To blog or not to blog, that is the question. The short answer is – to blog, for sure! Did you know that 77% of internet users read blogs? Or, that people read an average of 10 blog posts per day? If you aren’t blogging for your business today, you’re leaving untapped leads on the table and minimizing your business growth potential.
At Idea, each website we build comes complete with a blog. Why? Because a blog is an essential tool in terms of SEO and organic lead generation. Whether your website is for a business or for your own personal brand, it is important to keep it updated with content.
The more content you add to your site, the more likely you are to appear in search results on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Each blog post is a new page of content on your site, which highlights your thought leadership and leads visitors to your products and services. Even if you just blog once a month, that’s 12 new pages of content added to your site each year!
Blog posts serve a number of purposes and can be about a number of things. To help you better understand the importance of blogging, we thought we’d break down some of the most common questions about blogging we often receive from clients.
Why Is A Blog Important?
Google uses approximately 200 different ranking factors and 50 variations of those factors, meaning they look at over 10,000 diverse metrics to rank your website! And yes, the quality and quantity of content is one of the most important factors for getting your website in front of your ideal audience.
Wiith the advent of search engines, blogs have been a particularly important tool for growing and enhancing businesses. Blogs help you add new keywords to your site, rank for those keywords, and continue to add new and relevant content to your site. This helps with organic search visibility and increases traffic to your website exponentially over time. A blog also helps you establish authority and paint yourself as an expert in your field.
Blogs also keep drawing visitors to your site, no matter how long ago they were posted. If you look at the analytics for your site, you’ll likely find that one of your most visited pages is a blog that was posted years ago. For Idea Marketing Group, for example, one of our most visited pages (and one that still regularly sees traffic) is a blog that was posted in 2015. So, blog posts continue to keep working for you to bring leads to your website, no matter how many months and years go by.
How Often Should I Blog?
The simple answer is as often as you can. We recommend blogging at least once a month. This way you’re keeping the site updated and regularly pushing out new content for existing customers and potential customers to read. When they visit the site, they will see you are active and involved, which is key to making a good first impression.
However, if you are building a brand around your content and are looking to utilize SEO as your main marketing strategy, we recommend that you blog once a week. This way, you get to build up your content reservoir that can more quickly grow your domain authority and lead to quicker business growth objectives. Since content takes time to rank – especially for new websites – the best content strategy is to blog as often as possible, especially early on in your blogging journey.
How Long Should My Blog Be?
For SEO purposes, your blog post should be at least 300 words. However, a Backlinko study of the best-ranked content showed that a word count sweet spot is around 1,500-2,000 words, with 1,890 words being the average word count for all #1 results on Google. The study also found that in-depth content outperformed more sparse content, and that more time spent on a web page (correlates with longer content) helped the content rank higher.
Given that the more content you write, the more keywords you have the potential to rank for, content length is one important component of content rankings. We highly recommend that you mainly focus on the quality of your writing, and ensure you have all key details covered that would answer your audience’s query or pain point.
How can you make your content more unique and make it stand out from what’s already written about the topic? These extra distinguishing factors will not only help with rankings but also with the overall branding of your website as a unique player in your niche.
Overall, content length really depends on what you’re writing about. If it’s a simple update about your company or announcing a local event, you don’t have to drag it out. Long enough to cover all the major details is just fine. However, if it’s a more educational blog, we recommend at least 700 words. Keep in mind, though, that readers don’t want to have to keep scrolling and scrolling to get to the main point. When writing a blog, ask yourself: Would I read a blog this long? If the answer is no, you may want to cut it down a bit.
What Should I Blog About?
Finding topics to blog about may seem like an impossible task, but it’s actually quite simple. Think of your blog as a place where you share your company and community updates as well as a hub where you can educate and nurture your audience about the different topics in your niche. Here are just a few ideas of what you can blog about.
Your team. First, start by taking a look at your business. Do you have a new employee? Has a staff member recently been promoted? Highlighting your team is always a good way to showcase your culture and give customers a behind the scenes look at who you are. If a potential customer can put a face to a name, they will feel more comfortable working with you.
Your company. You can also blog about any company news or upcoming company events. Posting a recap of past events is also a good way to keep customers updated. If you are a B2C business, such as a contractor, posting blogs from recent jobs is a great way to show what you do rather than just telling. Include plenty of pictures to give the customer a sense of the quality of work you do.
Your Community. Showing you are an active member of your community is another great way to attract potential customers. We recommend blogging about upcoming community events, involvement with local organizations, any events you sponsor, etc.
Your Industry. No one knows your industry better than you do. You’re the expert, which means you have plenty of knowledge you can draw on for blog posts. Even the most simple things can make for a good blog. Is there a new product that is all the rage? Is there a question you constantly get from customers? Is there a topic everyone in your industry is talking about? All of those would make for great blog topics!
What Are Some Helpful Tools for Blog Writing?
If you’re a first-time blogger, or just need some help with photos, grammar, topics, etc, we recommend the following blogging tools and sites:
- Google Keyword Planner. Not sure what keywords your audience is searching for? With Google’s Keyword Planner, you can get insight into the keywords your potential customers are using the most and come up with a list of terms to use throughout your blog.
- BuzzSumo. Don’t know what to do with your keywords now that you have them? BuzzSumo allows you to search your main keyword and shows you a list of the latest and most popular blog posts related to that search. This will help give you a starting point for your own blog.
- Quora. Need to find the right topic? Look for one on Quora! Quora is a question and answer site that provides you with a great starting point to find out what people are curious about and makes for a great tool for research.
- Canva. Want to create a custom image for your blog, but have zero Photoshop experience? Canva allows you to create high-quality images in a simple, easy-to-use platform. Many of their features are free and they provide thousands of templates for every content need.
- Pixabay. Need a photo for your blog? Pixabay is a great tool for finding free photos that won’t get you into copyright issues.
- Grammarly. Not the best when it comes to spelling and grammar? Grammarly is a must. This site goes beyond simply checking your spelling and will point out awkward phrasing, run-on sentences, and other content glitches.
As you can see, blogging benefits for businesses are many, and now that you know the basics of blogging, you can get started! But, if you’re still unsure about how to go about blogging, or simply don’t have the time, we can help. Check out our SEO and content marketing plans and get in touch for a free consultation today!