Every business needs a website. It’s as simple as that. Whether you’re a tiny local business or large corporation, having an online presence is absolutely vital to build your brand. But what exactly needs to be on that website? Aside from the basics (business name, services, contact information), business owners are often left confused when it comes to what else should be included.
Here’s your answer… a blog.
Here Are 10 Reasons Why Blogging Is Important For Your Business
Reason #1 – Blogging Keeps Your Website Updated
If your website looks like it was developed way back when the internet first became a thing, it’s probably hard for potential clients to tell if you’re still in business. While you could likely use a complete website make-over, publishing new content on your blog is the next best thing and it’s 100% free if you do it yourself. A consistent publishing schedule lets your website visitors know that you’re still relevant and ready to take them on as clients.
Reason #2 – Blogging Gives You An Opportunity to Add Content
Does your website have a super sleek design that you don’t want to clutter up with a ton of words? No worries. Blogging regularly allows you to plug all kinds of new content into your site without interfering with the design.
Blog posts are typically kept all together within one feed on a ‘blog’ page of your website. Super simple. Super clean. TONS of excellent content. If you don’t already have a blog, you should set one up today. You may not realize it yet, but blogging is important for your business! Keep reading… 😉
Reason #3 – Blogging Helps You Establish Your Expertise
Let’s pretend like you are a world renowned cat trainer. You create a beautiful website that provides contact information and cat training services. But now what? Without anything else, how are potential clients supposed to know that you’re freakin’ awesome when it comes to training cats?
You blog! That’s how!
Blogging is important for your business because it allows the opportunity to provide your audience with information that will establish your expertise and set you apart from the competition.
Let’s go back to our cat training example. Here’s a quick list of the blog post topics I’d recommend that our beloved trainer begin blogging about right away:
- Experience with cat training.
- Different cat training methods, which ones work best?
- Cat training education – do you need a degree? What matters and what doesn’t.
- Case studies – how successful cat training has impacted the lives of clients.
- Can a cat really be trained? YES – of course! 😉
- Break down the services… how do you know what package to pick for each cat?
- What to expect during the training process.
- How do I know my cat is actually going to learn something?
- Can you guarantee success?
Alright, are you picking up on what I’m saying here? Each of the answers/responses to these questions will help our fave cat trainer share their message with potential clients without having to reach out to each one individually. You dig?
Reason #4 – Blogging Helps You Stop Answering The Same Old Questions
Potential clients are going to have the same basic questions. That’s just how life is. But you don’t have to spend tons of time answering that same question over and over again. Rather than writing yet another boring email, send that client a quick personal note along with a link to the blog post that will not only answer their question but talk about related issues as well.
Bonus points here. Make sure your services are linked well throughout your website and answering one of those ‘same old’ questions may actually help you sell your products/services!
Wondering how? That may be a post for another day, but long story short – every blog post should have a call to action (CTA) at the end. Whether you’re inviting someone to sign up for your newsletter, inviting them to your Facebook group, or selling a product – ADD YOUR CTA! Always. Done and done.
Reason #5 – Blogging Helps Build Your DA & PA
Yep, this is a little technical, but DA and PA are important and both can be improved by adding excellent content to your website on a regular basis (likely through a blog).
DA is your domain authority. It’s a search engine score developed by Moz that is calculated by evaluating a number of different factors including the number of links that connect back to your site.
PA is your page authority. It’s another score developed by Moz that indicates how likely a page of your website is to show up in a web results for a specific term.
So why do you need content for this? It’s all about the common word – authority. You want to build authority through excellent content that will then be linked by other websites. A link from an external is basically a voucher saying that your site is legit. A big deal in the search engine optimization (SEO) world when you’re trying to get more organic traffic.
Wondering where you rank? Check out your DA and PA here: SmallSEOTools.com
Reason #6 – Blogging Gives You Something to Share On Social Media
Sometimes you just need a little more oomph behind a post than an inspirational quote. Rather than writing a SUUUUUUPER long Facebook post that people have to click into a new window to read, write it all down on your blog and then share a link on your social profiles.
You won’t want to do this for every post, but every now and then sharing a link on your social profiles can help boost the traffic that gets to your website. You worked hard to create it, might as well show it off – right?!?
By the way, something I’m loving lately is Linktree. For platforms like Instagram that only give you the opportunity to share one link, it’s a dream come true! Check it out and start gathering your favorite links now.
Reason #7 – Blogging Gives You a Competitive Advantage
When shopping online, potential clients are going to do their research when it comes to the options available to meet their needs or solve their problems. They’ll start by comparing the basics – services and prices. But then what?
They’re going to judge you. Whether you realize it or not, the decision on whether or not a client will hire you or purchase your products depends on way more than whatever it is you are selling. The decision to buy depends on their overall impression of you and your business/brand.
The biggest factor of this being your website. How it appears. How it functions. What message it gives. And yes, you’ve probably guessed where I’m going with this. Aside from the cornerstone content on your main pages, blog posts are the best way to communicate your brand’s message to your audience.
Reason #8 – It Gives You The Opportunity To Earn Money
Some brands will actually pay you to publish their content on your website. Yes, it’s true!
This is often referred to as a sponsored post. While these are not the easiest to seek out, if you get a website up and running with consistently published well-written content, the opportunities will find you. Just make sure that your contact information is easy to find on your website and you’re golden.
There are other ways to find these opportunities on your own, but more on that later. 😉
Another way you can make money with your blog is by selling ad space. Often placed in the side bar or within the body of a post, banner ads can pay big money if you get a good amount of traffic to your site.
