Question: does your website have an up-to-date blog? I hate to say it, but already I’m with you, saying a sheepish, “no.”
(I know, and I blog for a living!)
The reason I hold my hands up here is because I know better than anyone how hard it can be to find time to update your blog when you’re juggling your day job. But I also know the real benefits of blogging.
The benefits of blogging for marketing
What I love about blogs most, is the fact that they don’t cost the earth to update, and they are such a powerful marketing tool. They are an amazing way to build your brand’s authority and build their personality.
Are you nodding along here? Because this stuff is great, right? But still, it might not make you take action. So, it’s worth remembering the measurable business benefits of blogging. This is my top five.
1. You can target your customer’s queries
If I develop a full content strategy for a brand, I create a per-page keyword plan. This is a big old spreadsheet, with loads of loads of keywords, and I sort them out to see where they’d fit best on your website.
There’s one tab for your “research questions.” These are longtail key phrases based on the questions people are asking about products like yours. These are just some of the things you can work into blog titles to drive actual search queries from people interested in your product.
Plus, a well-positioned blog with the right internal links can direct people around your website to move them along their journey. Now that’s maximising opportunities!
2. They help your website’s SEO
It is as simple as this: search engines rank websites that provide relevant answers to questions. Blogs also, of course, help direct more people to your website.
There are loads of in-depth guides out there on how to write a blog and the techy parts to help them a position on search pages. Like, 2,000+ word blogs are the only way to position for a keyword, or writing blogs with specific keywords in titles and headers. Or even keyword density (which, by the way, is a myth.)
But just know this, although there is truth in much of this, the most important thing is to create content that’s engaging and written for that purpose, rather than SEO alone. Because ultimately Google prizes the user experience above all else.
3. They can be a call to action
Yes, you want your blogs to be interesting first and foremost. They are not your marketing copy. Their primary function is to inform, educate or entertain, not to sell.
That said, it’s a missed opportunity if you don’t invite people to find out more about your brand, visit your shop, or generally start to build a relationship with your business. Internal links in your blogs are just one way to add subtle, powerful calls to action.
4. It helps you attract new customers
They are also a great market leveller. If you target a golden longtail keyphrase, you can compete with brands double your size, and attract customers to your website that wouldn’t have heard about you otherwise.
Again, for a fraction of the cost of trying to compete in advertising on marketing efforts, you can start pulling people in and building connections with them.
5. It will add to your customer insights
Of course, you can start to build an understanding of your customers through data. The more data the better, but you can start small. Subscribers to a blog are one way to see how much interest you’re getting. But the big one here is Google Analytics.
Through Google’s tools, you can see what blogs are getting the most traffic, which ones people are spending the most time on, and whether they move from that blog onto other pages on your website. You can also use Google Analytics to find out more about your audience as well as their behaviour on your website.
So, why is blogging important for your business again?
Committing to a regular blog will help you keep the website you’ve spent so much time and effort on up to date and “relevant” in the eyes of search engines. It can help you drive organic search, entice new customers, work to convert sales and level up the competition between you and your competitors.
The question is, why wouldn’t you invest in your blog? And if you don’t know where to start or you don’t have the time, there are always content writers out there who can do it for you. Problem solved!