It seems like everyone has a blog these days. Businesses large and small are betting on blogs, but are they worth the time and effort? Do blogs attract more leads and turn readers into customers? What does a blog do for your website’s SEO? These are all common questions about business blogging, and we have your answers right here.
Is blogging good for business?
Put simply, blogging drives more traffic to your website, boosts your SEO ranking, attracts more leads, and brings more attention to your brand. Blogs also help with converting your web traffic into leads — all while establishing brand authority and building customer trust.
For more perspective on business blogging, look at the numbers. Companies with blogs have 55% more website visitors than those without. Company sites with blogs generate 67% more leads than websites without blogs. And in one survey, 68% of customers said a blog adds credibility to a website.
What to write about
For topic direction and selection, research is key. Find out what topics are important to your customer base by conducting thorough market research. You can send out customer surveys, mine web analytics from existing campaigns, and take note of the questions customers are asking on social media platforms and industry-specific forums. Brainstorm blog topic ideas around the data you collect.
Next, consider how to optimize your blog content. Add images, videos, and infographics, and try to make your blog posts evergreen (i.e., relevant for the long term).
How to get readers
You have a blog your target audience will love, and it’s chock full of compelling content and answers to their most frequently asked questions. Is that enough to get people to read it? Well, yes and no. It’s enough to keep them hooked, but first, you need to get the word out.
Each time you publish a blog post, tease it with an interesting tidbit, question, or image on social media. Share it across your social media channels, and ask your employees to do the same. Content shared by your employees receives eight times the engagement of content shared by your brand.
What’s the frequency?
How often should you post new blog content? There is no magic number. But experts recommend publishing at least one piece of fresh content per week — and as many as four or five if time and other resources allow. The goal is twofold. You want to generate as much interest and web traffic as possible. And you want to consistently publish high-quality, audience-driven content.
Consistency is key. When readers know you’ll keep the conversation going on a regularly maintained schedule, it inspires trust in — and reliance on — your brand.
The long and the short
The general rule of thumb describes a successful blog post — one that generates web traffic and leads — as one that adds value to your audience regardless of its length. While this is true, there is ample data to suggest long form content is better for SEO. Recommendations for the best “average” blog length range from 400 to 2,400 words. Does that mean your 600-word blog post will or won’t gain traction? It depends. You can get as much attention from a short post as a long one if you follow these guidelines:
- Write topic-driven content aimed at your target audience.
- Lead with an enticing headline.
- Use industry keywords and more specific “long tail” key terms and phrases.
- Incorporate images, videos, and other visual media elements.
Be our guest?
Guest blog posts typically reach a wider audience by leveraging an industry leader’s perspective. And it boosts your SEO and brand authority in the process. Before you invite a guest to write for your blog, ask yourself a few questions. Is your potential guest’s brand in line with yours? Are they considered an authority or subject matter expert (SME) on the chosen topic? Does their target audience overlap significantly with yours?
When you find a good prospect, reach out and ask if they’d like to collaborate on a blog post. Use the opportunity to offer your services as a guest writer for their blog, and create more audience exposure for your brand and theirs.
