Blogging may have seemed trendy to some or perceived as too much work for others. You may even have heard of it spoken of pejoratively, as in “Oh. You’re a ‘blogger.’ Oooookay.”
But blogging, beyond the hobby sort, is smart business. Not to mention, income from blogging can be great, too. Blogs turn into brands and there are those that “make the leap from their blogs and Instagram pages into multimillion-dollar businesses (WWD).” In fact, some of today’s most influential bloggers are hailed as industry experts and tastemakers across various industries.
I got my start as an entrepreneur in web development, which naturally led to SEO and consulting. But my passion has always been writing content, specifically for businesses. So, my business model evolved into offering low-cost websites, with every intention to garner recurring income through SEO and content creation. Yep. “Blogging!”
Websites, paired with smart SEO, and content creation work well together for businesses that want to grow their online presence. Sprinkle in social media and voila! You have yourself a business with strong brand potential. That’s why almost every website I develop has a blog component. That is why I still blog for business.
Here are three more reasons why blogging for business is smart business.
1. Blogging is smart for SEO.
We all know that there plenty of people peddling SEO services out there, and many using so-called “black hat” tactics to get their clients to rank well on search engines. But Google is constantly changing and is onto unscrupulous ways to game their system.
Googlebots constantly scour the web to determine which sites are the most relevant. The most legit way to make it to the top of Google’s search is by demonstrating to Google’s bots that you have a ton of authoritative content.
Google has one mission: To be—and stay—the king of search. The way they aim to do that is by rendering the best, most authoritative and relevant search results for online users. Of course, there are a lot of other factors that go into SEO, but content is still—and will always be—king.
2. Blogging establishes your ‘guru’ status.
One of the best ways to keep adding content to a business site, perpetually, is by creating a smart, well-written and optimized company blog. This accomplishes two things: it positions you as the guru in your niche and tells Google’s bots that you’re the best choice for organic search result.
Of course a thoughtful blog also garners industry respect. But even if only a few people read your company blog, Google’s bots read it regularly, and reward a site for high quality content by ranking it well in search results.
I simply tell all of my prospects and clients this: “Digital marketing is the new traditional marketing, and shoppers use search. So, if you want to be the guru—the best choice for shoppers—you have to be the best choice for Google.”
3. Blogging is creative .
There are at least a million things to write about for any business client: Products, process, events, business or industry history, trends, innovation, progress, business growth, promotions, and the list goes on.
Even the most “boring” niches have much to write about. Yes, I write for “cool” clients like restaurants, but I also create content for plumbers, locksmiths, and cleaning services. Blogging is as fun as you make it. Since I also dabble in photography, I add that as a component by going on location for local businesses with my Nikon DSLR. Then I optimize these gorgeous images for search.
Content is more than written words. It’s imagery. It’s video. (YouTube is another great way to rank businesses in search.) So call it whatever you want: Blogging, freelance writing, ghostwriting, content creation, whatever. The bottom line is that blogging can increase your bottom line. I know it has for me. And that’s why I still blog for business.
This article has been edited and condensed.
Mark Jay Scott is the founder of Love Your Edge and BizzBuzzLocal.com. Mark has been a writer and speaker for nearly 20 years, formerly as a radio personality for a major market FM station in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region where he produced and hosted two weekly programs, Real Life Matters and Essential Radio; and excelled in copywriting and voiceover production for a wide variety of commercial advertisers. Mark loves to help people succeed by motivating them and showing them simple and practical ways to love and keep their productive edge in life and business. Connect with @markjayscott on Twitter.
© YFS Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Copying prohibited. All material is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this material is prohibited. Sharing of this material under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International terms, listed here, is permitted.
In this article
