Summary

• It’s important to have a blog to boost up SEO

• Being genuine and authentic with your writing does matter

• It can be time-consuming

As a small business owner myself, I’m tempted to push this blog writing off to “tomorrow.” Making time to write for a blog can seem taxing. But if you’re a fan of writing - I believe this is one way to start developing a website strategy. (Another option is to have someone help write your blogs for you).

“Is having a blog critical to businesses’ success?”

If that’s a question you’re asking - it really depends on your goals. Does it make sense for you to write a blog? Who is your audience? And what would they want to read?

If you are sure you need a blog, here’s some food for thought.

Let’s take took a look at how the pandemic affects our global economy, it shows just how much we rely on the internet...and how connected we truly are.

If it makes sense for your business to have a blog, it can potentially:

• Increase your rankings on search engines

• Save time and money by getting your customer’s questions answered right away

• You can be seen as a thought leader for the niche you’re in

81% of B2B companies use blogs as their primary content marketing tactic, according to a report compiled by the Content Marketing Institute (2016). This number speaks volumes on how effective blogs can be in making a business profitable and highly-engaged.

Here are the reasons you should consider it.

1. Blogging helps your business become more competitive

While no two companies are ever really the same, we can make an educated guess that there are plenty who are similar and serve similar audiences.

Blogging can be one way to show your personality and share information that is unique to your brand. This helps distinguish your brand from the rest.

If you want your target audience and prospective customers to remember you and put you on top of their mind, starting a blog is an excellent way to do that.

2. It provides a platform that allows you to communicate with your customers

Communication, I believe, is the foundation of our life. A blog is one way to communicate with your customers...and that’s huge!

A website is typically one-way communication, and adding a blog allows two-way interaction. Think about the comments and messages that could lead to a stronger relationship.

Having a business blog allows you to share your content in a more personal manner and actually communicate with your audience.

3. It helps you understand your audience better

I believe that a customer is the driver of the business. that’s why I love companies who are customer-obsessed, like Nike, Apple, Porsche, and Amazon (I know, some are debatable).

Blogging allows you to understand your audience better. How? Through surveys, polls, questions, and messages. You will see through the website analytics, shares, engagement if people do care about the information you’re putting out there. Better yet, if the content gets comments - you’ll know exactly what the customer is asking for. This is gold, really, because it will provide insight into what your customers want & need...and you can continue to deliver content that they’re looking for.

Why should you care about what your customers think?

Well - it’s all about that relationship, right? If you and the customer are on the same page...learning from each other…they will be more likely to come back to you for more advice and guidance. This will help increase your reach and promote brand loyalty in the process.

4. It improves SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial when it comes to business success. Increasing your page ranking and landing on the first page of Google searches make a huge difference considering how impatient most people are nowadays when looking for something online.

Heads up: an effective SEO strategy does take a long time to develop.

By creating a blog and posting once every year, doesn’t mean you’ll get on the first page of Google overnight. What it will do is improve your rankings over time as bots crawl through the pages. It gives you ranking kudos, essentially, when it finds fresh content, relevant keywords, and fulfills the audience’s wants and needs.

I have a free website audit tool for you. It will give you an analysis of the health of your website. Give it a go and let me know what questions you might have.