No, it’s not enough into today’s competitive online world to simply have a savvy, easily-navigated website. Adding a blog is like giving the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz a heart, it draws people to your company and gives them a peek into the company’s personality. It converts your online business from a money-making impersonal machine, into an individualized enterprise with a heart and soul.
An online business broker will also tell you that very importantly, it’s an SEO engine. Every blog post embedded with your keywords draws the search engines’ eyes your way, hopefully creating a more favorable position in the search engines for your website. And everyone knows that a more favorable search engine position means higher traffic and the possibility for increased sales.
Blogs allow you and your employees to share industry expertise with the rest of the world. By building your reputation as a knowledgeable person in your particular industry, you are also building yourself up as a leader for customers to turn to when they need questions answered or even products purchased.
By creating a blog on your site, you can multiply those efforts by duplicating the blog on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Blog posts fit nicely into newsletters and emails, as well. An online business broker will tell you that by blogging once, your marketing efforts increase exponentially.
In addition to creating free public relations, blogging also opens up communications between your company and customers and potential customers. By allowing them to comment on blog posts, they feel appreciated and you are able to help personalize your service and product efforts on their behalf.
Online companies are everywhere. They may not literally be a dime a dozen but they all want your attention, your business and your loyalty. By creating a blog for your company, you stay ahead of the curve while also giving your company its own voice. Your blog can introduce new products, talk about market trends, and can cement your brand into your customers’ minds.
According to a survey performed by HubSpot, a full 60% of businesses that blog gain more customers. Clearly, whether you’re in the process of selling a website and trying to improve the overall look of the website, or just trying to draw in more traffic, creating a blog of interest to your customers is a win-win proposition.
An authority blog becomes the authoritative voice on a subject related to your products, services, or the industry you operate in. You want that authority blog to become one of the top sources people visit if they’re looking for information on your topic or niche field.
Having a blog on your website that’s recognized as authoritative, your business will get several critical benefits, since the blog helps to build:
Those are just some of the rewards you get from an Authority Blog.
To get started launching an authority blog, first, start doing your prep work. Think about what niche field the blog is targeted to, and who the audience is. Who are you creating the blog for, and what kind of knowledge do you want to share with readers?
You need to determine who will create the content, and you want to develop a long-term content plan that helps you attract a loyal audience that comes back to read each new edition of the blog.
So, start by knowing your stuff. You want your educational and informative blog to become a useful tool for people, one that addresses their concerns and provides solutions. That’s how you build trust with your audience, bringing authority to your blog and your website. There are additional ways to build expertise, including:
Next, you want to create high-quality and engaging content. You want the best possible blog for your readers, and that includes not just how it’s written, but also keyword research that ensures your blog ranks highly in Google search engines.
Create a content calendar for when the blogs will be developed, completed, and published. Posting blogs on regularly scheduled dates can be attractive to your readers, giving them something to look forward to reading.
Blogs are a great way to boost your search engine optimization. Blogs should be filled with long-tail SEO keywords that help your website get higher rankings in Google’s search engines. To get as many eyes on your blog posts as possible, you need to follow the algorithms that Google establishes for what it considers authoritative content. If you get this right, your chances of attracting free organic search traffic will shoot up significantly. An SEO-friendly blog can mean thousands of clicks, rather than just a handful, so it’s important to understand how to optimize your blog.
The top five spots on Google’s front page now generate 70% of all clicks, so you want to invest in a blog SEO strategy that gets you high up there. That makes it much easier for readers to find you. If there is a highly searched query in your niche vertical, one that is reaching thousands of visitors daily, you want to be certain your blog is using those keywords through the content. The only other option is running Pay-Per-Click ad campaigns, but that can get very expensive. The organic traffic from smart SEO is free.
A first-page ranking in search engines also helps give your blog authority. It signals to both Google and your readers that you’re offering quality content.
So, do your homework first. Understand the topics people are searching for within your niche and find the ones with the highest search volume. Find broadly targeted keywords related to your products, services, and industry, and create a master list of long-tail keywords.
