3 Reasons why blogging is important for your business

As an entrepreneur, you’ll want to do all you can to maximise your returns so that your new business can become profitable – or at least break even – and minimise the risk of starting a new project. Blogging is a great way to do that, offering a subtle form of marketing for your new venture – not to mention being cost-effective as well! Blogs help to boost your company’s search-engine ratings, which in turn will help you attract consumers so that you don’t have to go chasing down customers. Still not convinced? Here are 3 reasons you need to start a blog today…

1 BLOGS HELP INCREASE WEBSITE TRAFFIC

A blog’s main objective should always be to create consistent and quality content that drives traffic to your business website. To keep afloat, businesses need an ever increasing number of people to visit their domain and make a purchase. Search Engine Optimization – or SEO – (using on-page SEO factors such as meta descriptions, URL’s and keywords) can be added to your blog posts to increase the ranking of your page. Here’s how:

Search engines like Google rate your website according to how many queries your blog or website can cater to, through the use of SEO. The higher the number of similarities between a Google user’s search inquiry and your blog, the higher you are ranked. This rating then determines where your company stands amongst the many others, in providing consumers with valuable information. I’ve recently been learning SEO methods by listening to SEO expert Alina Ghost’s podcast, which I highly recommend!

Apart from SEO factors, another blogging strategy is to keep producing quality content. The greater the number of pages on your domain, the greater the likelihood that your website will appear in search results organically, so you won’t have to pay for the privilege of appearing on Google’s results pages. Also, the more often you blog, the more ‘current’ your website appears, so Google will think you’re offering fresh information compared to a stale website that hasn’t added new content in months, and will show the customer your website first.

2 BLOGS PROVIDE BACK LINKING, CRAWLING & INDEXING

According to Domo, in 2017 the internet collectively created 2.5 quintillion bytes of data on average, daily. That’s just incomprehensible! How does one single business compete with that? The answer is simple, you don’t! The idea behind setting up a blog is not to compete with your competitors but to set you apart from them. The consistent free flow of information and ideas between you and your audience is what your blog should be aiming for.

Additionally, your blog should also aim to facilitate Google crawling and indexing. The introduction of the Penguin algorithm by Google completely overhauled crawling and indexing so any link that you add to your blog in an attempt to provide value to your consumer should genuinely be valuable. Google’s algorithm crawls from link to link on your website and through your blog, indexing your pages on the way. Adding useful links not only increases the organic traffic to your website, due to the higher ranking, but also creates the foundation for referral traffic, which has a lower bounce rate, leading to more and more conversions.

In the context of creating valuable links and enhancing SEO, Ash Aryal, CEO and Co-founder of Digital Spotlight, shares an insightful perspective: “Guest blogging involves creating and publishing informative and relevant industry-specific content on other websites. It’s a way to provide valuable contributions, acquire authoritative links, and build credibility from one website to another.” This approach aligns perfectly with the idea of enriching your blog’s content ecosystem. By guest blogging, not only do you contribute to the wider industry conversation, but you also create opportunities for natural backlinking, which is highly favored by search engines like Google.

3 BLOGS ALLOW FOR CUSTOMER OUTREACH

By operating a blog, you initiate a conversation between you and your audience, engaging them into your business. The comments section of your blog is a potential gold mine! Your audience can connect with you personally, and can provide immediate feedback on the particular blog post they are commenting on. The more your business interacts with consumers, the higher you are ranked as Google recognises you as a legitimate provider of value.

By engaging your audience, you can form a community based on the free flow of valuable information. Such communities can provide buzz marketing for your brand and the communication between you and your audience gives you an insight into your customer and their needs. Any criticisms you receive can help you to improve any shortcomings in the products you are marketing.

So what do you think? Will you start a blog alongside your new business venture? If you’re already running a successful side-hustle and are planning out your next content marketing strategy, will you consider starting a blog? Let me know in the comments below and please share your tips for using blogging to boost your business too 🙂

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