I am a very strong advocate of content marketing for businesses. When I speak with clients about building a successful online presence, I always talk about posting articles on a regular basis on their website, recording videos for YouTube and even putting together a regular podcast. When they hear me start talking about writing articles, it’s usually the same response, “Oh, like blogging? We don’t need a blog, we just need a website.”
This is the reason I try to stay away from the word “blog” when I talk about publishing articles on websites. It carries a negative connotation in some business communities. Most companies don’t realize there is such a high value in blogging for business.
What Blogs Are Not
People think of blogs as an online diary of random computer geeks with no real value. This could not be further from the truth.
What Exactly Is A Blog?
You can see on the Blog page of our website, it shows the five most recent articles posted with the most recent blog post at the top. Click the image to visit the page itself.
A blog is just a certain format of a website where there are frequently (or sometimes not so frequently) published web pages, organized into different categories. These web pages are normally displayed in reverse chronological order so the most recent are seen first.
Blog posts are very similar to newspaper or magazine articles. They can cover any variety of topics and be anywhere in length from 100 words to thousands of words (though we’ve found a good balance of writability and readability is around 500 words for a basic article).
Blog articles can cover topical, industry news or be more “evergreen” content that will be valuable to read deeper into the future.
How Many Blogs Are There?
As of March, 2012 there are over 181 Million blogs on the Internet (http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/buzz-in-the-blogosphere-millions-more-bloggers-and-blog-readers/). Sure that means there are certainly a percentage that are low quality, just like any market with a huge population. But there is also tremendous business value found in blogs.
Businesses that blog generate 55% more traffic to their websites than businesses that don’t blog. The reason for this is simple: by publishing quality, relevant articles on your website on a regular basis, you have more pages that will be found on search engines and more reason for people to keep coming back to your website. This also gives more content for your visitors to share within their social media communities and help your business blog see a mini-viral effect.
Can A Blog Really Help A Business Website?
It has been proven that blogging leads to more business:
- B2C Companies that blog get 88% more leads/month than those who don’t.
- B2B companies that blog get 67% more leads/month than those who don’t. (source:HubSpot)
Having A Blog Vs. Website?
The main thing to understand that a blog IS a website. It is just a form of a website. So when building your website, it isn’t a matter of having a blog vs. a website, but whether or not you should incorporate a blog formatted section into your website. Here’s a hint: the answer is YES!
Do You Have A Business Blog On Your Website?
I’d like to hear from you about your experiences with blogs. Do you read blogs? (If you say that you don’t read blogs, you’d be lying – you’re doing it right now!)
Do you have a personal blog or company blog for your business? Has it helped you increase traffic to your website or generate more leads for your business?
Leave a comment below and let me know about your blogging experience!
