15 Reasons Why You Should Start a Blog for Your Business

If you’re pondering on whether you should start a blog for your business, then the answer is ‘yes’.

According to Hubspot research, the blog areas of business websites can bring in as much as 55% of all website traffic.

To be honest, in my opinion, this piece of research even sounds as though it’s underestimating the power of blogging. In my experience, on many business websites, it’s possible that the blog brings in over 75% of all traffic.

Any business who wants to get seen by more prospects and therefore increase sales and brand awareness, would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn’t have a blog. Let’s look closer at what the benefits of business blogging are.

What is a blog?

A blog is a web page comprised of short articles/posts that are frequently updated. In fact, you’re reading my blog now. It could be compared to a regular column in a newspaper except that it is online. It might be that you need to ask your web designer to add it for you – or it can be easily added if you have a site host company such as www.godaddy.com. Just a few clicks of the button will set-up a WordPress blog that will be fairly easy to use and customise.

 

Why start a blog for business: benefits

Blogging is a powerful marketing tactic. Here’s what you can gain from it.

1. An increase in traffic to your website

If you’re looking for more traffic to your site, then that’s a major reason for you to start a blog for your business. It’s not everybody who wants to spend out on paid advertising such as Google AdWords or Facebook. There comes a time when you don’t want to pay out anymore, you want to get your traffic for free.

Apart from the time involved, blogging is free and it will bring you traffic, just as long as you optimise your blogs for search which means that you’ll need to use some keywords to get found.

 2. Improves your google Search results

People will stay longer on your website. The longer people stay on your site, the more it improves your google search results. Your search results will also improve because you have keyword optimised blog posts, and Google etc will find these.

3. Your site will get crawled more regularly

Search engines love  newly updated pages and will crawl your site more regularly.

4. You can show your authority in your industry

You know doubt know what you’re talking about otherwise you wouldn’t be in your industry. If your prospects can see how much you know what you’re talking about, they are more likely to buy from you. Most buying is emotional buying.

5. You’ll gain regular followers

Just as long as you add valuable information that is worth reading, and you write somewhat well, people will visit your site just to read your blog. You’ll end up with your own fans, as it were. Being personable is also going to help. Be yourself and open the door to your world and you’ll be rewarded for your authenticity.

6. Connect with customers and potential customers

Visitors to your blog (read clients and potential clients) have a chance to get to know you and to find out more about what you offer. They can also discover more about why they should buy from you as opposed to anybody else. Quite often this will be just because they feel like they know you from reading your blog posts, they like you and you may have even helped them in some way through the information that you’re posting on your blog. In other words, the blog will give your company a voice and it will be what builds the bond between you and your prospect.

7. Your customers can speak too

The comments at the end of your blog post will allow for your clients and your other readers to converse with you. They can leave a comment, and then you can respond and you’ve got a conversation going. All this helps with staying in the mind of your clients, and that will help your business.

8. New materials for your social media presence

Believe me, there comes a time, usually quite rapidly, when you just don’t know what to post anymore. Having a blog site can take all this pressure off. You always have something to post, and some of the time those posts will get shared by social media followers for you.

9. Sell more products

If you’re looking to make extra income, then you can sell products through your website. Either the products from your business, or even products from other businesses that you earn a commission on.

10. It’s not difficult to do

Website designs packages such as WordPress make it easy to add blog posts and  images. You don’t have to be a website coder or even know anything about html in order to add a blog area to your website. They can also help you with the optimisation too.

11. It’s fun

It feels quite indulgent to write blogs for yourself.It’s fun to select the images and make the blog look good. You can fill your blog with useful information for your clients.

12. It keeps you current

You’ll need to stay on top of industry changes for your blog writing. Even if you already follow news  in your industry, there will still sometimes be the need to research information or products for your clients. It keeps you at the top of your game and this authority is what clients like.

13. It’s cost effective

It’s basically free and it will help your business. What’s not to like. The only investment you’ll need to make is to get a website running where you can easily add blog posts to it, and you’ll need the time to write. Some blog posts can be written in just 30 minutes.. so that time doesn’t need to be extensive.

14. You’ll learn more about your clients

Discover what information your web visitors like by checking out your Google Analytics. You’ll discover which pages they spend more time on and where they go after that page. It will help you to give them more of what they like, and that can only be a good thing.

15. You can build your email marketing list

You need to know that this is THE most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. It’s how you’ll stay in touch, stay in the minds of your buyers and how you’ll gain more sales. Although I’ve put this as the last reason, there are many more reasons why you should start a blog for business.

Here’s how blogging works:

The average small business website has between just 3 and 20 pages. That’s not really a whole lot when it comes to the internet. The more pages your site has, the more the search engines will see you as an authority in your field. Start a blog for your business and you’ll be able to build on your website with search engine friendly content.

Every time you add a new blog post, that’s another page you’re adding to your website.  This can mean more traffic and it can also mean that the search engines are more likely to find you and therefore show you.  When search engines such as Google know that you’re active, they are more likely to display your site in the search results, and closer to the top than sites that aren’t as active as you.

Blogging also means that you’ll be producing content that may get shared to others, whether this is through an email or even on social media. If you’re page contains some truly valuable information, this is more likely to happen. When it does, new people will be visitng your site.

In summary, there’s many reasons why you should start a blog for your business. If you’re looking for business growth, you won’t regret doing it, but you may wish you had started earlier. Let me know how you get on. If you’re looking for hosting for your website, try BlueHost, they offer great deals.