If you’ve heard that blogs are outdated and there’s no point in starting one, or that you should abandon your blogging efforts in pursuit of a social media strategy, I’m sorry to say that unfortunately you’ve likely been given bad advice. 

Now granted, blogging practices have changed. And, yes, social media can be a great way to grow your business. But blogging is far from dead. 

In fact, blogging can be an integral element of a larger content marketing plan if executed properly. 

Here are some of the top reasons you still need a blog on your website if you’re looking to grow your business. 

Blogging helps boost your SEO, driving more traffic to your site

All businesses want more visitors on their site. Each new set of eyes is a potential lead, assuming you do a good job of meeting the needs of these visitors with the product or service you offer. 

For someone to find your website in a search engine though, they either need to type your company name directly in the search bar (indicating they already know who you are and may even already be a customer), or they need to discover you through your content. 

If you have minimal pages on your website, the chances of someone stumbling upon your site without previous knowledge of you is unlikely. 

Instead, you’ll be buried by thousands of search results for other companies who provide a similar service or product, and have more credibility in the eyes of the search engine. 

So, the question becomes: how can you gain credibility with search engines, so you can rise up the ranks and start to attract new traffic? 

There are two great ways to gain this credibility: creating more pages on your website and regularly updating your website. Blogging helps with both of these. 

Each new blog post you create is a new page that search engines can index (the process through which search engines organize information so they can curate incredibly quick and relevant responses to queries made through their engine). 

When indexing, search engines look for keywords, topics, and answers to questions people may be looking for so they can better support their users. Each blog post you write is one more opportunity for you to show up on the SERP (search engine results page), allowing you to drive more traffic to your site. 

Not only that, if you’re sharing relevant and valuable content regularly through your blog that answers questions your ideal audience is asking, you’re going to start being seen as a credible source by search engines. 

Search engines like to know that your website offers value, and that it’s up-to-date, and blogging regularly is a great way to prove both of these things. 

Blogging allows for internal linking and link-building 

Let’s define each of these to allow for some context and explore how blogging can support you in developing more of these links to improve SEO and user experience. 

Internal links

Internal links are those that bring you from one page on your website to another page on your site. Making sure the pages on your website are all connected to other pages on your site is good for user experience and for your search engine rank. 

They’re used both by search engines to find and organize content on your website, and by visitors on your site who are on one page but discover they want to browse related content on your site. 

Each blog post you write gives you the opportunity to drive traffic to other related posts, or to your services, ideally increasing the length of time someone is on your website and the value you’re able to provide them. It allows for a more targeted and seamless navigation that will improve user experience and increase satisfaction.

I like to recommend linking to at least two additional pieces of content (at a minimum) in each blog post so that you are continuously relating current content to relevant past content, boosting your authority within search engines like Google, and supporting your site visitors with additional information. 

Link-building

Link-building involves acquiring hyperlinks from other websites, which direct visitors of that site back to yours for more information on a specific topic. 

If you have blog posts on your site that demonstrate your expertise on a variety of topics related to your niche and services, you can offer incredible value to other websites or blogs that are looking to provide their users with additional resources, but don’t specialize in the same area as you. 

Acquiring these links isn’t always easy, but it can be done through developing a good network of collaborators and contributors, striving to build link-worthy content, and outreach to other bloggers or journalists who may benefit from the articles you’re writing. 

Blogging gives you content to repurpose for social

I love to recommend repurposing content to my clients. If you’ve spent any time developing content to share as part of your marketing strategy, you know the effort that goes into it. 

Repurposing allows you to bring life back to older content you’ve already created – content that your current audience likely either hasn’t seen or has forgotten about. 

It also supports you in saving time, energy, and other resources trying to consistently come up with new conten to share. (I’ve broken down the process of repurposing more in this post). 

Each new blog you write can be broken down in a variety of ways for social media content. For example, each subheading of the blog can likely create a new social post, you can pull quotes from the blog, and you can create checklists as an overview of the post as a whole. 

Repurposing even further, maybe you can create a video for YouTube talking about the different points in the blog, or a podcast where you read the blog and expand on points even further. 

Each time you repurpose a piece of content from the blog post, it also serves as another opportunity for you to direct people back to your website to learn more. 

Your blog posts also give your business more opportunities to be discovered via social media if visitors decide to share the link to your blog on their social networks – exposing you to a new audience of potential buyers. 

Blogging demonstrates expertise

Long-form content like blogging is a great way to share your expertise with your audience. Buyers want to trust the brands they’re buying from, and if you’re able to regularly share valuable information with your visitors, they’re going to be more likely to develop a sense of confidence with your company. 

Ensure you’re writing posts about topics your ideal audience is searching for so that they find value and want to learn more when they find your blog. 

Blogging is a great way to further develop your relationship with potential customers. 

Each post is an opportunity to share tips, information about your industry, product, or service, build thought leadership, start a conversation, and ask for feedback. 

Show visitors that you offer more than simply a product or service! 

Blogging doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment 

I know I’m adding one more task to your marketing to-do list by recommending you start a blog, but the reality is this form of content offers a great long-term, evergreen form of visibility and value for your company. 

It doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment either! Updating your website with a 300+ word blog once or twice a month is enough for this strategy to begin to take effect. 

Where does blogging fit into your marketing plan?