Nearly every business, large or small, has a blog (or vlog) attached to its website. If you’re not blogging for your business (or perhaps you started with a blog post or two and then became too busy and/or lost interest!) – why not?
Blogs are ten-a-penny nowadays – it seems every Tom, Dick and Harry (not to mention Jane, June and Jenny!) have plenty to say about all sorts of things. It’s easy to find a blog about any subject under the sun online, so perhaps you think adding to the global blogosphere is a waste of your time and effort, particularly if you’ve tried it and found that only a few people (probably your partner and your proud parents) bothered to read it anyway!
Like everything online, however, there are hidden depths to plumb here. Blogging is far more valuable than just the information a blog contains (although it is, of course, a useful conduit for communicating with customers).
There are numerous reasons why your small business can benefit from blogging:
1) SEO is vital if you are to stand out from the crowd in the morass of websites out there in cyberspace. (If you don’t know what SEO stands for, then don’t read any further! Instead, go away and Google the meaning of that important acronym!).
Adding a blog to your website is an important method of increasing your rankings with the search engines. Your website is probably, of necessity, largely static as far as content goes. Adding a new blog post on a regular basis will provide the fresh content that not only your visitors will enjoy, but also the search engines will index.
A word of warning though – blog posts won’t help SEO unless they are original, relevant and meaningful, incorporating distinctive keywords and phrases naturally.
2) Your blog serves as the voice of your company, informing and explaining about your products or services. It also builds a picture of your company’s opinions and character and allows you to engage with your customers in the form of comment and feedback.
3) Blogging allows you to share your expertise and experience, and gives you the opportunity to make your customers aware of these. In this respect blogging is good for public relations. Remember, though, you are blogging not bragging – so be subtle!
4) To be a good blogger, you need to keep on top of what’s hip and happening in your industry or field of endeavour. Blogging therefore ensures you keep your finger on the pulse, and your mind on the sharp end of your business, ever alert for blog topics and techniques.
5) Writing a blog gives you something worthwhile to post about on social media – it is there to be shared. In fact it can act as the core of your content marketing across all platforms and media.
6) Displaying a relevant, interesting blog and letting everyone know about it will increase traffic to your website, and give your customers confidence in using your goods or services. If you sound authoritative, potential customers will be drawn to do business with you.
So, what are you waiting for? Get blogging!