Why Does Your Website Need a Blog

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Why Does Your Website Need a Blog?

Cameron Barke

The True Value of Blogging For Business So, you’ve created a website for yourself, you have some awesome content, and you’ve heard this buzz around starting something called a “blog?” You’ve heard that this “blog” thing is a great concept of getting your website exposed to the right kind of viewers, and also a great way to build an audience, but you may not be exactly sure how all the metrics come together to benefit you.

Is it even worth it?

Do people even read these “blog” things?

Will my bottom line increase from creating a blog?

Well, with the help of some other blogs I personally follow, and through SocialMediaToday, I have gathered some stats that will help you answer those questions: 77% of internet users read blogs.

81% of US consumers trust advice and information from blogs. (have you ever been sick, google’d your symptoms, ended up on some blog, and then it boils down to you believing you have the black plague)? – yeah I’ve been there too… hahaha Keeping those statistics in mind, it does turn out that if you really want your company to be visible online to the right

viewership, great content has to be produced, and the easiest/most efficient means of doing so is through this little thing we call a blog!

First Things First, What Is a Blog?

A blog is an extremely simple concept! Essentially, a blog is a page/resource on your website that contains articles/entries/posts that educate/entertain/engage your visitors about your specific industry. Depending on the business/website you are running, you literally can blog about anything and everything!

The posts you create normally will run in reverse chronological order, meaning the most recent posts will be shown first.

It is an excellent opportunity to create a relationship to your target audience through content that provides solutions to problems, answers questions, and possibly, (depending on the business), entertains.

There are a numerous benefits to having a blog, I am just going to go through a few of those myself, and those that many other industry experts deem will have the most positive impact for your company:

The Benefits of Blogging According to this stat, 70% of consumers learn about a company through articles rather than ads, therefore a blog will establish your company as an industry leader, if correctly presented of course.

That goes without saying, would you rather fall to the wayside and have your customers go to the competition, or would you rather establish yourself as a leader in your niche. I think you would chose the latter.

An extreme amount more opportunities to convert sales through influx of leads – small businesses that blog generate 126% more leads It goes without saying that businesses are built on relationships. What better way to create those connections/relationships through providing valuable content that users can provide feedback to via comment sections, and other avenues of relationship building interactions. The deeper and strongly the relationship to the customer, the deeper and stronger your business will be!Look at customers of Apple for example, they have such a connection to that brand, they would rather walk into oncoming traffic, than use a PC. Relationships are VITAL! Increased customer acquisition & retention: If you provide new and dynamic content 2-3 times weekly, your existing customers will have a reason to return to your website, and it will give potentially new customers a reason to follow.

Increased social shares: When you provide value via blogging, people naturally will want to share it with their social circles. It goes without saying, social sharing is great free exposure for your brand.

Increase in organic traffic: Who doesn’t want more “free” traffic coming to their website? Companies that have a blog can experience up to 55% more visitors to their website.

Increased visibility in search engine results: Having more indexed pages, especially those with different keywords and back-links, will help your website in the rankings. Actually, if you check out this link here, you will see a study that shows websites with blogs have 434% more indexed pages than websites without.

SEO Purposes: Back-linking on your blog, for many reasons, is a powerhouse when it comes to SEO. It will give your website increased authority quicker. Once you have a higher authority, your rankings in search engines will rise, with that rise naturally will come more direct traffic. Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links.

Creating A Name For Your Company It all boils down to providing value first: By providing valuable content through a blog to your target audience,

potential clients/customers/partners will view you as a credible source of industry knowledge. With this new found credibility, you will have the upper-hand on the companies in your niche who do not blog.

Put yourself in the mind of the consumer. Company ‘A’ has a static website that does not change, and they do not blog, while Company ‘B’ provides you with valuable tips/info/solutions to your problems weekly – Who would you want to buy from?

Blogging will help solidify you as an authority in your niche, and therefore will be a great piece to the puzzle of garnering your brand marketplace.

A blog is no guarantee of anything, there are no guarantees of anything, but it may just be that difference that edges out the competition.

Take it, and run with it.