Do I really need a blog?

Do I really need a blog?

Yeah, you probably do.

Some businesses (a fortunate few) don’t care about where they show up in Google search results.

For them, a website is like a brochure they hand out to leads developed elsewhere – usually by referrals.

Businesses like that don’t really need a blog – although they may decide it’s a good idea anyway.

But most businesses DO care about where they rank on search engines like Google. That’s what SEO (search engine optimization) is all about.

Back in 2011, Google announced changes to its search algorithm that built in a bias in favor of “freshness.” In a post on the official Google blog the company said

Search results, like warm cookies right out of the oven or cool refreshing fruit on a hot summer’s day, are best when they’re fresh. Even if you don’t specify it in your search, you probably want search results that are relevant and recent.

Boosting your search engine ranking is only one advantage of having fresh content. Fresh content also shows your clients/customers you care about talking to them and provides a reason for them to come back to your website.

A blog is also something you can share on social media, and that’s very important to your overall content marketing strategy.

Fresh content in general, and blogs in particular, have a symbiotic relationship with social media. A new blog post gives you something to tweet about. And those tweets can attract readers to your blog and your website.

A blog can:

help establish you as an expert in your field
provide an opportunity to engage with your clients on social media
add fresh content to your site, which will help your site overall rank higher in Google searches
provide a forum where you can promote your company and its products

The chances are pretty good that your competitors are blogging. A survey from Hubspot reported that

Businesses are now in the minority if they don’t blog.
From 2009 to 2011 the percentage of businesses with a blog grew from 48% to 65%.

And those blogs generated business:

57% of companies using blogs reported that they acquired customers from leads generated directly from their blogs.
85% of businesses rated their company blogs as useful, important, or critical.

But I don’t have time to write a blog! I don’t even know what to write about!

So hire someone to write it for you – someone who can also handle your social media marketing to let people know about your blog.

Us, for example.