by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

If your business strategy includes inbound marketing, business blogging is essential. If you’re new to inbound marketing or blogging, you may have some questions. Why should your website have a blog? What is it? Why do we do it? What’s the goal of it all?

According to HubSpot, “Business blogging is a marketing tactic that uses blogging to get your business more online visibility. A business blog is a marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.) that helps support business growth.”

Here are four major ways blogging helps support business growth, and why you should have a blog on your website.

Blogs Drive Traffic

A blog on your business website provides the opportunity for you to create relevant content for your customers and potential clients. This is a very effective marketing tactic to drive traffic back to your website.

• You have a 434% higher chance of being ranked highly on search engines if you feature a blog as part of your website (Tech Client).
• Businesses using blogs as part of their content marketing mix get 67% more leads than those who don’t (Hubspot).

The blog on your business website becomes the foundation for all your social media platforms. Posting links and relevant visuals from your blog articles to all your social sites gives your followers a reason to click through to your website. Plus, you can also post inbound links directly in your blog articles, to drive traffic to specific landing pages of your website.

Blogs Increase SEO

Blogs substantially increase your SEO. Fresh, quality content is still the key to beating out your competitors on search engine results pages like Google. Use keywords in your articles. List out the keywords, topics, and categories for which you want your business to be found, then these words and related expressions when writing your posts.

And, whether you actively seek these out or not, blogging regularly about your business, industry, products, services, or customer lifestyle will naturally increase your search keywords. Being intent about your words will only increase results. Keywords and topics on your website are a significant way in which Google (and other search engines) find your site for these searched words.

Moreover, don’t forget voice searches that consumers now perform through platforms like Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Cortana. If you asked any of these voice search digital assistants where your business is located when it’s open, or what you offer, what would they say? According to AdWeek, 67 million voice-assisted devices will be in use in the U.S. by 2019. This changes the way that digital content is managed. And, 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information in the last year alone. Voice-powered services have created a seismic shift in how consumers find information about your brand. Voice search needs to be part of your SEO/content strategy.

Blogs Position Your Brand as an Industry Leader

Well-written, helpful articles position your company as an industry leader. By posting topics that resonate with your market and show your knowledge, you are marketing your skills for your business, service or product too.

If you are a retailer, for example, write blog posts about your products. Your customers will get to know you as the knowledge source for the products they want. If you are in B2B, post articulate, well-researched articles about your services. Become the hub or the place to get answers, for your industry.

You are building trust, too. The more you can show that you are well-versed in your field, the more likely your consumer will trust you to supply what they need. Your customers additionally benefit from the learning you provide them.

Blogs Develop Better Customer Relationships

Blogs provide another source to deepen the connection with your customer. By connecting directly on your website, your clients are able to get to know your business or product from the comfort of your online home. As discussed above, build trust by being a source of information. Consumers like to be informed, and they will remember that you are the one teaching them.

Also, just as on your social media sites, respond to comments and interact with consumers. If they have questions about a product you are writing about, respond to them directly on your website. Unlike many social sites, a blog is generally searchable on your site for some time. Your website comments last longer than a Twitter response or Facebook post. Other customers will see your interactions and learn from them, too.

A blog is a fantastic tool for your business in our digital age. If you don’t currently have one, start one and upload some high-quality content. If you currently use blogging in your marketing, how do you think it is working? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Share them in the comments below.