Why Blog?
Nov 27, 2012
All the potential customers out there are searching Google to find something: information. Whether it be where to buy something, how to fix something, how to choose what's the best option for them, whatever, if it's something your business can help them with, wouldn't it be great if they found you? So how do you make this happen? The absolute best and most effective way is to create great, unique content.
If your website has been built on a content management system, it's easy to add and update content whenever you need. Google rewards you for keeping your site content fresh and maintained by sending out the robots more frequently to index your pages. While creating and formatting content for new web pages can be tedious, the rules are more relaxed for writing blog posts, making your blog the easiest way to build content to your website. An important note: in order for all this great content to boost your rankings in Google and bring in visitors to your website, the blog must be on your domain - www.yourcompany.com. If you set up a blog on something like Wordpress, you're just directing traffic to there instead. If you're considering a website redesign, choose a content management system that has a blog feature already built in.
So, why blog?
Businesses used to be able to just write a check to the Yellow Pages, and they were all set for the year. Those days are long gone, and nowadays most people look to the internet when they need to find something. You can still pay for a yellow pages ad, but you'll get a ton more out of your marketing budget if you focus your efforts on regularly posting articles related to your products, services or industry. You can send out direct mail ads every week with big bold capital letters screaming "Come check out our website!!", but (even if anyone actually does before it goes in their birdcage) without an interesting series of blog articles, you really have nothing for them to come check out. So, you've got a website. Maybe they'll remember your company name if they ever need the services you offer.
If you produce interesting, or even entertaining articles, people will find you (by keyword topics rather than alphabetically); and not only will all this content help more prospects find your website, it will help keep them on your website to learn more - about your products, services, etc - and as they get to know you and your company, soon they'll want to become a customer!
Ultimately, that's the "why" part of Why Blog? - it's easy to set up and maintain, and the best, most cost-effective use of a small marketing budget, but just in case you need a few more excuses why you don't have a blog, here's a few reasons NOT to blog...