And You Need To Write, A LOT

When I tell a business owner who does not have a blog that they need one, I’m usually met with a variation of these four responses (sometimes more than one at the same time).

• I don’t have much to say.
• Who would be interested in me?
• Yes, but what should I write about?
• My business is boring.

Here’s the thing. All businesses have a customer base, right? When you have a customer base, you have a built in audience. When you have a built in audience, you can share your expertise, and provide value.

The world around us is changing. Customers find you through Google, not the phone book. As you jockey for visibility, your blog is your greatest ally.

It’s Your Blog That Gets You Found

When you blog, that post is indexed by Google, and other search engines. As that post is indexed, it marks another page that can be searched for and found.

• If you blog once a week, that’s 52 extra pages in a year.
• If you blog twice a week, that’s 104 pages in a year.
• If you blog five times a week, that’s 260 pages in a year.

You get the idea.

Google And Your Customers Like Fresh Content

Think about it from your customer’s point of view. If you’re in the market for a product, and you stumble across a corporate blog that hasn’t been updated for a few months, you wonder. In this day and age, in this economy, does a four month sabbatical from your  blog mean that you are no longer in business? From the customer’s view, it’s a valid question.

From a business’s standpoint it means that you have to stay active.

Google likes fresh content, too. To Google, it means that you potentially have more relevance. So the more often you produce content, the more often the search engines return to index your website, and the more favor that they will give you.

You Won’t Win If You Don’t Play

This addiction to content is why you need to write a lot. But it’s not enough to just write. You have to produce great content. Content that your readers, and the search engines will value.

You have to tell great stories, and you have to attract the attention of search engines. That means picking a keyword phrase that you want people to find your website under, and including it in your blog post. It means filling out your title, description and keyword phrases for each and every post. If you’re on WordPress it means utilizing your categories and tags as well.

When you write compelling content and when you take advantage of all the tools your blog affords to you, good things can happen. Sometimes you’ll notice that your blog is coming up in searches that you didn’t otherwise anticipate. It brings in people who otherwise wouldn’t know about your business.

Blog Content Builds Trust

When you routinely write valuable blog content, you’re busy building trust. You’re now in the business of helping your readers.

Like any other form of networking, the people you meet online as readers of your blog may not need your product or services immediately. But six months down the road, if they need your product or services (or know someone who does) a blog can help ensure that it’s you that they think of.

You become the guy or girl who knows a lot about _________.

That’s the point where they’ll think of you when they need what you provide.

It’s never too late to get started blogging. 

Take out a piece of paper and jot down about five ideas for a blog. From that point, it’s time to start writing. For help, check out this blog ideas post I did awhile back.

If you need help, or don’t have the time to dedicate to blogging, contact me today!

Matt Brennan is a Chicago-area marketing writer and copy editor. He is also the author of Write Right-Sell Now.