Although seen by some as nothing but a time drain or ‘too hard to keep up with’ blogging’ on your website is a great way to help boost your online presence.
We often have clients asking about a ‘blog’ or ‘news’ section on their website only to find 6–12 months after the initial build there are no blog posts to speak of, leaving a hole in a beautifully designed website – in this case we would recommend removing the offending section of the website or getting it active as soon as possible.
We know that we are no shining example of posting regular updates to our own blog weekly or even monthly, however we do see the merit in having one and keeping it some-what active so we are making an active effort with the new website re-design to keep it going, keep it more engaging and updated.
We are trying harder to incorporate more articles and advice as we move forward because we see the benefit of having a blog on the website, it’s something we recommend many clients and feel it’s something we should do more of ourselves as we recommend it to clients! Below are a few examples of why a blog or news section on your website can help your brand.
This is the biggest reason we advocate using a blog or news section on a website. A blog is not only a great way of putting fresh content on your website, which Google loves but it also acts as a source for new keywords and phrases to be found on your website by search engines.
With a blog Google and other search engines have not only new but more content to index, which gives you more opportunities to show up in search engine results.
With many SEO companies charging allot of money for their services blogging is a great way to help boost your website’s SEO with little out-going cost to yourself or your company.
Much like Social Media using a blog has the opportunity to give your company a unique way of showing the personality of your organisation to potential and existing clients. It gives you the opportunity to build a relationship with an existing or new client, giving them an impression of your business before they even make contact with you. Ensure your content is well thought out and relevant to ensure they get the right impression!
Although not a feature everyone will like comments can also help build that relationship with clients. Allowing comments in a blog will give users a way to interact with you directly and writing back will further strengthen that relationship.
Well written and thought-out articles that are relevant to the services your business offers can help cement your reputation as being an ‘industry leader’ no matter the size of your company.
Offering users relevant advice about different topics related to your business helps build trust with your potential and existing customers, – you have the potential to become not just another company offering a certain service but become ‘THE company’ that knows all about that particular service from the client’s perspective. Blogging relevant and meaningful content can help build your reputation as the ‘go to people’ for the services you offer, showing you know about and care about your services and your clients.
Having a regularly updated blog, coupled with Social Media integration can ensure you get more traffic to your website – not just new customers but returning customers as well.
People may follow you on social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc… but may not have previously visited your website and are missing out on an opportunity to learn more about your company. Integrating your blog feed into Social Media, rather than just posting articles and images to Social Media ensures that users click through to your website to read the article. Once on your website it is likely they may explore further, reading past articles and even viewing other sections of the website, giving them a better glimpse at your company.
Giving people something to keep coming back for on your website or getting them there in the first place gives you many advantages. You can integrate advertising of particular services into your blog within the way the website is designed for example, which allows users to learn more about your company.
Other marketing techniques and methods you use can often be expensive and are limited to what you can talk about, a letterbox drop for example may only be a single flyer with limited scope to expand on your services. A blog however does not have such limitations. You can blog about different topics with every post and expand upon themes and ideas mentioned in other media. This gives you a great way to connect with more people and expanding on information they may already know about your company.
Using a blog or news section on a website to showcase ‘special offers’ or current marketing promotions lets you expand on what you may have sent out initially and helps build the campaign as well as giving you somewhere to display the relevant content on your website, without having to create a new section for it. This leads to cleaner and better website design and can alleviate the need to pay for a designer to integrate every new campaign to your website which may not be economically viable for your business.
Of course, you may not genuinely have the time to actually blog on your website or may not be all that good at creating content or writing but that is no reason to not use one on your website, Zynke are happy to work with you to help develop a strategy for blogging and marketing your website and can put you in contact with some fantastic copywriters. Alternatively if you don’t have a blog on your website and would like one get in touch and we can show you how easy it can be!