I’m a huge proponent of blogging based first on my own experience as a blogger. My blog essentially launched my career in online marketing and SEO. I learned from it and I have helped businesses large and small benefit from blogging.
But until now I didn’t have current research about a blog’s impact on SEO
Hubspot just came out with research based on their actual customers on how a blog impacts their business. It’s a decent sample size of 1,531 of their customers which are primarily small and mid-sized businesses. Roughly half (795) blog and half don’t (736).
Here’s the data. Those who blog see:
- 55% more visitors to their website.
- 97% more links to their website which is a primary factor in where your website shows up in search results. (Want a higher ranking, get quality links to your site).
- 434% more indexed pages – this is the number of pages that show up in search engines. Just because you have a site doesn’t guarantee it is being indexed (findable). Just because some of your pages are in search engines doesn’t mean all of your pages are.
This is incredible data – who wouldn’t want those kind of results?
However, blogging isn’t for everyone. Think this over:
- Do you have content to write about? If you don’t have much to say blogging isn’t a good medium for saying it. Sending out a press release every few months would probably be better.
- Can you commit to writing regularly? Google rewards consistency and consistency builds trust with people. If you can’t maintain a blog then it’s probably better not to.
- Do you have the technical background to install and maintain a blog (plugins, features, etc)?
- Would you need help posting on a blog?
Here are some ways to get help posting on a blog. Consider hiring an intern from a local college to create blog posts – take pictures for the posts and get valuable online PR experience. Most of the time this is a free way to go about it, but you must manage them or find someone who can write and learn quickly with little or no supervision.
Another option is to hire a blogger who understands SEO or hire someone to coach your team. While having someone else blog for you who is not as familiar as you are with your business may initially be a drawback, it does at least ensure your blog is being updated.It can fill in some of the gaps. The better information you can supply to the blogger, the better quality your posts will be. As time goes by they will gain knowledge and understanding of your business that will make it easier and easier for them to blog.
If you want to get started, here are some blogging tips. A solution that can work for a small businesses is Yola – it’s free to set up a simple blog or website. You can add Google Maps and you can optimize it for search engines. For a nominal cost you can get your own domain name (it will redirect to your Yola blog). If you have things to write about and want to save on time or choose something less technical it’s a good choice. You can help your SEO and ultimately your business.
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About the Author: Janet Meiners Thaeler is an Evangelist for OrangeSoda Inc. and the principal blogger for their corporate blog and Twitter account. She regularly advises clients on blogging and social media strategies. Her own blog is Newspapergrl.com (and Twitter account @newspapergrl). She is passionate about online marketing and is always looking for new insights, resources and trends to help her clients.
[“source-smallbiztrends”]
