Does my Website Need a Blog?

Your website definitely needs a blog if you want your business to get noticed

You may have heard conflicting statements about blogs and why they are/aren’t important. So let me clear up a few misconceptions for you.

• Nobody reads company blogs anyway

• All my business comes from referrals

• Isn’t it enough that I post on social media?

The first misconception “Nobody reads company blogs anyway” is where a lot of the misunderstandings spring from. People will read your business blog if it answers the questions they’re asking on search engines.

That’s part of the key reasoning behind having a business blog. It’s not there for you to share your personal musings (save that for your personal blog) and it’s not there as a place to share pictures of the charity fun run your team took part in last week.

Sure, share a few relevant company events - but these need to be kept to a minimum because the main aim of any business blog is to provide useful content for your target audience.

What is useful content?

Useful content is content which answers the questions your audience are asking. Why does anyone search Google or Bing for answers? Because they want to find the best products or services or information to help them solve a problem.

If your website holds the answers to those questions, then you’re going to land more visitors. More visitors mean more social shares, more sales and ultimately more clout on Google.

And that brings us to the next common misconception - “All my business comes from referrals”.

A blog is useful in more than one way. It can bring direct business right to your door. More social media action means more referrals. You’re just upping your reach with a blog.

Should I share my blog on social media?

Yes! All of your blogs need to be shared on your social media channels in order to widen your audience. Shares and likes bring more traffic to your website.

How do I decide what to write?

This is where it gets tricky. In all honesty, unless you’re fast, dedicated and very determined, it’s not a simple undertaking.

Professional blog writers undertake extensive research prior to creating any content for a business

There’s nothing random about it. The key points to remember however, are as follows.

• Know your audience

• Understand your audience

• Offer a solution

Knowing your audience

When you know your audience you know what they want, what they worry about, what they love and what they hate.

Understanding these details helps you help them - and if you’re helping your audience then they’re going to react positively to your content.

Get to know your audience as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. If that means running some surveys or just reaching out for feedback then do that.

Understanding your audience

This is more in-depth than simply knowing the median age of your typical client or knowing that they’re avid football fans.

It involves researching your competition and how they approach the problems your audience faces. Here are some examples.

Let’s imagine that your business is a doggy daycare centre. You have a few regular clients but would like to double your list within a year.

How can understanding your audience help you?

Looking at your typical client, you know that they are busy working professionals who are time-short and cash rich.

There should be plenty of custom about but for some reason, you’re not getting any of it.

Why?

Look to the way in which your audience lives - what social media do they use? What groups do they belong to? How do they socialise? What concerns do they have about the care which their pets currently receive?

Once you know the answers to these questions then you can provide the proper responses to them via your blog and ensure that it gets seen on the right social media channels.

Publish well-written, well-researched content

If your blog is populated with strong, relevant content then it will reflect well with search engines and with your prospects.

Half-finished blogs, poorly written blogs or even worse an empty blog will reflect badly on your business.

If you can dedicate half a day per week to writing blogs then you’re already ahead of at least some of the competition.

If you can’t, then hire a professional blog writer to do the hard yards on your behalf!