We have all finally come to the realisation that if your business is not online then you have a big problem. So you have all got together in your businesses and companies and have decided it’s time to get online. You’ve created the website, you have an email list, you’ve invested in some SEO, maybe you have dabbled in some paid advertising and PPC, and maybe you have even set up a Facebook page or some sort of social page. The question is what now? With Google, Bing and other search engines constantly changing ranking factors it is hard to ensure that your business and brand will get the customers it needs to survive, so let me just show you why I think you have two options 1- Make sure your business has a blog or 2- Watch your online efforts and business die.
Google, the Search engine giant, has made it clear with its constant updates that it is trying to weed out those businesses that are looking for shortcuts to get rankings and conversions. They have made it very clear for a while now that Content is King, and that sites need to produce fresh unique content to be successful. On top of this, Google’s freshness update increases the importance of having fresh content such as news articles, more so the update has highlighted the importance that social media sharing can have on rankings. Having said these two things, it becomes very evident how important a blog is to your online success. Below are several reasons why you need to have blogging and how it can bring you success.
1. The King Pin of Social media
If Google see’s Content as King, then Blogging is the King of Social media for you and your business. With the increase in social media and sharing, via social media platforms, you can create the ability for your content to go viral and lead to massive exposure for your company. Social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google + and YouTube as well as Pinterest, which I personally believe is not an effective marketing tool without a blog. Google has made it clear through all its signals that Blogging is key to a websites success. A blog can act as a central command centre for all Social media to launch from. A blog is a place where jobs (LinkedIn), Videos (YouTube), Pictures (Flickr, Pinterest) and all other content (Facebook, Twitter etc) can be hosted. Social networks can then be used effectively to drive back traffic to the blog, and in turn the main site for potential conversions. On top of this, blogging allows for a strong relationship between SEO and Social Media.
2. Become an Industry Expert/Leader
Blogging gives you the ability to become seen as an expert in your field or industry. If you think of an example of a graphic design company; if people and potential customers are looking for your business by the name of your company, then they will be able to find your website easily. But what about all those people that are looking for help and solutions to their problems and questions. Your business could help them but you don’t know about them and certainly, they don’t know about you. Say for instance they were searching for ‘design tips’, how do you get your business associated with queries such as this, the answer is Social Networking and more importantly a BLOG. With all this information being provided for free to readers, many will associate your brand as a leader in the industry and in turn if they ever need such a service you will be the first name on their list.
3. Brand Strength
Following on from the above point, blogging is very powerful with increasing the strength of a brand. With the constant connection and activity on Social networks as well as constantly supplying rich content on your blog, you will become well know and visible to a much larger client base. As your reach grows so will the strength of your brand, and in turn compliment all the other points in this list. In this day and age brand strength is one of the most important assets a company can have, so to not have a blog would just make no sense at all.
4. SEO Benefits
If we look at the SEO benefits of blogging, despite the obvious one that is staring in our face of providing us with fresh content on a regular basis that will help rankings (as I said the search engines prefer sites with refreshed content), blogging has more SEO benefits. It can generate backlinks to your site through a well maintained information flow and active blogging. Of course it doesn’t hurt with all the titles, anchor text, header tags and categories that also improve search engine visibility. Blogging can also boost traffic to your site and increase conversions, with constant updates, comes increased readers so make sure your blog is not just a place to stick boring content.
5. A Low Cost Marketing Tool
It doesn’t take much to set up a blog and it doesn’t cost you anything to update it with fresh content. Add to this all the sharing mechanisms of your other social media platforms and you have an audience that is going to view your content and possibly your site, at no cost to you or your business. So remember one blog post can go a long way – Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter, Newsletter, LinkedIn just to name a few and it won’t cost you much.
If you don’t have a blog for your company/business/organistation yet, then I can warn you that you need one as soon as possible. Blogging can bring you so many more benefits that I haven’t mentioned above and it can pave the way to your online success. So in conclusion, stop thinking about it and just GET A BLOG.