Besides keywords, focus on creating a quality experience for your readers by providing them with useful and original content. That truly remains the driving force behind an authority blog. At the same time, you want to be certain your website is easy to navigate and that the site has other authority-building pages designed to help build your brand’s credibility. That should include:
There are plenty of ways to drive traffic to your website through a blog. That can include writing about topics that you know people are searching for, reaching out to the people mentioned in your posts, and creating external links to related blog posts.
You can also create internal links that direct readers to other important pages on your website, including product pages, your About Us, or your Contact information.
Ask readers to sign up for newsletters that send them a link to each new blog as it gets published.
It’s also important to promote your content in online communities, particularly in social media conversations. Posting information about your blogs on social media sites can help you generate traffic to the blog (and your website), and boost social engagement with your social media followers. Doing so requires your team to devote some time to encouraging conversations about your blogs, then using those conservations to pique interest in your content.
Another opportunity is to get your friends and family, and their friends and family, to help generate initial interest in your blog by reposting it and commenting on it. Tapping into family and friends is a surprisingly easy way to provide valuable traction to your blog.
It’s also important to find ways to engage with readers on social media sites such as Instagram. By using your posts to engage with followers – rather than simply hoping for “likes” – you can tap into a virtual army of passionate consumers on Instagram who care about the type of products you’re marketing. Find people with interests in your niche or field by searching relevant keywords in their bios and profiles. Use high-quality photos and videos in your posts. Discuss related, quality-of-life issues that people are interested in, as well as information about your products and services.
Look for opportunities to help people, and to add value to the conversations you have with them. Don’t make it feel like simply a sales pitch.
Instagram Reels are a good way to promote upcoming specials or promotions only available to your followers.
Promptly answer any questions your followers have, and proactively engage with them.
Any business, large or small, can benefit from a blog. Blogs are a great way to communicate with your customers and help build up your customer demographics. Blogs enable businesses to make themselves known and strengthen their relationship with existing clients. This is true regardless of what industry you’re operating in.
There are different ways for businesses to use a blog, even if the central goal remains the same: to convert readers into customers and to increase your SEO organically.
So, what are some other benefits of blogging for your business?
Starting a blog for your business can provide numerous long-term benefits, including:
If you want to make sales, blogs can help drive both conversions and profits. The more people learn about your company and your products, the more likely they are to purchase from you. A blog is a great vehicle for delivering the kind of information your customers are looking for – and to find additional ways to encourage them to make a purchase.
Blogs can also help customers understand more about what they’re buying, and the benefits of using your products.
Businesses can increase traffic to their website using a blog, a huge benefit at a time when the internet is super crowded. By improving your search engine rankings using SEO keywords, more readers can find you by seeking information available in your blog.
Blogging is also a great way to educate consumers about your business and give them insights into how you operate and how your products solve problems. For example, you can use a blog to:
Best of all, blogs enable you to advertise your business – for free. It’s a form of marketing that promotes organic traffic. Outside of the time spent writing the blog, the traffic you get from it comes free, without the kind of costs that go into Pay-Per-Click ad spending.
One of the key tasks for your business is nurturing strong relationships between you and your customers. Blogs can help you do that.
In addition to your website, a blog helps put a face to your business, letting your readers learn more about what you do, what your company’s values are, and greater details about your products and services.
Blogs are a way to make customers feel better about buying from your business. That is why adding blogging to your overall marketing strategy is not only smart but very likely to bring more customers to your website. Blogs are considered among the top three marketing channels that deliver the highest ROI.
Why are blogs so effective?
First, people read blogs because they enjoy learning new things. Some of the most popular blogs include:
These posts tend to gain a large amount of search traffic, which is exactly what your business wants. But blogs don’t need to instruct people on how to do something to gain traction. They can also discuss topics that people care about or want to learn more about. People love getting new information that enriches them. Using topics that people want to learn about can be the perfect gateway to tapping into their curiosity about your brand and products.
People also tend to read blogs for another reason: they like being entertained. People enjoy blogs that share interesting stories, are humorous, and provide a unique perspective.
