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Published by: Judy Cobb 04-09-2013  |  POSTED IN: Traffic Tuesdays

Words Blog 18: Why Blog?

 
The Internet is full of blogs these days: humorous blogs, political blogs, personal blogs dog walking blogs, environmental blogs, silly blogs and blogs on almost anything you can think of. And, of course, many business websites feature blogs of various kinds.
 
The presence of so many blogs raises the question of how your business website can benefit from having a blog. Blogs provide you with several key benefits. A good blog can...
 
1. Improve your website's SEO.
2. Keep your website content fresh.
3. Build relationships with customers and potential customers over time.
4. Create opportunities for backlinks.
5. Build your business's credibility.
 
1.  Improve your website's SEO
Search engines identify how frequently key words appear on a website as one way to evaluate and rank websites. A regular blog allows you to increase the key search terms your website uses without redundancy and repetitiveness elsewhere on the site.
 
2.  Keep your website's content fresh
Regular blogs allow you to introduce new terms or information about your area of business or related community events without having to rewrite or redesign sections of your website. If you have a community-based business, a blog that provides relevant community information can build the credibility of your site and your business. It also encourages people to visit you website regularly. This builds name recognition and a following in your community.
 
3.  Build relationships with customers and potential customers over time
Not everyone who visits you website the first time is ready to buy your product or service. They may arrive at the site because they are looking for general information or are pre-screening businesses to learn more about a product or service before they actively begin to shop. They may also be identifying potential sources of a product or service to narrow down their buying options.
 
A blog on your website demonstrates that you are keeping your website content up to date and that you can provide useful information. If first-time visitors find your blog useful, they will return. This greatly increases the chance that they will buy your product or service or refer you to someone else.
 
4.  Create opportunities for backlinks
Many webmasters are actively looking for high-quality content for backlinks. Good backlinks provide a service to their website visitors and improve the credibility of their websites. If your blog contains useful, relevant and well-written information, other websites may create links to your blog content. This not only increases the number of visitors to your site, but it can also improve your ranking in online searches, since sophisticated search engines factor backlinks into their searches.
 
5.  Build your business's credibility
An active blog that offers current and useful information creates a positive image for your business over time. The Internet is a fluid environment with new trends and websites showing up every day. In this environment, websites can become dated or lose visibility in web searches very quickly. A regular blog is one strategy for maintaining your website's standing, both in web searches and with your customers or potential customers.
 
A blog with useful and current content over time can also build your credibility with webmasters and owners of other websites. This can lead to an invitation to do guest articles or blogs on other websites. This type of recognition not only extends your "reach" on the Internet, but also improves your website's standing in online searches.
 
A good blog is a powerful tool for maintaining your business’s visibility with search engines and for establishing your standing with customers and potential customers. It can also be interesting and fun to create. If you do not yet have a blog on your website, think about blog topics that would be interesting to your visitors and customers.
 
If you already have a blog, go back and look critically at what you have been doing. Is your blog still presenting new ideas and concepts, or have you started recycling ideas and issues. Consider strategies for taking your blog postings in new and interesting directions.
 
Make sure to drop by next week when I will go over some tips for creating and maintaining your website's blog!
 
 
As always, you can help us assure that every blog post in this series provides you with tangible suggestions and ideas for building or improving your website. Please share your ideas, comments, questions and suggestions with us. Feel free to leave comments below or to email Judy at [email protected].
 
Judy Cobb is an independent writer and business writing coach whose clients have included Parsons Engineering, Mattel Toys, The Los Angeles Times and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She has specialized in developing training materials for instructor-led courses as well as interactive online courses and websites. She holds advanced degrees from Columbia University and Stanford as well as an MBA from UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management.
Thanks for reading. Jason.
P.S. Don't forget to subscribe below to this blog.
 
About Jason Ciment
Formerly an attorney and CPA, Jason has been working online since 1997. His columns on affiliate marketing can still be found on www.Clickz.com and his book on search engine optimization can be found at www.seotimetable.com.

This blog is published 4x per week and covers website design and SEO tips as well as a wide range of tips and advice for working and living online more efficiently and enjoyably.
 

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