What Is A Blog?
This week’s blog is about guess what? Blogging!
Which kind of makes sense, seeing as I have been writing blogs for Grow Traffic for a few weeks now, and I haven’t really understood the benefits, other than to indulge my love of writing for my favourite SEO company, and get paid for the privilege! Win win I say!
But before we look at the benefits of blogging, who will read your blog, and how to begin if you’ve never ventured in to blogging before but want to get started, we need to look at what actually is a blog?
A Blog Is……
So I checked the definition in the Oxford Dictionaries, and I can confirm a blog is this;
“A blog is a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.”
Other sources say a blog is a journal or an informal diary.
It can be a personal thing, or it can be written for business. People blog about all sorts of topics. Marketing, HR, beauty, politics, food, alcohol, you name it, there will be a blog somewhere out there for you to read.
If you are searching for a blog on a particular topic, just type it in to your search engine and away you go. You can spend endless hours improving your knowledge, learning about things that interest you, or just getting a range of opinions that make you think about different perspectives. All through surfing the internet and reading blogs.
Ultimately though, a blog is content, and content, as I am learning quickly, is of course king. 
What Are The Benefits of Blogging?
From a business perspective, it really is all about that magical word ‘content’.
Ultimately what you want to achieve when you have a website is traffic. In other words, LOTS and LOTS of visitors to your website.
This will lead to more purchases, increasing your sales and crucially, pushing your website up the rankings of search engines such as Google. You see, search engines love content, and new content is especially exciting if you are a search engine!
SO the more new and up to date content you have, the more regularly you post something interesting on your website, the further up the search engine results pages you will go, which means more people will see you page, and your website will receive more traffic.
So what better way to create regular, new content on your website than to write a blog? A journal about your business! The thing you care most passionately about… well, after your dog/horse/cat/family etc……(notice the sequential order there…).
Of course winning the rankings war is is not the only benefit.
Writing a blog is an excellent way to connect with your customers, both old and new. You are, after all, human. Your business would not exist without you, and it is a good thing to show your human side. Remember the old adage, people buy from people? Well in this digital age, where the internet is an essential, yet faceless sales tool, having a personal connection is a vital way of setting yourself apart from the corporate machines that control so much of our daily lives.
Similarly, by connecting on a personal level, you can offer your customers a real insight in to your brand and your vision, and people will buy in to this globally. There is no reason, in the age of the internet, why your target market can not be global, even if you offer a niche product or service, the world has become a whole lot smaller in the last twenty or so years!
Another advantage of blogging is that with regular updates and regular new content, you will, over time, establish yourself as an industry leader and a trusted site for new information and knowledge. Your site will become a source for helpful and informative content, (that word again), and this is especially useful for smaller businesses who want to improve their clout with larger companies, who may even put links to your site on theirs, which is a real super plus in the world of SEO.
(If this happens, put your shirt over your head, arms in the air and run round the room in a football game winning stylie).
How Do I Write A Blog?
Well if you already have your website sorted, it’s easy.
Just start writing.
Write about what you do, what you vision is, how this vision sits within your business.
Write about your products, your services.
Write about your team, the environment where you work.
Write about any positive news events that have happened, any promotional competitions you are running, any exciting developments within your industry.
Add pictures, make it visual, anything to generate some interest, share your story.
It may seem unnatural at first, but trust me, once you get going you will LOVE it! You will not only be increasing your own knowledge through researching and reading other blogs, but you will be improving your own personal skills, and your business will benefit from all the new and interesting content you post.
The Science Bit When Blogging for Business
There are one or two rules, but only one or two.
Don’t forget one of the main reasons you are doing this is to increase traffic to your website.
To do this, you must firstly make sure you are using your keywords wisely. Make sure they are in the headings and ask questions that your customers may ask. Remember this is what and how they will be searching for your products and services. Use your tags, and links. Put your descriptions on your pictures, they are not just there to make the blog look visually appealing, they are there to increase traffic to your site.
The other rule to successful blogging is to be consistent. Write regularly.
This not only means that your readers will be able to trust you are reliable and get to know your style and actually start to rely on you for information, it also means your website will be regularly getting new content, and you will become an authoritative and knowledgeable figure within your industry.
Contact GrowTraffic
If you have read this blog about blogging and you feel motivated to get started, but still have questions to ask, or if you would love a blog on your site but simply don’t think you have the time to maintain it, why not contact us here at Grow Traffic, we can help!
We have a team of experienced writers and SEO professionals who can kick start your successful blogging.
Alternatively, give us a call on 0161 706 0012 to have a chat, you could then write a blog about how you got started!
