A decade ago, companies mainly used blogging to journal thoughts or share company updates. But, as online user behaviour and Google’s algorithm has advanced, blogging today presents a new way to connect, and get in front of your online audience.
In fact, the benefits of blogging are so powerful, that it should be considered an integral part of your overall marketing strategy, rather than a mere afterthought.
So if you’re looking to enhance your SEO, and your website doesn’t yet have a blog (or you’re not fully sold on the idea), then read on to find out why you are missing a vital trick...
1) Blogging improves keyword ranking and visibility
Each time a new blog is uploaded, it is crawled and indexed by search engines as a new page, which presents a new opportunity to rank for search queries!
With so much information on the web, we can agree that most of us turn to Google to answer our questions before we look anywhere else. It’s no wonder that search queries beginning with ‘why’ or ‘how’ has increased drastically within the last few years.
Writing blog posts that match up with what your customers are searching for will boost your visibility online. And if you’re wondering how you actually find out what they’re searching for, we recommend using free tools like www.answerthepublic.com to get started.
2) It pulls in organic traffic, from all stages of the buyer journey
Blogging can be used to reach audiences who are at the start of the buyer journey, those who are the endpoint ready to buy, and those in-between.
Taking our industry as an example, a search query for somebody at the beginning of the cycle might be ‘What Is SEO?’
Whereas somebody ready to buy might type in ‘How to decide which SEO agency to choose’
The former would be looking to educate themselves, and the latter would be ready to enquire about it.
Being visible to customers throughout the entire marketing funnel will increase your chances of generating leads.
3) Increases engagement on your website
You may not know this, but one of Google’s ranking factors calculates how engaged users are with your website. This includes the average time spent on a page, and whether or not they click through to other pages before exiting.
Adding internal links to your blogs can improve the click-through rate by redirecting readers to other relevant content and pages. And, given that your blogs are well written, it will increase the average time that they’re spending on your site – overall boosting its SEO.
4) You can outshine competitors
Blogging not only increases your chances of ranking above your competitors’ websites, but it’s a chance to educate your audience by writing about what they need to know.
Showing that you are the expert in your field, or on a particular subject matter nurtures customers' trust, and can even position your company as thought leaders in the marketplace.
6) Can be integrated into your social media or email marketing strategy
Whether you’re trying to grow your engagement on social media or through email marketing, we all know that creating new and original content is challenging.
But if your website posts a blog each week, this can be seamlessly shared through these mediums to gain engagement and drive traffic back to your website.
7) Every business has something to write about!
You may think your business just isn’t exciting enough to talk about. This is a common concern for B2B sectors, and you may think that nobody will want to read about what you have to offer.
But don’t be mistaken!
Regardless of the industry you specialise in, there will be hundreds of frequently asked questions that potential customers ask, and each has the opportunity to be formed into a blog post.
But I’m not good at writing! Or I don’t have time…
At Website Success, we are a leading digital agency in the South of the UK with a team of SEO trained copywriters to help you out.
To get started on a content marketing strategy, call us directly on 01243 888555 or book a chat with Nick here.