Last but not least, blog posts give you a great opportunity to plug your affiliate links. If you aren’t familiar with affiliate programs, here’s the basic breakdown… affiliate programs are kind of like being a salesperson for a business. You share information about a specific product or services and if someone uses your affiliate link to make a purchase, you get a cut. The commissions can range from pennies to a serious chunk of change, depending on what you’re selling.
Reason #9 – Blogging Will Help You Improve Your SERP Ranking
When people ask me why blogging is important for their business, I will often ask what context they are considering in terms of ‘importance’. There are obviously a zillion reasons (10 of which are listed here), but one of the most popular is that content writing (blogging) is often one of the major factors in a search engine optimization strategy.
Every blog post gives you the opportunity to cram it full of wildly valuable content that your clients will devour and the search bots will use to rate your site. While most think that ranking is all about cramming keywords into your meta title and meta descriptions, that’s not at all true. Yes, keywords need to be there, but not in a spammy way. In fact, Google may even penalize those who just stuff keywords into their sites without adding relevant content to go along with it.
So how does a blog post help you rank on Google? Blog posts allow you to answer questions that potential clients are asking. Let’s go back to the cat trainer example. If someone does a search on Google for ‘how to train a cat’ – Google wants to provide results that will actually help that person figure out how to train a cat.
So rather than just plugging the words ‘how to train a cat’ into the cat trainer’s website, they’ll need to back up that title with real strategies for teaching people how to train a cat. This doesn’t mean that you can’t sell yourself, but for this example – the cat trainer might start with five different tips and then at the end of the blog post they’d go into a sixth tip of ‘hiring the right cat trainer’.
See how that works? Always. Always. Always. Add a call to action.
Always write real content that relates to your title and never spam. It’s not worth it. There’s no value and it may end up actually hurting your ranking in the long run.
Reason #10 – Blogging Lets You Control Your Content
One of the most valuable reasons why blogging is important for your business… unlike social media posts, you get full control over how your content is communicated on your blog. Do you want your photos to be giant or do you want them teeny tiny? Veritical? Horizontal? Whatever you prefer, darling.
While you might need a little assistance from a website designer, the world is yours.
You also have full control over the longevity of the content, so you don’t have to worry about some platform deleting your well thought out words just because they feel like it. Say what you want, how you want. And do it as often as you’d like! Publishing content on your website is a worry free zone that you should enjoy and take advantage of to the fullest.
Now you see why blogging is important for your business. Right?!
But wait.
You hate writing.
You can’t stand it.
It gives you anxiety looking at a blank page, watching the cursor blink at your.
Staring you in the face. Daring you to put words down. Judging you. Marking your typos with bright red lines and throwing in green marks for grammatical errors. Darn you
DO NOT WORRY.
I’ve got your back. I can handle this. Seriously.
I will write for you.
This is not a dream. No typos. You’re reading this correctly. I’m a ghostwriter. I write thousands of words each day and get zero public credit for it. No one knows it me, but that’s okay.
I love writing and am thrilled to be able to provide this services to businesses and brands around the world. Wondering what it costs or just interested in learning about how the whole ghostwriting process works? Let’s talk. Fill out this quick form and I’ll be in touch ASAP.
Want to just chat about why blogging is important for your business? Email me at amy@atterbie.com and I’ll get in touch right away. In the meantime, here are a few other posts you might be interested in:
- Are freelance writing services the same as ghostwriting services?
- What industries can you hire a ghostwriter for?
- How and why to hire a ghostwriter for your photography blog.
- What to expect when you hire a ghostwriter for your business.
- Find a ghostwriter for your business… now!
Let’s get personal for a minute. Are you someone who is building a brand? Maybe a mom who works from home or someone with a great idea that will help make the world a better place.
Here are six reasons why blogging is important for you on a personal level!
Reason #1 – There are no limits.
If you’re just getting started, blog away. Don’t worry about reading tutorials or how to do it ‘right’. Just get started. Get use to writing. Use your voice. Develop your style and learn along the way.
Reason #2 – Reach far and wide.
It’s called the World Wide Web for a reason. When you publish something to the web, anyone with an internet connection can access it. This is good and bad, because while you need to get a hang of writing you also must make sure that you don’t publish something you’ll eventually regret. Off topic is one thing, inappropriate is another. Be smart, peeps!
Reason #3 – Connect with your friends and family.
Do you love keeping your friends and family in the loop about your latest adventures? Blogging is ideal for you! Another reason why blogging is important for you on a personal level is that you still get to control the content and how it’s displayed 100%.
Reason #4 – A blog will remain as long as you maintain it.
Social media channels may not. All I have to say to explain this is one word… MySpace. Enough said?
Reason #5 – You can monetize a personal site.
You don’t need a business to make money online. If you have a self hosted site, you can monetize it.
Reason #6 – Age matters.
The length of time that a domain has been registered (age), is a serious factor when it comes to domain authority (DA). If you have any plans to monetize a personal site or build a business site in the future, register that domain today and let it start the aging process.
There’s no better time to start a blog than yesterday. You won’t regret it!
Ready to register your domain and set up your new hosting plan? Check out BlueHost!
I use them for this site and many others. They’re super cheap (only $3.95/month) and their 24/7 support is helpful. I should note that this is an affiliate link, so while it does not cost you any more to purchase – I earn a small commission if you end up making a purchase.
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