumers are more likely to buy into the personality of a brand and are even more likely to become a repeat customer if a brand resonates with them personally. If you are a business in an industry that has lots of complicated jargon, blogs are a great way for you to connect with potential customers who are interested in your products/services but perhaps don’t connect with the specialist terminology used in your everyday content. Humans are social beings who crave experiences over things so humanising your brand will benefit your efforts to convert potential customers.
Highlight your expertise
There are probably thousands of other businesses offering a similar product/service that you are, so you need to stand out. Oberlo found that 81% of surveyed consumers said they need to be able to trust a brand in order to buy from them. Blogs are a great way to show customers that you’re not only knowledgeable in your industry but that you are also passionate about your industry. Having blog content that showcases your expertise gives a reason for a potential customer to trust your brand but more importantly, trust their money with your brand.
Engage with your audience
Write about relevant trending topics that your target market will want to engage with. Make them want to read the whole article and anticipate the release of the next blog post.
A feature option that most blogs have is a comments section and we 100% recommend you enable it. It allows for discussion about your blog post which tells search engines that people find value in your content which attests to a higher ranking and even more engagement! Also, don’t be afraid to receive criticism in your comment section, constructive criticism can really help to finetune your websites user experience.
The SEO benefits are long-term
The Google algorithm can take months to rank a webpage so the effort it takes to write a blog post is sometimes only seen months or even years from when it was first posted. This may sound like a negative but it’s a good thing for your business. Not every blog post will produce tonnes of leads, but the idea is that for every 10 decaying blog posts you upload, you’ll have 1 compounding blog post. A decaying blog post is a post that generates a surge of traffic in the beginning but very quickly drops whereas a compounding blog posts traffic steadily increases over time. A compounding blog post can produce as many webpage visits as 6 decaying posts (Hubspot) so It’s definitely worth incorporating regular blog posts to your website. Regular blogging ensures a steady stream of traffic and leads to your website that you don’t have to pay for and it’ll carry on for as long as you leave your blog posts up!
Repurpose content
One of the biggest marketing life hacks is repurposing content. It’s taking elements of an existing piece of content, changing its format, and reposting it elsewhere. Repurposing your content can save you time, energy, and money and at the same time increase your reach and leads. With 60% of marketers reusing blog content at least 2-3 times, it’s no secret that blogs are great pieces of content to repurpose. As blog articles usually encompass a wealth of knowledge about a specific area, there are plenty of ways to reuse the content on various platforms through adverse medias. For example, you can turn a blog post into a podcast, a webinar, or even use it to generate leads on an advert… the opportunities are endless.
Just a note… if you are going to repurpose your blog posts, don’t use your blog copy word-for-word. Duplicate content can have a negative impact on your search engine optimisation!
Conclusion
Blog posting is a great way to increase website traffic and leads for your business and if you don’t already have a blog section on your website, you absolutely should!
Many businesses don’t bother with blogs as they may feel they don’t have the time to keep up with regular posting or the expertise to produce guaranteed results. This is a valid concern but there are lots of marketing agencies and freelancers that can advise you on blog post topics, keywords (SEO) and even write the blogs for you for very reasonable prices.
Ultimately, blogging is a process that requires time and patience. But if given enough time, the rewards are well worth your investment, and you will continue to be rewarded well into the future…oh, and did we mention it’s free!
