If you’re a small business owner, you might have considered adding a blog to your website. Or maybe you even started one but let it wither and die. Many small business owners wonder if it’s worth keeping an active blog. We’re here to tell you it is, and here’s five reasons why.
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Content Counts & Pays
Search engines prefer websites that are lively and active. Simply put, adding content makes Google notice you more. Plus, you might end up creating a post that lands you at the top of search results.
If you paid for this spot, it would cost you thousands of dollars to stay there. Also, if someone links to your article, it helps your rankings, and it’s like a free ad.
Here’s a stat for you: Sites that have a blog have a 434% higher chance of being ranked highly on search engines.Â
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Happy Site VisitorsÂ
Think about it. If you visit a website and take time to look around, it’s nice to find fresh, relevant content. As a small business owner you may think you don’t have an audience, but if you have customers, then you have readers. Just write about what real life customers ask and talk about. Then, when people come to your site, they are pleased to find answers. This makes you brand more appealing.
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Grows Your Email List
Blog posts are a great way to grow your email list. How? At the end of your blog post, you offer a freebie, like a downloadable PDF or ebook. Or maybe you can offer a coupon or discount. All of this is in exchange for the reader’s email.
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Sharing
When you create a blog post, make sure you share it on social media. An intriguing image helps make it more shareable. If it’s a really thoughtful, funny or helpful post, others might share it as well. If you don’t create new content, there’s nothing for you, or others, to share.
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Drives Sales
For your product or service, blogs provide another chance to explain why you offer superior value. Even though your web content might do this, blogs provide a chance to show things from a different perspective. You could do a case study, comparison or relate your brand to a current industry trend. Either way, a blog is another opportunity to state your case and claim some digital landscape.Â
Stay the Course
Most of the time, brands don’t see immediate results from blogging. They might create a dozen or so articles, and if they don’t see traction, they give up. The reality is that it takes about six months of posting quality content before you’ll see results.Â
The beauty of it is that as your traffic grows, you can tap into data that drives more visits. For instance, you can ask and respond to questions like:
- What posts are most popular? Write more about related stuff.
- What search terms are people using to find me? Do the SEO thing and nail those terms.
- What terms are my posts ranking for? Optimize posts and create new ones for this.Â
Also, you can take your best performing posts and tweak them to do even better. By re-optimizing posts you can boost rankings and maybe even land at the top of search rankings.Â
Need help with a winning small business blogging strategy? Contact Us and get expert advice.
