In our last blog post, we talked all about search engine optimization and whether it is important for your website. (Spoiler alert: it very much is). We discussed factors like internal linking, meta descriptions, and being an “authority” on a subject as strategies that you need to follow to optimize your website for search engines. But we didn’t really touch on blogs. Did you think that meant that blogs could be forgotten about? Not at all. In fact, this brings us to the question of the day: What are the benefits of blogging for your business?
The key is to be fresh
If your website produces regular blog articles, it will help keep the website fresh and current. With a wealth of websites being available online, no one trusts a website that hasn’t been updated since 2003. Keeping your website fresh and current is really important so that a search engine can trust that it is up to date. Blogging allows you to update your website without changing much of the structural content.
What if I don’t know what to write about?
Not knowing what blog content to cover or how to write a blog is a common question. First of all, think of the product or service you are selling. Who are your target clients? What are their problems? Why would they visit your website in the first place? Once you have a clear answer to those questions, you can start coming up with topics.
To make your life easier, you don’t have to go 100% text on the first try. Original photos, videos, and podcasts are great as well. Using original photos and videos are a great way to build authority on a subject because users will share any good, quality content driving more traffic to your site.
Keep your audience on your site longer
Another benefit of having a blog is that it gives you the opportunity to link to other parts of your website. When users visit a website and then jump to other pages on the same site, it tells the search engine that the website is full of value, bumping its rating. This is a great tool you can use to change your audience into potential customers later on.
How does that work exactly?
The longer and more frequently users visit your site, the more brand familiarity they will develop. They will consider your blog as an authority in the industry and when they need to order a product or service that your business offers, their familiarity with the brand will make your business the obvious choice. So to get users to stay on your site longer make sure to link the content of your blog posts to the other pages on your website.
Develop a marketing strategy that works
Our third argument for blogging is that it gives you opportunities to use long tail keywords. Let’s say you want to search for “women’s fashion.” That generic search doesn’t actually say if your intent is to find an online store, a blog, or an app that tells you what to wear in different types of weather. So the result is that you get millions of hits that aren’t relevant to your needs. But if you run a search for “Paris women’s fashion boutique” you will get results that are much more relevant.
The second search used what is referred to as a long tail keyword. Since shorter generic keywords are very competitive, using long tail keywords allows you to reach a particular audience to which you can offer your content. Having a blog gives you a lot of opportunities to use these long tail keywords. This is a great strategy for business owners because you will use content that you already have to bump yourself higher in search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your site.
How long does a successful blog need to be?
Your blog can be anywhere between 300 to 1600 words. According to research, 300 words is the smallest amount of words your blog needs to have in order to show up in search engine results. If you are a business owner trying to tackle SEO with very limited spare time then this option is for you. However, for ranking high in search engine results you should aim to have 1000 words in your blog. Furthermore, research shows that posts of around 1600 are far more likely to be shared. How long your posts are up to you and your writing skills.
Of course, shorter blog posts give you fewer opportunities for using long tail keywords and establishing yourself as an authority on a subject but they are much easier to write. Longer blog posts give you more opportunities to connect and interact with your readers and potential clients especially because readers are more likely to comment on longer posts.
Cement your authority with backlinks
Having a blog with good quality information will not only cause users to share your content. It will also allow other websites to link to your website as well. When a website “A” has a link to your site “B”, for example, your website is said to have a backlink from website A.
Backlinks are a very important part of SEO because they are, essentially, a vote of confidence from another website in the information you provide. Since search engines care very much about quality information, having backlinks is an extremely important part of your business’s SEO plan.
So to recap… here are the benefits of blogging for your business
Keeps your website up-to-date and current
Gives you opportunities to link to other pages of your site – keeping your audience on your website for longer
Allows you to tailor your blog for long tail keywords – targeting the exact audience your business caters to
Increases the chances of receiving backlinks from other websites which help your website rank very highly in SEO
At the end of the day, much of SEO is about providing value and building authority.