Approximately 55 percent of marketers say that creating blog content is their top priority when it comes to inbound marketing. Is blog content creation a priority for your business in 2020? Do you even have a blog at all?
If the answer to that last question is “no”, it’s time to change that. Blogging is essential if you want your business to continue growing and thriving in 2020 and beyond.
Read on to learn more about the importance of having an SEO marketing blog for your business.
Benefits of Blogging
There are lots of reasons why businesses of all sizes are focusing on blogging in 2020. The following are some of the greatest benefits blogging has been shown to provide:
Boost Search Engine Rankings
When it comes to boosting search engine rankings, starting a blog (and posting on a consistent basis) is one of the best things you can do to help people find your website and engage with your business.
Some of the ways in which blogging helps to improve your website’s SEO include the following:
- Publishing regular blog posts will keep your website fresh and current, something search engines will reward with higher rankings
- Having a blog helps to keep people on your website for longer periods of time; this lowers your bounce rate and increases your visibility
- Blogging makes it easier for you to target long-tail keywords and show up organically when people are searching for specific terms related to your business
- Having a blog creates lots of opportunities for you to include internal links in your online copy -- internal links are great for SEO
If you feel like your search engine rankings have taken a hit lately, or if you just want to maintain your top spot long-term, a blog can definitely help.
Improve Social Media Presence
A strong social media presence is essential for businesses that want to continue attracting new customers while also remaining relevant to their existing audience. It can be hard to come up with content to share on social media on a regular basis, though. This is where having a blog comes in very handy.
You can share your blog posts on social media to help “feed the algorithm” while also bringing people from social media sites over to your website. This, in turn, increases the likelihood that they’ll be converted from mere social media followers to customers of your business. They can also share your blog posts with their own followers, which can help you reach a wider audience and continue growing your business.
Increase Opportunities for Connection
A sense of connection is very important to consumers these days. They don’t just want to connect with their peers, but they also want to feel connected to the companies from which they buy products and services.
Having a blog provides you with a new avenue to connect with your current and potential customers and let them know that you care. Not only are you providing them with helpful information, but you can also engage with them in the comments section of your blog to answer questions or direct them toward other resources that might benefit them.
When people see you connecting with your readers on a regular basis and providing them with thought-out responses, they’ll see your business in a new light and will be more inclined to shop with you.
Communicate in a New Way
Blogging creates a new creative outlet for your business and your marketing team.
There are certain types of messages that are easier to get across in a blog post than in a short social media caption or video. If you want to provide customers with in-depth information about a product, service, or related topic, blogging is a great way to do this.
Blogging does require more work from you and the consumer, of course. However, it also provides them with a lot of value and can make a real difference in their lives.
Think about it this way, too. If someone is willing to invest their time in reading an entire blog post from your company, they’ll likely be more willing to invest their money in your products or services later.
Convert Traffic into New Leads
When you start publishing blog posts on a regular basis, chances are you’ll see an increase in website traffic. With the right approach, you can turn these new visitors into customers. The inclusion of calls-to-action at the end of your blog posts invites people to check out your business’s specific products or services.
You can also invite readers to leave their contact details in exchange for more information. For example, you could offer them a free eBook or consultation in exchange for their name and email address. This gives you more leads for your sales team to follow up with and potentially convert into paying customers.
Establish Credibility
Blogging gives you a chance to establish yourself (and the others who work for your business) as an industry expert. You can provide readers with valuable information and educate them on various topics.
As a result, they’ll be more inclined to turn to you in the future when they have questions or when they’re ready to invest in the specific product or service you sell. They’ll feel that they can trust you and will be confident spending their money with you instead of with some other company.
Generate More External Links
Finally, having a blog creates more opportunities for others to link back to you.
External links, like internal links, are great for SEO and help to boost your business’s credibility. If bloggers or other, related businesses are linking to your blog posts, you’ll see your traffic increase even more, along with increases in conversions and sales.
It can take time to establish a relationship with bloggers or related businesses to get them to link back to your blogs. With time, though, you can create genuine connections and help each other grow.
Blogging Tips for Businesses
Okay, you’re convinced that it’s a good idea to invest time and resources into blogging for your business. How do you get started, though? How do you create blog content people will actually want to read?
