“What about a blog? We should include one, right?”
This is perhaps one of the most common questions we get during the onboarding process for a new client.
And the answer? It just depends.
When it comes down to it, there are a variety of factors to consider when determining if a blog would be a helpful addition to your website. But before diving into those factors, let’s take a look at what a blog really is these days.
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What purpose does a blog serve?
At its inception two decades ago, blogging was simply about sharing personal experiences and thoughts — a public journal of sorts. And while there is still a place for that type of blogging, today it has evolved well beyond that. This is especially true for businesses. Blogging as a business serves obvious purposes like educating and engaging your audience.
But when done right, blogs can also act as a traffic-driving source, as well as a manner of building credibility and rapport with your audience.
“Effectively strategized content marketing, specifically through blogging, can be an extremely powerful marketing tool for your business. And when done well, blogs can expand brand awareness and enhance the quality of your website traffic overall.”
–Isabelle Halpern
Sounds easy, right? Again…it depends. Here are a few things to keep in mind when determining if a blog is beneficial for your business.
Benefits of a blog
Great traffic-drivers.
It’s no secret that we all want our sites to see traffic and increase our visibility. Blogging can be the ticket to growing these aspects. The more you blog, the more content Google and other search engines have to crawl and make note of. This can boost where you rank in search engines. In fact, according to HubSpot, companies that include a quality blog get about 97% more links to their own site from other sites. That’s huge!
Build credibility and engagement.
People want to trust the companies they do business with and one way to increase the likelihood of that is to put out engaging and informative content. Blogging is a great opportunity to insert your voice and really introduce people to your brand. If you’re a fun and quirky company, don’t be afraid to show that through blogging (hello, that’s us!) According to HubSpot, 33% of blog readers read with the desire to learn how to do something new. So don’t be afraid to teach what you know!
“To win over blog readers, you’ll need to create content that provides some type of informative value or entertainment, rather than purely using your blog to discuss your brand or product.”
– Pamela Bump
Feed your marketing channels.
Tired of determining what to post on social media? This is another great opportunity for blogs. Educational posts are great pieces of content to share across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and more. These posts drive traffic to your website, opening up the possibility of someone exploring your site fully. Blogs can also be repurposed and shared more than once. Same goes for your newsletter list. Don’t be afraid to add a section linking to your recent posts and informing readers what they can gain from checking it out!
Improve efficiency and reduce workload.
If you find yourself often answering the same questions over and over, it could be a great opportunity for a blog. This way, when the questions come up again, you can point people to the post as an additional resource, or link it during an onboarding process. This way your response is always consistent and you can update the content as needed if anything were to change! This is also a great opportunity to link some FAQs into your blog posts.
Main considerations
The time commitment.
Blogging has evolved since it made its debut 20+ years ago. When blogging first became popular, it was more about quantity over quality. But today there are so many individuals and businesses blogging that quality has quickly come to the forefront. It’s about more than throwing a few sentences together. In order to really engage and inform your readers, a blog needs to be well-researched and well-written.
And, even more difficult, it needs to impress Google. A good blog should take keyword research into consideration. It should include quality graphics to break up text. It should be incorporated into sharing across social channels. These things all take time, sometimes lots of it. If you were anticipating being able to throw a blog together in five minutes, then your site probably wouldn’t see much benefit from blogging because the quality simply won’t be there.
The team members.
When considering adding a blog to your site, think about the person best fit for the job. If you have a specific marketing or content writer, blogging would likely fit seamlessly into their role. But if you don’t have anyone on your team that is particularly talented as a writer, it may be worth holding off. It’s better to have no blog at all than to have a poorly written one. If you’re really wanting to add a blog and just don’t have the manpower, you could always bring on an independent contractor to write for you.
A stagnant blog doesn’t look good.
We’ve all been to sites with blogs that have just been let go. Under the “recent posts” header, there may be a feed of blogs with dates two, three, even four years in the past. Though the company may just be focusing their energy and attention on other endeavors, a blog that is gathering dust doesn’t look great. Here’s a tip: If you don’t plan to update fairly often, it’s good foresight to remove the post date altogether. That way a visitor has no way of knowing how active the blog is, and this works well for evergreen content.
So there you have it. Whether or not you should blog is not exactly a black and white answer, unfortunately. In the end it comes down to weighing the pros and cons for your specific company and team.
