Blog posts are important. That’s the bottom line. From search engine love to brand awareness, blogs have the power to persuade and engage. Find out why your business should be featuring blogs.
5 minutes required reading time.
By Kate Bartels / Digital Marketing Specialist
Businesses are operating in an ever-evolving landscape of consumer expectations, technology and communication.
The answer to just about every problem that we face can be found on the internet.
Consumers are always searching for information and a dignified solution through their smartphones and search engines.
Think about how many times you pick up your phone or open your laptop to find a quick and simple answer, settle a debate or help you make a choice.
This doesn’t just apply to small choices and quick solutions, when it comes to being in the know, we are almost always looking to the internet to become informed on the important things.
Our borrowing power, which car we should buy, which school we should send our children to or, probably most importantly, where we should eat brunch on the weekend can all be answered with an online search.
Because of this, it’s becoming more and more important that all sorts of businesses embrace blogging. Positioning your business as a voice of reason, an authority figure and someone who can provide a solution through your products or services are extremely important, if not necessary.
Statistics from a recap of 2018 tells us that 90% of searchers haven’t made up their mind on a brand before starting their search, so blogs become the perfect opportunity to inform, and then position your reader to take action.
Here are five important benefits of blogging for your small business.
Boost that SEO
Major search engines love fresh, original content that’s relevant and engaging, and luckily, so do humans. As a business with a bucket load of information and expertise, blogging and sharing content is one of the most inexpensive, straightforward and effective ways for a business to create content.
By creating consistent blog posts that include relevant search terms and long tail keywords, businesses are constantly providing search engines with fresh content to index, which in turn, helps out with the overall ranking of your website. As Google and other search engines are constantly and mysteriously changing the way they operate, it doesn’t hurt to have as much ammunition as possible to help your business rank higher.
Backlinking is another great way that blogs and SEO work well together. By linking to reputable websites and encouraging the same in return, you’re helping yourself climb up the results page ladder. Some search engines (we’re looking at you, Google) give preference and more credit to websites that have a good quality number of backlinks, consider them more relevant and effective for answering a search query.
Create a personality for your brand
While your website is the shiny beacon, the dressed-up kid with his shoes all polished for school photo day, it can’t hold a candle to the personality that blog posts inject into your business.
Blogs give you an opportunity to explain your products or services, but they are also the perfect platform to share your views, your voice and an insight into the people who make your business unique.
It can’t be debated that when 20 brands are competing for your attention, the business that displays life and personality will be favoured. Open up your brand message and engage both prospective and current customers, making sure that they get a chance to see a glimpse of your business from the inside. The personality aspect helps people trust your business.
Which leads us to the next point.
Develop trust and strengthen customer relationships
We are in a digital world, connecting and communicating with your consumers and other businesses conversationally are invaluable.
In the real world, we buy things from people we trust, we communicate with people we trust, trust is at the foundation of everything that’s important to us as people.
The same goes for blogging and online business. Blogs give your audience and consumers a chance to participate in the conversation with comments, shares and engagements. Not only does this make people feel a part of something, but it also gives business owners an insight into the minds of their target audience.
Become a problem solver
Remember when we talked about reaching for the computer in our pockets to answer every niggling thought we had? Your blogs should position you as a problem solver, a go-to for all things in your industry. The biggest desire of a good marketer is to find out the problems their audience face so that we can solve them.
Long-form content, such as blogs, is one of the simplest ways to incorporate long tail keywords, helping you rank higher and be seen when it comes to more specific and longer-winded searches.
For example, ‘red wine wholesaler’ is easy to incorporate into website copy, but ‘what are the top 10 red wines in Australia’ is a little tougher. Give yourself a platform to discover what challenges your audience face and be the voice that solves them.
Become an industry leader
Similarly, to solving problems, be forward thinking and offer your knowledge and thoughts on the industry-specific subject matter, with the end goal of being the brand that consumers visit when they need information. It doesn’t matter that there might be 100 bigger and more established businesses in your industry, blogging and providing information puts you in the forefront of the minds of consumers for when it comes time to make their purchase and, increasing your conversion rates.
Blogging is one of the best ways to differentiate yourself from your competitors. As it’s now so prevalent, any small business that isn’t taking advantage of blogging is falling behind. Providing your unique thoughts and insights, growing your search traffic and boosting your customer trust gives small businesses a chance to compete on the big stage.
What are you waiting for?
Our team of content creators at Adaptify establish blogs of all kinds, for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Talk to us today on 1300 423 566
