3 Reasons Your Business Blog is Worth the Time

While a lot of businesses realize the importance of a blog, many business owners don’t understand just how vital a blog is to the success of a business – some still don’t feel the benefits outweigh the time and resources needed to maintain it.  However, numbers prove just why blogging should top your list of strategies – 81 percent of consumers in the U.S. trust information and advice they read on blogs.

For small businesses that are short on time, it may seem finding those hours to dedicate to a blog each week is next to impossible.  Yet it’s crucial to find a way to maintain a blog.  Blogs are a great opportunity for more prospects to discover your small business and gain a better understanding of your expertise in the industry.  Here are three reasons why investing in a business blog is smart, even if its reach remains low:

Define your expertise

Do not assume the only thing a blog can do for you is generate new leads. Blogs fit into your sales cycle as a way to help close deals, too. Prospective clients find your website and learn all about your business. A lead you met networking may go straight to your site instead of finding your business via a Google search.  A blog packed with helpful content that proves your expertise and industry thinking will help the potential customer feel added confidence when they select your small business as the one to provide a solution. It’s vital to build customer trust to stand out in a crowd and not blend in with all the other businesses similar to yours. A blog with little to no information won’t kill your chances of closing the deal, but it certainly won’t boost your odds, either.

Rise in online ranks

Google thrives on fresh, new content and constantly changes its algorithm to integrate different signals of this “freshness.”  You can’t just write anything and expect your blog to rank at the top of the search results. The content you write and share must be engaging, relevant and helpful to your readers.  Remember the importance of effective titles and headlines for bloggers – many spend only a minute composing a headline, but effective titles can make or break your content.

Focus on keyword authority

It’s really all about the odds – the more content you publish that includes keyword phrases, the more keyword-rich indexable pages you will produce for your blog and website.  Make it a goal to deliver Google a constant flow of original content to keep forcing your web pages to the top of the search results. Improve your Google page rank to improve your credibility.  Google goes to your site when you post a new blog and increases your relevancy for certain search terms.  The amount of people who read each article you post may not be astronomical, but the post should still boost your overall Google page rank.  This means that ultimately the blog post still directs more traffic — and therefore, more leads — to your website.

It isn’t a big surprise that so many businesses quickly throw in the towel on their business blog. Before you give up, make sure you realize what a blog can do for your business and make it a point to stay closely involved and on top of the content you share.

How has your business blog proven itself to be worth the investment?

Photo credit:  https://beeketing.com/blog/blogging-powerful-marketing-tactic-e-commerce-business/