Why every small business website needs to start writing articles ASAP

Content, content, content - that's all we hear about these days. But do you know why? What exactly will it do for your business? Today's guest post comes from Karen Evans of StartBloggingOnline.com and explains the importance of getting your point of view out into the world.

As an online business, you want to open every avenue available to bring traffic to your website. You’ve no doubt heard that you should put maximum effort into search engine optimization (SEO) as one such avenue, which includes content creation.

Incorporating a blog into your business goes beyond checking a box toward SEO tactics. It not only leads to more traffic but also brings numerous other benefits.

Increase web traffic

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “You miss all the shots you don’t take." It’s a phrase that is very well suited to blogs. Think of the content on your blog as the shots you are taking towards the “SEO basket.” The more shots you put up, the more chances of you getting a higher score—in this case, higher in the search engine rankings—than your competition. If you don’t put up any shots at all, your competition will be well ahead of you and will stay there until you start shooting.

Not only does each piece of content mean an additional page within your domain for search engines to index but more chances for you to use targeted keywords and enhancing SEO. This will help increase your visibility in search engines, eventually improving your search engine ranking to guide more traffic your way. After all, the majority of marketers in 2018 claimed that blog posts were their top priority for inbound marketing.

Increase inbound links

Acquiring inbound links is a piece of the online marketing puzzle that has garnered a lot of attention in the past few years, primarily because they are an important part of the SEO chain.

An inbound link is when an third party website is linking to yours. It operates like an endorsement that the search algorithms appreciate- another website is saying your content is worthy. By having a blog with interesting and informative content, you gain a greater chance to obtain inbound links.

What could inbound links do for your business? Well, let’s just say that businesses pay a lot of money for authoritative websites to link their content, be it in a blog, social media, or so on. However, if you manage to establish yourself as an industry leader, you won’t need to pay for inbound links since others will use you as a source by their own free will.

The more educational and informative your posts are, the greater the chance that you’ll acquire inbound links, and thus improving your SEO.

Give your brand a human touch

Blogs allow you to show a different side to your brand, more so than your web content. While web content is usually geared towards sales, blogs offer a more subtle approach—they showcase your personality and point of view, enabling you to connect with your customers on a different level. You can address problems, give insights and solutions, and share valuable information with prospects and customers through posts.

By keeping your blog active and current, you’ll be able to connect with your customers in an effective way. You should focus on sharing content that adds value to them, which ultimately allows you to convert web traffic into sales efficiently.

The key here is to ensure your content is what we call "keyword targeted." Your content should deliberately target customers who are searching for something specific, rather than writing content about a random topic. Think of it as connecting a concern or question of a prospect to your product or service. By being relevant to what they are looking for, you’re specifically making your blog content useful to potential customers and positions you as an authority.

Establish your business as a thought leader in your industry

Brands that are known to be leaders in their industry, be it for knowledge or services, get more business. A blog allows you to establish your brand as a thought leader in the industry—by providing relevant knowledge to your customer base that helps them enhance their business or satisfies their needs. The more valuable the information is that you give, the more authority you build.

As you build more authority, you form a deeper relationship filled with trust. When you are thought of as the go-to thought leader in your industry, you will automatically generate more traffic to your website. Your brand will become synonymous with the solutions of your particular industry. In time, as search engines see that visitors enjoy your content, they will reward you by increasing your rank in their search results.

But this is all easier said than done. Becoming a thought leader takes time and you need to remain diligent that the content you put out adds value and deep insight for your customer base. If you’re not sure on how to start your quest to becoming a thought leader, there are online blogging courses that can help you achieve this by enhancing your blogging knowledge and skills. 

Enhance your social media presence

Social media is a great place to connect with customers and prospects directly. But very few of them will be visiting your page to check in - you have to take action to appear in their social media feeds. To make the most of your social media pages, you need to be active on them regularly. If you’re not, your followers will literally forget that they are even following you. You need to stay top of mind so they remember you and what you offer.

Blogs work very well in tandem with social media, allowing you to keep your activity up by linking to your posts and pushing your point of view out there. As long as you have high-quality content, you should eventually generate traffic this way. Recycling content by reposting blogs on social media not only helps disseminate information but also encourages discussion, allowing you to obtain direct feedback about your post from your followers. It also takes a little bit of the pressure off of your publishing schedule.

By combining the power of targeted keywords on your blog with the same keywords in your social media campaigns—for example by using hashtags—you’re doubling up on the power of your blog to drive traffic to your site. Targeted traffic brings a greater chance of converting leads and improving your business.

Keep your website “fresh”

Google and other search engines tend to give more favorable rankings to websites that are constantly updated and optimized; not just in the sense that you have more pages to be indexed, which gets you more exposure, but once again because the information you share through your blog is valuable to your audience.

Search engines are more likely to give a higher ranking to websites that share valuable information that is relevant to their industry.

This may sound like common sense, but to give an example: if your business is related to SEO tactics, there’s no use in providing content that is related to dog grooming. Keep it relevant, insightful, targeted, and updated.

The Final Word

Blogging has become one of the most vital aspects of online marketing. It allows your brand to set itself apart from the competition, not just by humanizing it but by sharing unique and important information that forms a deeper bond with your audience.

This, in turn, leads to a higher conversion rate of the traffic that is directed to your website from various sources, and levels the playing field with bigger brands, giving them a run for their money.

Author Bio

Karen Evans is a former college student who, after making real money learning how to build and scale niche blogs, decided to go full time and hasn't looked back since.

After seeing so many people waste time and money trying to learn how to create websites that make money she decided to create the popular site StartBloggingOnline.com.

So far over 9,500 new blogs have been created using her guide!

When she isn’t blogging, she enjoys spending time with her family, which usually involves finding some water to cool off in!