Why You Need a Blog for Your Business

Does your business need a blog? YES!!! Do you need to blog regularly? YES!!! 

We’re going to let you in on a secret. Google isn’t a search engine. Google sells ads and Google delivers those ads via their search engine. The search engine is free for everyone to use, but people pay to advertise on Google. So that’s their income stream, ads. (And selling the data they farm when you visit their search engine and other sites.) 

Google Wants the Newest and Most Relevant Content

Google wants to serve up the newest and best content to keep people returning to the search engine. For that reason, they want new content all the time (Google is voracious!) In addition, Google assumes new content is more relevant and up-to-date than content that’s been sitting around a while. 

For example, techniques and diagnostic information in medicine have drastically changed in the last 2 years. If you Googled vaccinations and were served pre-COVID info, it may be obsolete in the light of COVID-19. So it’s easy to see why Google always wants new content.

Get Content on Your Site Quickly and Easily With a Blog

The easiest way to get new content on a website is with a blog. Consistently blog with understandable and relatable content, and Google will want to serve your website to their search engine visitors.

You may hear people say:

• To be considered an expert in your field or industry write blog articles. 
• Use a blog to promote your products and services. 
• Blogging will bring more visitors to your website.

The Real Reason to Blog

OK, all that is true. But the real reason to blog is to stay valuable to Google, so they send more people to your website. More visits will bring even more visitors, and you need visitors to get more visitors. (It’s a vicious circle.)

Write for Your Visitors and Google Will Understand

Does that mean you should write for Google and not your visitors? NO! Write for your visitors, and Google will determine the purpose of your blog post. If you’re writing relatable content for people (ideally your target market), you’ll most likely use the words your visitors search for on Google.

So use your best grammar, and make sure to clean up any misspelled words. Google wants content that makes sense and communicates clearly to the reader.

Have we convinced you to add a blog to your website? If you answered yes, here’s how to start and keep a blog going.

Next Steps

Add a blog to your website if you don’t already have one. 

If you have a WordPress website adding a blog is as easy as writing a post. You may need to make sure your blog is on your navigational menu, but if you have trouble doing this, your developer can help with that. 

If you use another type of website software, like Wix or Squarespace, they have the ability to add a blog. If you’re using some other type of software, you’ll need to read their docs or ask support if it’s possible to blog on your website.

Start writing and write frequently. 

Here’s a strategy we use to generate blog topics easily. 

List the questions you’ve gotten from your customers and potential customers about your product(s) and services—answer 1 of the questions on your blog. And keep answering 1 question a week until you run out. The questions will most likely contain the keywords people use when searching Google. 

Bonus: 

In the future, when people ask the same question via email, you can link to the blog post. So you’ll save time and energy in the long run.

Don’t worry about the length of your blog post.

You may read some opinions about blog post length and that longer blogs perform better than shorter blogs. We’re skeptical about this. A blog post is supposed to be a dialog, a conversation. Some conversations are long, and some are short. Google knows that some topics take a long time to communicate, and some topics take no time at all. 

In our experience, Google is looking for blog posts of different lengths. If you have all short blog posts, Google may think the website is shallow and skims the surface of topics with no real meat. On the other hand, if all you have are long blog posts, Google may think the website adds words just for the sake of word count, doesn’t communicate clearly, is challenging to read, follow and understand. 

Write some more!

You may feel your topic has already been exhaustedly written about, and nothing you add could be worthwhile. STOP THAT! No one has your take on things. No one solves challenges like you do, and no one communicates like you do. But you can help readers with your take on the topic. (Pssst… that’s why they sign up for your newsletter. Because they appreciate your take on the topic.) They’ll understand the topic better with your approach.

You may feel like you don’t write good. (See what we did there? The word should be well, not good.) But, the more you write, the easier it will become. 

Editing is your very best friend. It’s the cherry on top of a hot fudge sundae. We edit everything we write for the internet at least 3 times, AND we have someone else read the article and suggest edits. 

The more clear and concise your message is, the easier it is for readers to understand. Most times that means, taking out words, adding punctuation, adding headings and bullet points to make your post scannable, and correcting misspellings. (Always look for words like you’re/your and their/there/they’re. These are the type of words spell checker won’t find, but your readers will, and it may lower their opinion of you.)

Bonus: 

Editors tip #1 Read your post out loud. (You can whisper, but you need to be able to hear it.) You’ll find the places your post isn’t clear or hard to read.

Editors tip #2 To find words that are spelled correctly but used incorrectly, read your post from the bottom up. 

(We use both of these techniques for every blog post we publish.)

Can you see now how important a blog is for your business? 

You need new content on your site for Google to serve it up on their search engine. Blogging is the easiest way to get new content on your site quickly and consistently. By posting new content consistently, Google will find your website attractive and serve it up on their search engine (underneath their ads.) The more people visit your site, the more Google will serve up your website in their search engine. The more visitors, the more sales. And isn’t sales always the bottom line?