Blog posts build trust with your ever learning audience and can increase traffic to a website.
Writing a blog is one of the most powerful online marketing tools that you can utilise as a small business.
How can a blog increase website traffic?
Traffic arrives at a page or a post via a search engine, after a user has searched a key phrase.
As more of your content is listed on search engine result pages, the more traffic it attracts.
The more traffic drawn to a website the more popular that site is deemed.
A popular site is listed higher on search engine results pages. The site gets more visibility, resulting in brand recognition, putting the customer on the path to purchase.
Small businesses that are not using a blog will be left behind.
Do not expect to succeed online without good content.
How to drive traffic to your website
In order to drive traffic to your website ask yourself:
- What are your potential customers likely to be searching for?
- What interests them most?
- How can you teach your audience?
- How can you answer their questions?
Use topics that are relevant to site visitors and to your product.
Target your posts and write in a voice that your customers relate to. Teach your prospects: it helps build trust and relationships. Generating more leads.
Writing ‘how to’ articles like this one can be a great way to spark interest.
Each time you write a post, channel it for a key phrase and optimise it for search engines. Then analyse, test and tweak.
In this way your blog will grow your online presence, utilising more keywords and phrases.
What not to do when writing a blog
Google is dedicated to give users the most relevant information for their search term. Offer helpful, informative advice on your blog to build up a network of original posts.
Avoid writing posts solely for the benefit of search engines, overloading them with keywords or writing poor-quality content. Google will penalise a website if it discovers keyword stuffing or copied content.
Write for humans. Be passionate about your work.
Content should be fresh, informative and interesting for people to read.
Don’t ever hard sell on a blog; buyers do not purchase that way.
Share your content on social media
Share your blog posts on social networks such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Sharing high-quality content with your followers not only builds trust but shows Google that you are active on the web, giving you a stronger online influence.
Google can determine the number of times a post or page has been shared, liked, clicked or linked to.
Popularity on social networks and having content shared by other influential social media users will give your site greater clout.
Natural, third party links coming from other sites play a major role in search engine rankings.
Also see: Blog content writing.
