Does everyone who uses the web to market their business need a blog? The short answer is yes, though we would presume that there are cases where it’s not needed (we just haven’t seen any yet).
A blog does two critical things that can’t be done with traditional (static) websites:
- It’s an extremely easy and efficient way to keep content updated (something the search engines love). Regularly updated and relevant content is a key component of increased search engine ranking and traffic. By linking your blog to other pages on your site, you create connections that search engines love to crawl.
- They create an opportunity to engage with your customers and prospects. Business is built upon relationships and having the ability to communicate in a two-way fashion with them online has great advantages. People also like doing business with experts, and having the ability to post articles about you and your business gives you the opportunity to position yourself as a leader in your marketplace.
As mentioned before, a blog is an essential tool to have when engaging in other forms of online marketing such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Optimization (SMO).
For SEO, the key strategy is one page optimized for one keyword. So if you have 25 keywords that you want to optimize your website for to rank high (like page 1 high) in the search engines, then you need to have 25 different web pages (or blog posts) to do this with. Having a blog lets you churn out content fast and efficiently, and best of all, you don’t have to pay your web developer to make updates for you.
For SMO, the objective is to use your social media channels to direct people back to your website. It’s essential though that you aren’t sending people to a page that is “pitching” or trying to sell people something. You should always send people to a source of valuable information first. Having a blog allows you to rapidly produce pages of valuable information to send people to.
Have questions about Blog Design?
Call us at 1-888-450-1859 or locally at 780-450-1859. We’re happy to help. = )
