Why should a small business start a blog?

As business intelligent analysts and SEO managers we frequently suggest the creation of a blog to our clients. More often than not this suggestion is rejected due to the workload and costs it involves.

But what we believe to be the biggest obstacle to the creation of blogs is the lack of understanding of the countless benefits blogs can have to a brand, as far as online marketing goes.

Organic traffic boost

Nowadays, a lot of websites choose design over the content and opt for lean-content, stylish websites so as to grab the attention of the user. This kills SEO efforts because it leaves little room for keyword and content optimization which, essentially, is what makes your website appear on the results pages for the queries being searched by users who are relevant to your business.

Having a blog is the perfect solution here because it is a way to add that much needed and highly relevant content that brings people in, without messing with the “look” of the website that you, as a brand, are trying to achieve.

A blog will, therefore, give your organic traffic a significant boost and put you ahead of your competitors as far as online visibility goes.

SEO juice

The articles in your blog will represent an opportunity to link to other relevant websites and increase the authority of your domain. With any luck, or with a good strategy in place, you will also get relevant websites to link to you and increase your backlinks.

Establish yourself as an industry leader

By posting thought-leadership content related to your area of business you can establish yourself as an industry leader within the relevant circles.

This will help build your reputation as an expert in your field and help with customer acquisition.

Improve customer engagement

User engagement is essential for the success of a website. Search engines measure user engagement and use it as a ranking factor for websites.

By providing your users with relevant and attention-grabbing content, they will engage with it and with your brand. As such, you will be able to improve your relationship with your customers and, hopefully, turn that relationship into sales.

Increase brand visibility

If you create relevant content, optimized for your target audience, your user will end up sharing that content and giving your brand increased visibility. If the content is good, it speaks for itself and it can cut down significantly on your marketing costs.

SEO and content marketing are two of the cheapest forms of marketing because they are completely organic and don’t require any actual investment unless of course, you need to hire SEO professionals or consultants to work on your website for you.

Lead generation

Having a blog will also help with your lead generation efforts. If your content is engaging enough you will have your users coming back for more. A good way to take advantage of their interest in your content is to create a newsletter by subscription.

This will allow you to capture not only leads but highly relevant leads, from users who you know, are interested in your content and in your brand.

Improve brand awareness

If you want to establish a connection with your consumers you need to get to know them and let them get to know you.

Use your blog in order to expose a little of your brand culture and personality, therefore creating a meaningful relationship with your users and improve brand awareness.

Conclusion

It’s clear the many benefits that a blog can bring to a business, especially to a small business hoping to grow and establish itself on the market.

But the blog itself is not a solution. You need to have a clearly defined content strategy and SEO optimized content pieces so as to take advantage of all that a blog can bring.