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Five Reasons Why You Should Add a Blog to Your Business Website
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Running a business is hard.
Whether you’re a small business, solopreneur or are working with a team, your to-do list is probably fit to burst already.
That’s why working smart and picking our the right priorities is so important.
There’s no escaping it, getting a blog up and running and – more importantly – keeping it updated takes a lot of time and energy.
And with all the other tasks jamming up our overflowing to-do lists, it’s no surprise that so many business owners never bother starting a blog, or they do begin one but quickly lose any kind of consistency.
That doesn’t mean neglecting your business blog is a good idea, though. In fact, the very fact that maintaining a blog is tough represents a great opportunity for those who recognise the true value that a strategic blog can provide for their businesses.
A poor blog presence, or a complete lack of it, can really cost you in the long run.
So I want to share the 5 top reasons why you should really move writing a regular blog for your business website up your to-do list.
1. Your blog can help your business stand out
Depending on how competitive your industry is, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. As Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson say in the book Rework:
Competitors can never copy the you in your product.
Every business – no matter how big or small – is run by people. Even if they have the same offer and look similar on the surface, no two businesses are alike.
Behind every business is a unique founding story – maybe you run a business that you started as a teenager in your garage, or decided to start a business to make an impact on a cause that’s close to your heart.
These are the stories that your audience is going to connect with on a deeper, more emotional level.
Your blog is the perfect place to loosen your tie and show a bit of personality. Let your audience in behind the scenes a little, show them who you are, and always remember that the content should be interesting to them.
Don’t make it all about you, or you’ll lose your readers quickly. People don’t really want to hear about how many clients you’ve won, or who’s joined the company. They want information that is interesting to them – think advice, ideas and inspiration.
2. A blog makes Google fall in love with your website
Publishing your business website is a big milestone. But the truth is, it’s only the start of the journey.
Too many website are left to fester online, with minimal updates and new content ever added.
Every website needs care, maintenance and updates. If you neglect it, you will start to see a decline in visitors and your website – which you have invested all of that time, energy and money into – will fade into obscurity.
While you should feel excited and proud when you manage to get your dream website up and running, the work doesn’t stop there – you really want to make Google love your website too.
To do that, you need to consistently publish fresh and high-quality content. And that’s where your blog is the perfect tool to help you.
If you have a regularly updated, helpful blog, Google is going to start sitting up and taking notice. Over time, the search engine behemoth is going to start sending more and more visitors your way. This is the basic foundation of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
To get your slice of Uncle Google’s love, make sure your blog posts are interesting, high quality and offer actual value to a reader who stumbles across them.
3. Publishing a business blog builds your authority
In most cases, people are going to land on your blog posts because they are interested in working with you and want to check that you are legit, or because they are seeking the answer to a specific question they’ve googled. They will often be looking for information or a solution to a problem they are facing.
So they type it into Google looking for the answer. In an ideal world, your site and your blog is going to have the answers to help them resolve their problem.
So to attract the right people to your website, you need to know your target audience inside out, what they struggle with and how you can actually help them.
As you start to solve more and more problems, and demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, you will gradually come to be seen as an expert in your field. You might not feel like it, but if you know more than 95% of the general public about a topic, you are an expert. If you’re able to consistently blog and demonstrate this knowledge and skill, then you are going to become more and more trusted, relevant and noticed within your business niche.
Even better, the simple act of writing helpful, informative blogs will actually help you to learn more and more about your areas of expertise. The very best way to learn a new topic and check whether you really understand it is to try and teach it – so give it a try – you’ll be amazed at how confident you soon feel about what you’re writing.
4. A blog attracts your target audience and turns readers into buyers
As you get comfortable blogging regularly, sooner or later, you will start to see significant traffic coming through to your blog.
Don’t forget that your website’s role is probably to help you sell more or get your name out there – so every website visitor is a potential lead, whether they land on a specific sales page or on a blog post.
So how can you convert these casual blog readers into leads?
It’s very simple – just add a straightforward call-to-action (CTA) to every post. This is a simple way to bring attention to how you can help them furtherwithout being too salesy.
Of course, this isn’t going to convert every reader into a juicy lead – and that’s fine. It’s a numbers game and the more relevant visitors your attract to your blog, the more people you can impress and help.
When you start impressing and helping people, you’ll find they remember you and reach out to you for help in other areas. Many blogs also tell the reader how to solve a problem. The reader then realises they need someone to help them solve that problem and they reach out to you for that help.
So start blogging regularly, add CTAs to each blog post, track your conversion rates and aim for constant improvement. If you have an advertising budget, you can even start to retarget visitors who have checked out your website.
5. Blogs can be repurposed to save time
I know, I know – writing a blog takes a lot of time and feels like hard work. So if you’re going to commit to it, you want to squeeze as much mileage out of it as possible. A great way to do this is to repurpose your content.
Once you’ve written a blog, look out for key points and sections that you could transform into social media posts. Could you use the blog as an outline for a YouTube video, or as inspiration for a podcast discussion? Be sure to fully mine and exploit your own blogs to save time in the long run and get more content out there.
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More from the blog:
Why clarity is key when it comes to your business website
How does your website make you feel?
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