Every business with an online component can benefit by adding a blog to its website, but what exactly is a blog, and how can it help increase your site traffic and conversion rates?
When blogging first appeared on the internet landscape, blogs (or web-logs) served as personal, public journals that people could use to voice their private thoughts and opinions to the world. Blogging became a popular way to share thoughts with your friends and family, start your own news and information outlet, document your travels, provide product, book and movie reviews, and even promote and sell items online. Before long, business owners realized that internet users were turning to blogs for detailed, unvarnished opinions about products. And the business blog was born.
At this point, a blog can do several things for your online business besides just appear in user searches touting the benefits of your product or service. Blogs offer great ways to use keywords and metatags to increase your search engine rankings, and they give you an opportunity to refresh and add to your site content every day. This constant rotation and addition of content can improve your web visibility, and if your blog posts contain backlinks to your site, they can increase your site visits and help you make the most of your SEO strategy.
Most important, a blog gives your website, your product, and your company a face and personality they wouldn’t otherwise have. Your blog functions as the warm, welcoming, personable living room of your website, a place that draws visitors in with interesting articles and encourages them to stay. The best bogs are ones that visitors return to again and again and recommend to friends and family.
