When it comes to getting found and generating traffic to your website, nothing works better than blogging. With the recent changes in the way that search engines display search results – considering search intent and context – a business website without a fully optimized blog is poorly positioned to attract traffic and convert visitors into leads.
Marketing data clearly shows that blogging is a critical piece of the inbound marketing methodology and directly correlates to better business results. Whether you’re redesigning your website or are looking for ways to grow and scale your business blog, here are a few facts to consider:
- Nearly 40% of US companies use blogs for business purposes. [tweet this]
- Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors. [tweet this]
- B2C companies that blog get 88% more leads/month than those that don’t. [tweet this]
- B2B companies that blog get 67% more leads/month than those that don’t. [tweet this]
Business prospects, customers and search engines all love the content generated through blogging: prospects because it helps them understand what other customers do; customers because it helps them stay up to date with new offerings and thought leadership; and search engines because each blog post is another page of content that they can index for a specific topic and feed to other people who might search that topic.
A blog is a long-term marketing asset that will bring traffic and leads to your business. It introduces your company as a thought leader in your industry and allows you to earn people’s trust. But merely blogging will not dramatically transform your marketing. Your blog has to be well-optimized and promoted, and most of all, rich with content.
Optimize Your Posts
One essential element of attracting more traffic through organic search is optimizing your blog posts. Make sure your blog titles incorporate industry keywords that people enter in search engines as they conduct research. Focus on long tail keywords – keywords or phrases that are highly specific to a particular search topic – not branded keywords like your company name. Remember, prospects are searching for the answers to their questions that you can provide, not necessarily for your business in particular.
Be a Thought Leader
Your company blog is an asset that positions you as a thought leader. If you have some industry-specific information to share, a blog will help you earn people’s trust and stay top-of-mind for many in your community. Avoid pitching your own company. Instead, Use your blog as a platform to showcase your expertise on a given subject. Inject your knowledge of the industry into your blog posts, and make a clear distinction between your brand and your competition.
Here’s a tip for creating a list of potential blog posts: Be a problem solver. Name the biggest problems your customers have or the questions you get most often. With those questions in mind, write detailed blog posts that provide practical and non-product focused solutions.
How Often Should You Blog?
Frequency of blogging plays an important role in this equation, too. Research from Hubspot – available in our eBook, “Marketing Benchmarks from 7000 Businesses” – finds that companies that blog 15 or more times per month get 5X more traffic than companies that don’t blog at all. [tweet this]
And if you’re a small business, increasing your blogging frequency can move the needle even more. According to the third chart, small businesses (1-10 employees) tend to see the biggest gains in traffic when they publish more articles. [tweet this]
Takeaway
Publishing blog posts that are packed with information, and entertains or educates your readers, helps your website visitors make smarter buying decisions. Prospects who trust that you are an industry expert due to what they read on your blog, will be more likely to purchase from your company.
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