The Buzz about Blogging

Blog (/bläg/) Noun: a personal website or web page on which an individual records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular basis. Undoubtedly, anyone who uses the internet has stumbled upon a blog during their social media browsing or Google searching. As of November of 2013, there were over 152 million blogs on the internet, with that number growing every second, literally. So what’s all the fuss about? Why blog?

Is it just a lot of people hoping for a day of internet fame? No (ok, I’m sure that’s the case with some of them), many of them are actually successful business people, restaurateurs, designers, etc, working to better their presence on the web.

Why Blog?

There are several good reasons for maintaining a Blog for your business.

Improved Search Engine Rankings.

Search Engines give better results to websites that are updated on a regular basis. By making changes to your site it shows that you are active and that your website is more likely to be relevant and accurate. Since your actual content probably doesn’t need to change every month, a Blog offers a good way to add new text without messing with your website information.

Establishes Credibility

By having a Blog it allows you to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Answering frequently asked questions, addressing trends in your industry, and expressing your opinions lets potential customers get a feel for you and your company. Once they’ve read some of your posts and have come to trust you, they are more likely to come to you next time they are looking for the product or service you provide.

Increases Social Media Reach

Writing Blog posts that cover a variety of topics in your business category gives your followers frequent updates to share with their circles. The more controversial, interesting, informative, or humorous posts that you create, the more you can expect to be “shared”.

Get More Customers

Personally, I think this one is probably the best consequence of frequent Blogging. For example, take these stats from the WPVirtuoso Blog:

• Businesses that update their blogs 20 times a month (i.e 4-5 times per week) generate 5 times more traffic than those that update their blogs less than 4 times a month.
• Businesses that own and regularly update their blogs generate 4 times more leads than those that do not own a blog.
• Blogs help to influence customers’ buying decisions and purchases. A sampling of customers’ opinion shows that the information on blogs assists 21% of the surveyed customers to make up their mind on the purchase of a product, helps 19% to fine tune their choice, provides answers for another 19%, helps 17% to discover a product or service, and serves as the inspiration for the purchase of a product or service for the remaining 13% of the surveyed customers.
• Companies that have more than 51 articles on their blogs experience a 77% increment in median monthly leads.

If you don’t have a blog yet and you would like help setting one up, contact us and we’d be more than happy to help you establish this pillar to your online presence.