Entertaining blogs can be enhanced by adding:
If you can find ways to make the sharing of knowledge entertaining, your blog should do very well.
One of the best reasons to invest in blogging is the role it plays in lead generation. As HubSpot has noted, 60 percent of consumers regularly read their favorite blogs. You might think that just means solid organic traffic to your website, but it can mean more than that. If conversions are your main goal, blogs can accomplish that. There are proven methods for converting blog visitors to leads.
Getting online traffic to your blog is the first step in the conversion tunnel, but you can also use your SEO to drive more traffic to the blog. That includes the use of keywords that people are searching for online.
Next comes lead generation, the process of attracting prospective customers who are known as leads. You can use your blogs to ask people to sign up for future content by providing their email addresses. Once you get that contact information, you work to move the customer from their initial interest to considering a purchase and then making the conversion by completing the sale. Creating valuable lead magnets is essential to this process. A proven method for getting people to provide their email and contact information to offer a downloadable eBook or other item for free. Free resources have a proven track record of success in creating lead magnets.
How else can bloggers generate leads? Especially since reading entertaining content doesn’t guarantee that someone will purchase from your business.
Bloggers do that by including a “Call to Action” within the blog, where they either encourage the reader to share their information (email address, etc.) or encourage them to take action, such as:
This is one of the most effective ways to go about putting the reader through the buying process. CTAs in blog posts have proven highly effective in the past, assuming it’s backed up by high-quality content.
Additional tools to generate leads from blogging include:
Creating Content in 2024 has meant using blogs to fulfill the needs of your readers. It’s that simple. You want to tap into and motivate your audience to keep reading your blog posts. Their motivations could include a desire to get:
If your content is interesting, that makes it much easier to plug your products, especially if you can relate them to the topics being discussed in the blog.
Customers can find value in your blog in multiple ways. Some businesses include free offers of some kind at the end of each blog post. Customers are then asked to fill out a quick form requesting the free resource and are asked if they want to be contacted about future offers. By doing this, readers feel like they’re getting something unique simply by reading your blog.
It’s also important to keep in mind that blogs are not all about business. Some of the most popular and successful blogs focus on hobbies and specialty interests that millions of people share.
Educating your readers on something is what informs, instructs, and guides users, making the content that much more valuable.
Your readers could be looking to learn something, conducting research for a work project at work, or simply looking for a fun read. Educational blogs are ideal for that.
However, having an authority blog isn’t just about being seen as knowledgeable and trustworthy. It’s also crucial to provide that same impression to search engines by convincing Google that your blogs are authoritative. The more trustworthy that your blog ranks accounting to Google’s standards, the higher you can rank in their search engines.
To understand why blogs are important and the advantages of blogs in business, consider that blogging drives traffic. Blogging is a keyway for people to find your website.
To drive traffic to their website, companies have used Pay-Per-Click ads on Google, and social media postings. While PPC ads can work just fine, that requires a costly marketing budget upfront. Social media posts can be effective at providing organic traffic but are limited to your social media followers.
Blogs go a step further. If your blog is informative, has all the right SEO keywords and backlinks, and contains solid content, you can reach a much wider audience, which will deliver higher levels of organic traffic to your site. That’s free traffic.
Readers can’t find your website if they’ve never heard of you, but blogs are a great way to introduce them to your brand. Blogging gets your site listed in Google’s search results and provides them with content they want to see. It’s one of the most cost-effective tools for promoting your website.
Humanizing your brand should be one of your top priorities. Don’t think of it as an option but a necessity. If readers are going to invest their time in reading your blog, you need to give them reasons to do so. So, you want to humanize your brand.
That means creating a style of communication in your blogs that people can relate to, and personalizing it so a wide swath of readers feel like you’re speaking to them.
Humanizing your brand is a more creative way of interacting with customers and making a meaningful connection.
Why is humanizing your brand so important? Doing so will help you to:
The added level of personalization that you get from humanizing your brand is important. It’s what helps customers connect with your brand, your marketing efforts, and your website messaging. So, strive to make your voice real, to create a tone that’s personal, engaging, and approachable. Always remember the human element.