7 March 5 Ways that Blogs Boost Your Small Business March 7, 2023 By sma Marketing, Social Media business growth, business website, Facebook, Google, SEO 0 5 WAYS THAT BLOGS BOOST YOUR SMALL BUSINESS March 7, 2023 | Marketing, Social Media | Google, business website, SEO, business growth, Facebook By Michael Trimble, Content Marketing Coordinator The internet is a wonderful, terrifying place at times. In an age where any fact is available at your fingertips in a moment, we’ve all dove down a rabbit hole and become an “internet expert” at some random topic. What you may have noticed are the encyclopedia-like libraries of information found on blogs. More and more, businesses are investing into blogs, informing and entertaining their audiences with these dedicated monthly, weekly, or even daily articles. Today, blogs are everywhere, but why have they become so standard? Let’s discuss the benefits that blogs bring to small businesses. Blogs Attract Traffic For many businesses, jobs and clients can be largely generated through personal relationships and referrals. Those interactions are great, but businesses that excel in just face-to-face marketing could be missing out on a lot of business if they neglect their website and social media. An attractive, informative, and user-friendly website will draw in new clients organically, and blogs can build upon that organic traffic. The numbers don’t lie. According to Hubspot, a leading voice in marketing and sales, businesses that utilize blogs receive 55% more visitors to their websites than businesses that do not. If you’re looking to build your online presence and direct attention to your website, blogs are a powerful tool to consider. Blogs Help SEO To discuss briefly how blogs boost traffic, it’s important to understand SEO. SEO is an acronym you’ve likely at least heard of in passing - it stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s a shorthand term used to discuss how online tools like Google direct their users. Google’s algorithms are set up to try and find the best answer for a user’s search, and it does this in a few ways that blogs can capitalize on. When used strategically, blogs can address topics and questions that are at the top of your ideal clients’ minds, making your content easier for them to find when they search. When you add fresh content to your website through regularly updated blog posts, this can also signal search engines to crawl and index your site more often. Finally, “Dwell Time” is a term used in reference to the amount of time a visitor spends on your website. Things like videos and relevant articles will capture visitors’ interest and time longer than other content - and more time spent tells Google that your website provided a good result to their query. Blogs Build Trust Relevant and well-written blog posts work to strengthen your brand and your credibility as an expert in your field. If a visitor finds your website and discovers a wealth of valuable, accurate information (rather than exclusively sales tactics), they will be more likely to trust you with their business or with their referral. The key here is to provide informational content. If someone visits your website and finds a solution to their issue (no matter how simple), your brand’s positive image is strengthened. Further entertaining posts can convey a level of humanity and relatability that businesses tend to lack. In person relationships are great, and blogs can provide some of that personality to clients that you haven’t had the opportunity to meet yet. Blogs Provide Networking Opportunities Speaking of relationships, an underrated potential within blogs is the opportunity to network. Backlinks are links on other websites that direct people back to your website and are great for SEO. These come along organically over time if your posts are well-written, relevant, and insightful. However, you can also use your quest to gain backlinks for relationship-building. If a collaboration makes sense, reach out to tangential businesses and offer to exchange blog posts, with a follow link to each others’ websites. This gives a great opportunity to start conversations, educate a new audience, and introduce your company to a new potential client base. Blogs Have Staying Power Finally, while it’s vital to keep your blog up to date with frequent new content, each blog post should also be seen as a long-term investment into your website. Hubspot reports that over 90% of leads resulting from blogs come from older posts. As time goes on, your blog posts will gain authority and ranking as visitors discover them. Well-written posts that feature evergreen content will have a positive effect on your business for years to come. If you are interested in writing a post for our blog, contact us at marketing@npiweb.com. If you would like to learn more about what our marketing team does for every NPI franchisee, request a free info packet today! About the Author Michael Trimble, Content Marketing Coordinator A graduate of the University of South Dakota, Michael has a B.A. in International Studies and English. With a background in research and writing, Michael contributes to NPI’s corporate marketing team as a copywriter and content strategist. Comments are closed.