As the premier digital marketing agency in Charleston, South Carolina, we are often asked about the necessity of blogging. Some see it as a waste of time but those who blog know that nothing could be further from the truth. In this article, we will explain how blogging helps drive traffic to your website, converts traffic into leads, and the importance of regular blogging.

How do I Begin Blogging on my Website?

The first step in blogging should be the use of a professional blog design. Perception is reality and your blog should present the image that you want to project to potential clients. This will reinforce your brand, increase credibility, and help increase leads and sales.

It is important not to overwhelm and frustrate visitors to your website. Potential clients often find it intrusive by placing too many advertisements and non-essential images on their blogs. In this case, they will most likely give up and leave your website. Ensure your web design is both practical and user-friendly.

How Does Blogging Help Convert Traffic into Leads?

Choose topics that are relevant to your business. Topics pertaining to your business drive potential clients to your site because they are seeking a solution to a problem and are most likely already buy. Each blog post is an opportunity to generate new leads. Simply add a lead-generating call-to-action to every blog post.

What is a Call to Action and Why is it So Important to Blogging?

A call-to-action is an invitation for your visitors to take action and contact your business. They can consist of simple buttons or lines of text at the bottom of your articles that encourages potential clients to contact you. Calls to action should never appear abrupt or customers will leave your site.

Why is it Important to Blogg Consistently?

Statistics from Hubspot’s 2012 Inbound Marketing Report highlight the importance of blogging.

According to the study, 57% of companies who have a blog reported acquiring a customer from their blog. In that same study, a survey of marketers revealed that 81% of businesses say that their business blog is useful to critical for their business.

There are several other distinct advantages of blogging consistently:

SEO rankings. Each time a new blog is posted on your website, Google and other search engines will take notice that your site updates its content frequently. As a result, search engines will likely crawl your site more often than a site that does not update content as often.

Keyword benefits. A frequently updated blog’s SEO benefits go beyond indexing and crawling. Consistent blog posts to your website will increase the amount and range of keywords for ranking.

Social media. Because it’s easily one of the cheapest and easiest ways to reach your customers, social media should not be ignored. When compared to print media and other forms of online advertising, the rate of return with Facebook advertising is almost unbeatable. It’s not just young people on Facebook nowadays, it seems to be everyone. And that includes your next potential customer. To learn more about Facebook advertising, please refer to our blog entitled, “A Primer on Facebook Advertising.”

Social media also includes LinkedIn. LinkedIn was created in 2002 to connect companies and people with similar professional backgrounds. With over 400 million members, it makes sense that businesses and professionals are taking advantage of the site. Every time you post a blog on LinkedIn, you create an opportunity for your audience to share your blog with other professionals. Whether they link to your blog post, tweet it, or email it to others, it is free marketing and it further validates you as a credible business and expands opportunity. To read more about social media advertising, please refer to our blog entitled, “What are the Advantages of Advertising on LinkedIn?”

 Connect people to your brand. Blogging affords you the ability to show a personal side of your business that prospective and current customers will not see through outbound marketing techniques. Blogging gives others a sense of the corporate standards, vision, and personality of your company

Reader expectations. When you consistently update your blog, you set up expectations for fresh content among clients, who will begin to see you as the expert on the topics about which you write. Publishing blogs that are accurate, timely, relevant, and informative will eventually get the attention of industry insiders who will recognize you as an authoritative source and thought-leader. Additionally, consistent blogging helps you significantly grow your digital presence as new, existing and potential clients view your articles.

Should My Blog be Hosted on My Business Website?

Yes.  Blogging on your business site is important since hosting it elsewhere reduces many of the benefits of blogging. Some businesses prefer to use a free blogging platform like WordPress.com or Weebly.com. This often results in blog domains such as [ your company name].wordpress.com. The URL for your blog and all blog posts should match your business’s website URL [www.yourwebsite.com/blog]. This not only reinforces your brand but also helps build backlinks to your website throughout the Internet from syndication of your feed and other people sharing your content. The more backlinks that you have to your website, the better it is for your search engine rankings.

Blogging on your business website provides most visitors benefits in that they can easily find your blog and get to know your company better.  However, it is also possible that you lose all the potential benefits of having a separate blog other than the ability to remove it from the company website later. For most companies, having the blogs fully integrated into the main website is the best option for your existing and potential clients, for your SEO, and for your leadership positioning.

Contact To Business Blogging Experts at Charleston Digital Marketing Company

Let the experts at DigitalCoast Marketing show you the empirical evidence of the power of blogging. Blogging content drives potential customers to your website. Contact DigitalCoast Marketing to further explore the benefits of blogging.