How Your Website Can Benefit From Having a Blog
Adding a blog to your website might feel daunting or more like a “nice to have” versus a “necessity,” but here are five reasons why you need one, and how to accomplish it.
Search Engine Optimization Through a Blog
Three letters. S. E. O. Search engine optimization is key to any company looking to increase their digital marketing footprint, and as we all know, being found and presented by Google gives you a running start towards leads and website traffic. A blog also gives you more content for bots to crawl, more links to post elsewhere online, and a place for pictures. Your blog can provide the keyword-rich content that you need for assisting the search engine algorithms to rank your site higher.
Building Credibility and Trust
Creating relevant and helpful content for your audience increases credibility and trust with your potential buyers. Sharing your knowledge as the subject expert and offering information that meets your customer “where they are” in their buying journey immediately puts you a step ahead of your competitors. Before you make any sales pitch, your company has already been established as a thought leader in your industry.
Driving Social Media and Website Traffic
Not only does including links to your blog posts on social media and email campaigns get the word out about your blog, it invites your audience back to your website. Having new blog content to share is extremely helpful in filling your social media calendar. Social media platforms are always looking for new content; you have to “feed the feed” to remain relevant in their algorithms.
Develop New Sales Funnels
A well crafted and maintained blog can and should drive traffic to your online contact forms, product pages, services or other support pages throughout your website. Your blog is a “round the clock” sales person, always available to answer questions and educate your audience on your products and services.
Help Your Website Build Keywords
Well-considered keyword placement and technical terminology used within your blog can give you a boost to rank higher for search topics that you want to be found for.
How to Start a Blog
We have just established why it’s important to include a blog on your website, so now let’s talk about how to get it done.
Answer FAQs and Educate
Think about the questions your customer base is asking; craft your posts in a way that solves their problem and shows that you are a trusted resource. Keep the sales pitch to a minimum and focus on being a resource for information. One tip we always suggest is to just look through your sent emails, chances are that you have already answered common customer questions giving you a head start on the writing process!
In addition to FAQs, consider other helpful or educational topics that can establish your company as a thought leader and authority in your industry.
Here are some examples of the other categories/topics we work with our clients to write blog posts about:
- “How to’s”
- Project debriefs
- Project updates
- Solutions to common customer problems
- Design discussions
- Technical tips
- New technologies or certifications
- Industry news, trends, or events
If you are still feeling “stuck” over content creation, look no further than your archives. In a related article, our team shares how you can reduce, reuse, and recycle your existing resources to create “new” keyword-rich digital content.
Show the Company’s “Human” Side
Blogs are a little less formal than typical website copy, so it’s a great place to show some personality. People want to feel understood, and human-interest stories help create a connection and build a relationship with your reader. After all, even in the B-to-B world, people want to work for and buy from people they know, like and trust. Consider writing blog posts on employees, company culture, charitable work, and events.
Word Count
In the past, it was common practice to keep blog posts short and sweet or risk losing your audience. Recently, longer-form content has been found to elicit a higher ranking from Google. Overall, HubSpot data shows that for SEO purposes, the ideal blog post length should be between 2,100-2,400 words. Depending on the goal of the content, that range widens. Research has shown that for lead generation purposes even longer content is king, up to 8,000 words. While word count is a factor, the most important part remains the content you are creating. So, if you have covered your topic fully and it’s shorter than the recommended word count, don’t hesitate to publish. Google ranks based on many factors – not just word count – but also the quality of the new content.