We’ve often mentioned that we think blogs are important. We know lots of you think of them as a chore – and it’s true that they can feel that way; especially if you bite off more than you can chew and commit to writing one too frequently. However, blogs are fantastic for your website. This week we’re going to be writing a blog post about why blogging is good for your business (BLOGCEPTION!). Why should you write a blog? Lets get into it…
How important is a blog?
According to HubSpot and OptinMonster, blogs are hugely successful and popular; over 70 million new posts are being published each month by WordPress users alone. A whopping 77% of internet users are reading blogs and, what’s more, marketers who leverage blogging say it generates the biggest return on investment. In some cases, you’re 13 times more likely to have a positive return on your efforts!
We can’t overstate just how transformative blogging can be, they can capture your audience far more effectively than any other page on your website. Typically, you can expect people to drop off of your homepage in under a minute, but blogs can hold the attention span of visitors for much longer. And websites that have a blog are shown to have over 430% (that’s not a typo!) more indexed pages than those that don’t. That’s a massive advantage when it comes to getting clicks!
SEO and blog posts
When you put a website up in the wilds of the world wide web, search engines (like Google) have bots that crawl what you have on your site. They remember things like keywords and what subjects you tend to write about. This is where SEO comes in.
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It means optimising your site to be friendly for search engines. But you can’t just jam your site full of key words and key phrases – do not write for the bot, write for the human. Google’s latest update will penalise you if you write for the bot. You have to write naturally.
But writing your content for pages like “services” or “about us” in a way that will be perfect for SEO can be tricky. This is where blog posts come in.
You can write about your areas of expertise with more freedom. You can give 20% of your knowledge away for free (so you can invoice for 80%). You can build a loyal following, write about issues your clients experience, and really drive certain messaging home. And, because a blog should be written consistently, you can write about similar themes more than once. Great for SEO! (So long as you’re not reusing key words or phrases.)
Just be consistent
You don’t have to write a blog every single week. Once a month, or even once a quarter, is better than nothing. Just keep it consistent. Don’t force yourself to write one every week if you know that, realistically, you don’t have the time or inclination to stick with it.
We will freely admit that we are guilty of this ourselves! Come 2023 we probably won’t be writing a blog every week anymore. Honestly, it’s a little too much to keep on top of with everything else that needs to be done.
How do I SEO my blog posts?
If you are on WordPress and new to blogs and SEO, we would recommend a plugin called Yoast. The free version will be plenty to get you started. It’s fairly intuitive – just keep editing and tweaking until the smiley faces go green. It’s not all that powerful, but it’s a great stepping stone to start understanding how SEO works in relation to blog posts.
If you are a little more practised in SEO and blog posts, then check out Rank Math instead. Again, the free version should be sufficient, but it is just a little bit more powerful than Yoast.
If you hate writing, don’t fret
If you’re really struggling for what to write a blog about, you struggle to write articles, or you just don’t have the time, then don’t worry. One of our key services is content creation – which includes writing blog posts for those that need them! Our fantastic copywriter will research your industry/area so that she can write with authority on whatever topic it is you’d like to cover. Drop us a line to find out more.
Sources:
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/marketing-trends