"Ugh, everyone has a blog now - it's so annoying!"
Are you guilty of uttering these words? If so, you're not alone. In fact, you're absolutely correct - there are so many blogs out there!
According to Hosting Tribunal, there are more than 600 million blogs on the Internet.
But despite that gargantuan number, many bloggers don't actually know how to harness the true benefits of blogging. Below we've mapped out 13 essential benefits of blogging that can do wonders for your small business.
While you may be hesitant to start blogging, we think these stats will change your mind for the better. So let's see all the possibilities that blogging for business can offer you.
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The benefits of blogging are many. But small business owners will be especially interested in these 13 benefits below.
Did you know that blogging can help your website gain up to 55% more visitors?
That's right. When you start writing valuable content and posting it to your site, consumers will only be coming back for more.
Besides, when you start blogging, you also create more pages on your company website, expanding your online presence. This gives customers more opportunities to reach you and find your brand.
Plus, all website traffic generated from your business blogs will be organic, AKA the secret sauce to making your business growth model sustainable.
Like any small business owner, you want to reach more customers. But first, you need to reach the people interested in learning more about your product or service.
According to LinkedIn, 77% of Internet users read blogs.
This means that most users are looking for valuable content that will help inform their decision-making process. Not only does this give you the opportunity to craft the perfect content strategy.
But it also positions you as a sage counselor to customers. Through your blogs, you can share stories about why you started your small business and generally relate to consumers on a more personal level.
In fact, 70% of people will trust a recommendation made by someone they don't even know while 92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer.
Either way, according to these statistics, you're in the driver's seat of landing potential customers.
Need more ideas on how to create content? With blogging, you don't have to.
Not only can your blogs turn into blog articles posted to your website. But that same blog content can also be repurposed for your social media pages.
In fact, that's how most bloggers drive their blog content - through social media.
90% of bloggers drive traffic to their content through social media while 66% drive traffic through SEO and email marketing.
Of all the benefits of blogging, being able to recycle and repurpose your blog material towards other content channels is probably the more lucrative as it helps you save time.
Email isn't going anywhere.
In fact, it's been forecasted that by 2025, email users will grow to a whopping 4.6 billion. That's more than half the world's population.
This makes email the perfect platform for you to promote your blogging efforts by getting preexisting customers to view your content, generating more traffic for your website.
Plus, even one-time customers like to know that they're not just a sale. Giving them full content presentations even after their purchase is yet another way you can nurture your relationships with clients and set yourself apart from the competition.
Not many people respond positively to being marketed to. In fact, many would rather feel like their decision to purchase is an organic thought that comes from them.
According to Ledgeview Partners, 70% of consumers actually prefer blog posts to ads.
So before you reach into your pockets for some extra ad money, consider the advantages you already have from a solid content marketing strategy. Not only can your blog help customers learn more about your product or service.
But it can also make clients feel like they're in the driver's seat.
Bonus: Up Inc. Launches Marketing Services to Galvanize Growth for eCommerce Businesses
Remember how we mentioned that a blog can drastically improve your organic traffic? Well, that kind of traffic sends positive signals to search engines, boosting your rankings overall.
In fact, having a blog can increase your ranking potential by 434%.
Of course, this all depends on how many best practice SEO strategies you implement into your regular blog posts. But that's exactly what we do for you here at Up Inc.
Our digital content marketing strategies blend SEO best practices with quality content that helps search engines spot your efforts over other websites. If you don't believe us, just take a look at the numbers.
Our results saw one wellness brand's e-commerce store rank 9,934 keywords in Google's Top 100 results. And that was in addition to increasing their organic clicks a day by 524%.
All of this is to say that if you're going to start a blog for your website, you'll want to work with a reputable SEO company that knows how to make the most out of your business blog efforts.
Inbound links, or backlinks, are a crucial ranking factor in Google's eyes. And they can even help your business website accrue greater domain authority.
But despite these amazing benefits backlinking has to offer, 41% of SEO experts still say that link building is one of the most challenging parts of search optimization.
Luckily, having a blog helps to attract others to link back to your website.
In fact, long-form content gets an average of 77% more backlinks than short-form content.
While the power of short-form content should not be overlooked, having your own business blog is yet another way to boost website authority and cement your business as an expert voice in the field.
There are so many other sites out there that you're competing against. We're not here to dismiss that fact.
But when you have the opportunity to establish your unique brand voice through every blog you post, you're one step closer to reaching your target audience.
Recent studies have found that 75% of people check out a brand by visiting its website.
So what happens when you don't have a business blog on your site? People interested in learning more about your brand consider your business difficult to reach.
Instead, you should be taking advantage of the fact that your business has a site to showcase your unique brand personality. So use your blog to let people know who you are, what you have to offer, and how you can help them.
There's no question that there's an infinite amount of information on the Internet. But not all of that information is valuable.
That being said, blog posts with high emotional value have a 1000x greater chance of being shared.
That's why having an informative blog on your website is crucial for showing customers that you know what you're talking about. By providing relevant content, you're able to position yourself as a thought leader within the field of your small businesses.
And that will only garner you more authority, trust, and respect from others who feel compelled to share your work.
Generating blog content is not only a time for you to share your thoughts as an industry leader. It's also the perfect time for you to research what kinds of other keywords and topics will drive the most traffic to your blog.
According to Orbit Media, only 50% of bloggers are doing keyword research for most of their content.
This means you have ample opportunity to get ahead of the competition while drastically increasing your CTR.
Performing this type of SEO will also do wonders for helping you reach your target customers. Working with a reliable SEO company like ours, you'll gain insight into how often to post and what type of blog post you should execute based on your target audience's interests and habits.
In fact, 22% of bloggers said that they post 2 to 3 blog posts weekly based on their target audience.
Such frequency will also help other search engines recognize the value you contribute, boosting your rank in the search results with properly optimized blog posts.
With the amount of visibility and brand awareness a blog helps you generate, you won't need to rely solely on paid ads to get ahead of the curve.
Demand Metric recently reported that companies with blogs generate +67% leads per month while Hubspot reports that businesses that blog see their monthly leads rise by 126% more than businesses that don't.
While blogging might feel like a sidestep to sales, there is, in fact, a direct pipeline between both.
Of all the benefits blogging has to offer your business, perhaps the most important one is that its effects will last long-term. From organic traffic to nurturing client relationships, each of these benefits listed will withstand the test of time like nothing else can.
Hopefully, we've turned your initial, "Ugh!" into an "Ah!"
And who knows? Maybe it's about time you join the ranks and start your own blog.
Keep Reading: 14 Reasons Why Your Business Needs SEO In 2023
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Up Inc. eCommerce Agency is a digital marketing agency based in Los Angeles, CA. Founded in 2021, Up Inc. specializes in eCommerce, generating growth for brands by focusing on visibility, customer loyalty, and digital revenue. For more SEO tips and industry insights, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