Here are some tips to keep in mind as you begin your blogging journey:
Research Your Competitors
A good starting point for businesses looking to get into the blogging game is to do some research into their competitors. Take a look at what your competition is doing when it comes to blogging.
What kind of posts do they publish? How long are they? What topics do they cover? How often do they publish?
The goal here is not to copy your competitors. It’s to gain inspiration for your own blog and to see if there are any gaps that you can fill. For example, maybe none of your competitors are talking about how to use a specific product or addressing all the benefits that come with a particular service.
If you can address these issues for the first time, or address them from a new angle, you’ll be able to attract more readers away from your competitors and over to your blog. This, in turn, can help them to become customers of yours later on.
Set Clear Goals
It’s important to sit down and think about what you want to get from your blog, too.
Who are you trying to reach with your posts? What do you want them to do after they’ve read one?
Get clear on the tone for your blog as well. Do you want to write very formal, information-heavy posts with lots of scientific references? Do you want your posts to be more casual and conversational?
There’s not a right or wrong answer here. It all depends on your target audience and the type of impression you want them to get when they read your blog.
Invest in the Best Blogging Resources
These days, it’s pretty easy to create a blog on your own without spending a lot of money. When it comes to blogging (as with anything else in business or in life), though, you get what you pay for.
If you want a unique, eye-catching blog that looks professional and helps to foster the kind of credibility you’re after, it’s in your best interest to invest in the services of a web developer. They can help you create a high-quality blog that will be the envy of all your competitors. They can ensure that it runs in the most efficient way and works across a wide range of devices, too.
Yes, it’ll cost you more money upfront. It’ll be worth it in the long run, though, when it helps you to attract more traffic and boost your search engine rankings in a major way.
Create a Content Calendar
If you want your blog to really bolster your business, you need to make sure you’re posting on a consistent basis.
Figure out how often you can blog (once a week, once every two weeks, once a month?) and then create a content calendar so you know what you’re going to be writing about each week. This will save you from running into writer’s blog and falling into a trap of inconsistency because you don’t know what to say.
Try to plan out your content calendar at least a month in advance. This will help you streamline your process and ensure you’re always providing quality content to your audience.
Focus on Quality
When you start thinking about how often you can post, it’s easy to assume that more is better. In many cases, this is true. However, don’t sacrifice quality for quantity.
It won’t benefit your business long-term to post lots of low-quality, fluff-filled content. It would be better to post one high-quality blog post every two weeks instead of short, empty posts every day.
Remember, search engines will reward you for post length and overall quality. If it seems like you’re posting short, keyword-stuffed content without a lot of substance to it, your blog could get penalized and you could end up seeing a lower search engine ranking as a result.
Promote Your Posts
Make sure you’re promoting your blog posts after you write them. This includes sharing them on social media as well as to the people who are on your email list.
Reach out to bloggers and social media influencers, too. They can help you spread the word about your posts and reach a wider audience.
This helps you to build credibility, too, since these people (generally) already have a large following and a network of people who trust them and their recommendations. If they recommend your blog post, more people are going to check it out than would if you weren’t connected with other influential individuals.
Make Posts Easy to Read
It’s important for your blog to look nice and be easy for readers to navigate their way through. Remember, too, that it’s also important for your posts to look nice and be easy to navigate. This means that you should avoid bombarding them with huge walls of text written in tiny font.
Focus on using white space and short paragraphs to allow for easy readability. Keep your sentences short, too, and use bulleted lists so people can get the gist of a post without necessarily having to read every single word.
Breaking your posts down into smaller sections and labelling those sections with headers that include your target keywords will also help to boost your search engine rankings and make it easier for people to find your blog (and your website, by default) online.
Start Blogging Today
Now that you know more about why having an SEO marketing blog matters to the success of your business, it’s time to start blogging.
Keep the tips outlined above in mind and you’ll start reaping the benefits of regular blogging before you know it. Don’t forget to reach out to a web development expert as well if you need help creating your blog as well.
Remember, it’s not enough just to have great content. It also needs to look great and be easy for people to read, and a developer will help you get there.