Blogging is one of the most valuable and in-expensive tools for a business to engage with their customers. Companies that blog typically have 88% more inbound links than those that don’t and 60% of businesses who blog acquire more customers, according to a recent HubSpot survey. More content and inbound links mean better search engine rankings. Customers will feel more positive about your company and are more likely to return to your website to see if they missed out on something. A blog will give your company a voice and creates a place to talk about new products, services or share company initiatives beyond your website.
Before you start a business blog
Before you start a business blog, define who you are blogging for and why. Talk about your company, philosophy, employees, and ideas. Tell your customers why you’re in business and how you can help them. Stay on top of the news, trends and competitors to be a successful blogger. A blog with no focus attracts no readers. Talk to your co-workers and let them submit ideas for your company blog. You’ll be surprised what they come up with and it also creates a strong bond with the company team.
You are an expert in your industry
Your business is your niche, you know everything about the product or service you sell. Writing articles about topics that your readers will find helpful and that you have a great knowledge of will help build your reputation as an expert in your field. Blogging about your business is an excellent way to gain trust and loyalty of your customers.
Social media benefits
Sharing your blog content on social media is more accepted than advertising. If you use the social sharing buttons on your blog posts (and you should) it will allow people to share your article on all popular social media platforms. Your business will get enormous exposure and recognition. The more shares you’ll get on social media, the more important your business will be for the search engines.
[bctt tweet=”A business blog will improve customer loyalty and results in better search engine rankings”]Link building
Use your blog to improve your link ranking by creating subject related links. Make sure that all links are of high quality, meaning that you link to other good ranking websites that focus on the same subject. You can also create internal links, but as with everything: don’t go overboard. Too many links can result into lower rankings in search engines, so be gentle and on-topic.
Blogging is good for SEO
Search engines love it when new content is being added on a regular basis. Doing so will help your search engine rankings and improve the online visibility for your business. Be aware that search engines are getting smarter and look for quality content. Over stuffing your article with keywords is therefore not always a good idea. If you dedicate some time each month to update your blog, search engines will catch on fast.
Great examples
http://blog.squarespace.com/
http://blog.us.playstation.com/
http://blog.evernote.com/
http://blog.flickr.net/
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Conclusion
Starting a business blog isn’t that hard. You just have to set your mind to it and dedicate a little bit of your time every two weeks. The revenue on the other hand could be surprisingly big and before you know it, you’ve got a new addiction to write great company articles.
