If you have never blogged, now is a good time to start blogging. And if you’ve been blogging for a while now and thinking of slowing down in the new year, you’re not alone. In fact, 66% of bloggers reported blogging a few times a month now compared to a few times a week in 2014.
Whereas this looks like a sign to slow things down, other reports from Hubspot tell us that companies, businesses or brands who blog often receive 97% more links.
Similarly, 76% of marketers say content creation is their most effective SEO strategy. Seeing that content marketing helps brands gain search visibility, it is essential to focus on growing your blogging game going forward.
In this piece, we highlight five (5) key reasons why businesses should blog more in the future, viz
5 Reasons to Start and Keep Blogging
1. Millions View Blog Pages
Reports tell us that over 400 million people view more than 20 billion pages of content every month. In fact, every month, over 70 million new posts are published on WordPress alone which powers over 35% of the internet.
Combined with other CMS platforms like Drupal, Joomla, Magento, etc, this figure climbs even higher. In fact, studies have shown a direct correlation between quality content and higher ranking in search results. Hence, producing more quality content with brilliant blog topic ideas will increase your chances of ranking higher.
As people continue to enjoy and trust your content, they may subscribe to your newsletter, share your content, become valuable customers and brand evangelists. As long as your content adds value, your customers will value it and will be more willing to patronize you. Reports say SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads follows at a distant 1.7% close rate.
When your content is relevant, in-depth and valuable, people spend more time on your site. Higher dwell time signals to Google that people are loving your content, which can boost your ranking. High bounce rates, on the other hand, generate harmful user signals which Google sees as red flags and can affect your site ranking.
2. Lots of User Generated Content
User-Generated Content (UGC) is a gold mine for smart marketers. Reports say over 77 million new blog comments are generated every month. There’s a lot of insight to be gained from such comments generated by people who read your blog content.
One such insight is what they like or hate. Readers often leave comments about topics they enjoyed or didn’t. This essential feedback helps marketers and businesses create more of what readers like and less or none of what they don’t.
Similarly, some readers suggest additional topics to be covered. They could go the extra mile and point out areas of your website or online store that need improvement, e.g menu location or general navigation.
Also, readers ask questions in the comment section. This can serve as additional blog topic ideas to be explored by you. Readers also engage each other in the comment section, adding a social component to blogging.
Properly managed and harnessed, your blog’s comment section can help you generate ideas to grow your blog and business.
3. Most Sites are Written in English
In fact, reports say 71% of WordPress sites are written in the English language. Considering that WordPress is the largest CMS, this means more sites are written in English than in any other language. Is this bad news for other languages?
Research shows that English is the most widely spoken language with over 983 million speakers. However, Mandarin Chinese although not as widely spoken, has more speakers with over 1.1 billion users.
Blogs can be written in any language. Most CMS’ have multi-lingual support enabling users to blog in whatever language they prefer. This way, you can reach 29% of non-English WordPress blogs out there. By blogging in other or multiple languages, you can reach a new customer base, based in other regions and continents.
Most sites also allow you to translate content to different languages, giving readers the ability to consume content in whatever language they choose. This is a great way to reach new markets.
4. Blogging is Growing
The number of bloggers in the US is expected to reach 31.7 million come 2020. There are currently over half a billion blogs, over 60 million of them on WordPress.
As more businesses discover the benefits of blogging, they will want to start blogging, making the blogosphere even more competitive, as brands jostle for Google’s covered page one listing.
Alternatively, brands can focus more on creating valuable content for their customers. With a sizeable following, brands can have their content shared on social media by customers who find their content useful.
In fact, reports say 59% of people will share an article on social media without reading it first or ever. They may just like the title and feature image and hit share. As big as the blogosphere is, there’s still room for new blogs with unique, creative, helpful and entertaining content to thrive in.
5. Guest Post
Guest posting is the act of writing and publishing blog content on blogs other than yours. Top blogs featuring valuable content from credible and respected writers or experts are great places to get featured in. They draw huge traffic and loyal following by virtue of their powerful and helpful content.
Being featured in such blogs can generate publicity for your brand or business. It can help you gain social proof, authority, and influence in your vertical. Usually, after reading great content, readers tend to click through to the author’s website for more of such informative content.
By guest posting and optimizing your site content, you offer readers a seamless content experience for which you can be rewarded with a following, subscription or sale. You also gain valuable backlinks and mentions that can boost your business.
Reports say 60% of blogs or bloggers write guest posts between once and five times each month. This strategy has worked for many bloggers like Bamidele Onibalusi, who has used it to grow his business.
Conclusion
Blogging is a proven way to grow your business irrespective of industry or vertical. As reported, brands that blog receive more links and traffic. It also helps to build loyalty which can boost your customer lifetime value.
How has blogging helped you grow your business? Let us know in the comments section.