With the number of bloggers expected to reach 3.12 billion in 2020, thefact of the matter remains that all websites, big or small, can benefit from offering interesting and engaging content in 2019.
Regardless of the fact that we’re now living in the age of what Social Media Strategist and award-winning author, Mark Schaefer calls the “content shock”, where over 4 million blog posts are published on the internet every day, smart businesses continue to break the mould and heavily invest in content curators, SEO copywriters and blogging influencers. Why? Because successful blog content leads to increased website visibility and brand awareness, builds higher levels of trust with consumers and results in 67% more leads than those who don’t integrate blogs into their content marketing mix.
However, this doesn’t mean you should create a blog, just for the sake of it. In today’s content-saturated, increasingly tech-savvy world, marketers have to overcome audiences’ shrinking attention spans to create blog content that not only generates qualified leads, but also keeps consumers coming back, further promoting brand loyalty. Intrigued? Read on for Wordsmith’s 5 top reasons why blogs are one of the most valuable tools in your content marketing strategy tool kit.
1. Blogging drives more traffic to your website.
Research shows that 75% of users don’t scroll beyond the first page of Google search results. So, ensuring that your web content is fully optimised for SEO, including using high-ranking keywords and trending topics, you have a higher likelihood of Google’s search algorithms prioritising your website over the competition.
To effectively promote your digital real estate and sustain your online Google presence, you need to consider the freshness factor. While Google loves evergreen content, it also loves when websites update their pages with fresh, up-to-date content and rewards them with better visibility as the content is serving a purpose in trending searches. So, how is the best way to achieve that? The answer, through regular, timely blog posts. And the facts speak for themselves – studies from Tech Client show that you have a 434% higher chance of being ranked on search engines if your website features engaging blog content. More content on your online real estate also means more opportunities for adding internal links to your blog posts. This in turn creates a ripple affect for more pathways for Google’s crawlers, helping to evenly spread PageRank throughout your site.
Another way that effective content marketing bloggers attract users to their pages is by building content through ‘topic clusters’. This technique encourages organic traffic by creating hyper-focused content clusters surrounding a main topic area on your website. For example, Wordsmith uses the pillar content of “Emotive Marketing”, so as Google, Bing and Yandex crawlers will understand the semantic relationship between the two different webpages that promote the pillar content, and simultaneously boost both webpages in their search results such as: How Big Brands Use Empathetic Marketing to Win Hearts and Minds and 3 Ways to Make Customers Brains Click (According to Science).
2. Blogging encourages inbound links.
If you create valuable, engaging content on a regular basis, soon you will come to be seen as an expert in your field and you will be rewarded in kind with inbound links to your site. High quality backlinks are the lifeblood of your online real estate. If a community of authors, columnists or well-known brands share your content and look to you as a credible resource, this will not only result in higher Google search rankings, but it will also generate a significant amount of referral traffic to your site of truly engaged consumers.
Blogging gives businesses and brands the opportunity to connect with their consumers and prospects by facilitating a valuable discussion, and this discussion is what generates inbound links. Once you show you’re open to feedback and even criticism, your content will gain credibility, and also give you fresh, timely insights into your consumers needs and pain points – which can help you create successful content marketing campaigns in the future.
According to Hubspot, companies and brands that invest in blogging receive 97% more links to their website than those who don’t. This is one statistic that you can’t really ignore.The more you blog about relevant, problem-solving content, the higher the chances you have of attracting those inbound links.
3. Blogging humanises your brand
The first step to making your brand more relatable to consumers is by lowering their anti-marketing defences through data-driven storytelling. This powerfully persuasive technique boosts engagement, encourages two-way discussions between brand and consumers while also stimulating trust and brand loyalty. And the best way of telling your story is through the creative blogging process.
Blogs give you a unique opportunity to share your brand’s personality, adding a real personal element because you’re speaking to your audience directly. So how do you turn your blog into a must-read resource? By creating carefully crafted blogging content that solves consumers’ problems, you can start to build trust with readers. With research from Evercoach suggesting that 81% of U.S. online consumers trust the information on blogs, this tool is a great way to show how your product or service solves consumers’ problems.
4. Blogging improves conversion rates, ultimately driving more leads
An active corporate blog sends a signal to your consumers that your business is well-maintained, relevant, timely and on trend. And according to Hubspot, businesses that promote high-quality content and prioritise their blogging experience are likely to see a 13X increase in their overall ROI year on year.
But how? Research shows that apart from fresh, relatable content, it also helps to have more pages on your website when it comes to increasing leads. Hubspot’s recent report claims that businesses with 401-1000 pages get 6X more leads than those with only 51-100 pages. So, the mantra begins – the more you blog, the more leads you’re likely to generate, giving Google bots more topic clusters to crawl, index and prioritise in Google search results.
5. Blogging helps you rank for long-tail search queries
If you think long-tail search enquiries are just a fluffy marketing buzz word, think again. Comscore predicts that by 2020, 50% of online searches will be voice searches. This means the likelihood of long-tail search enquiries could possibly increase tenfold, as one of the main characteristics of voice searches is their informal, long-tail manner. For example, “What’s the closest highly-rated Indian restaurant near me in Soho?”This may be a common question your customers are asking, so if you rank highly for those business-specific keywords, such as“Indian Restaurant”,“highly-rated”, and “Soho”, you’re have a higher chance of reaching the first page on Google’s search engine. The more long-form content you create, the more long-tail keyword variations will appear when Google is indexing your website.
If you consistently publish in-depth content with higher-converting long tail keywords, you can expect to see an increase in traffic to your website, from engaged customers who want to interact with your brand.
Final Thoughts
Consider your blog as the workhorse behind your online content marketing strategy, that effectively communicates how your brand differs from your competitors. By dedicating proper time and resources to your blog page, you could generate 3 times as many leads as PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, but it doesn’t end there. Blogs also have the ability to increase website traffic, encourage inbound links, rocket your rankings on Google search and most importantly: boost long-term engagement and consumer loyalty.
So, instead of thinking your blog is simply adding to the vast amounts of data in the proverbial cloud, take a moment to imagine the possibility that your blog could put you on an even playing field to compete with the biggest brands (and budgets) in your industry… and it all begins with the power of a good story.