When most people think about a blog, they picture some movie fan writing about their favorite films or a mom writing about her family’s adventures. What a lot of people don’t know is that a blog can be a critical piece to a business website’s strength on the web.
Blogs can immediately help a site become entertaining, informative, and interesting, and most importantly, they can drive traffic. Still not convinced? Here are 5 reasons your website will benefit from a blog:
- Help Search Engines Find You
Search engines look for websites that are constantly updated. Most businesses do not have products and services that change often, leading to a static website. Blogs are a way to consistently add new, relevant information and content to your site making it more likely the search engines (like Google) will find it and rank it. - Link Customers to Other Pages
Take advantage of the new traffic your blog will create by adding in links to pages within your website that a potential customer would not normally find. This will help to increase sales and the links can increase the search engine ranking of your other website pages. - Be an Industry Expert
A blog is the perfect way for your e-commerce business to share its expertise about its industry. Your blog can offer advice, regularity updates, industry updates, reviews, and other information. Consumers want to deal with a company that they feel is the top of its industry and by getting your name out there as an “expert” you will attract more clients. There is also a good chance that your articles will be picked up by news sites and industry newsletters thereby helping with branding. - Update Your Customers
The benefit of being online and having a blog related to your business’s products or services (with a link to your shopping cart platform) is that you have the opportunity to update your customers of new products and deals immediately. Blogs are a great way to get the word out there about the new products and give you a forum to discuss the benefits of a new offering and the company’s reasons for going in that direction. - Entertain
People like visiting business websites when they need to make a purchase, but they rarely visit them to be entertained. By making your blog posts interesting, as well as informative, you will draw customers back to your site more often than by just waiting for them to need a product. This makes your business memorable and those clients are more likely to tell the people they know about your site and your blog.
Brent Carlson is a freelance writer, small business entrepreneur and investor.
