If you’re like me, you love writing! Writing comes so easily to you and you’d much rather type up your genius into a well drafted blog than jump on a dreaded Facebook live!

Or you simply want to drive more traffic to your website and attract your audience by sharing the mountains of knowledge you have sitting in your brain! Either way, a blog can be great addition to your website. Hello consistent source of content ideas and leads!

It’s 2019 and generally people don’t read online. You may have been told that people are impatient and skim through text. That’s certainly true for most of your website but here’s the thing:

People still LOVE reading blogs.

It’s probably one of the only places on your website where it’s acceptable to have lots of text!

So if you really want to start a blog but feel as though you’ll be wasting your time, then I’m here to tell you otherwise. Read on for 5 reasons why adding a blog to your website is not such a bad idea.

1. Blogs build up the like factor which helps you build a fan following.

Did you know that return website visitors are 75% more likely to buy from you? And when you’re putting out great pieces of content on a consistent basis, it gives people a reason to come back and check out your site again.

Not only this but when you consistently put out valuable blog posts, you quickly build up the know, like and trust factor. A great blog makes it easy for people to get a sense of who you are, what you value and how your service fits into their lives.

Personality is key here though so avoid using a flat, generic tone of voice. Write like you speak and it’ll be easy for people to fall in love with your blog.

2. Blogs are great for SEO.

It’s not only people who love fresh, new content but Google too! See search engines use something called a bot to scan your website and will decide from the data where it should be in the search results pages.

When you add new content onto your website, the bots come back to scan again and so the more you update, the more Google looks at your site. The more Google looks at your site, the more likely it’ll rank you higher and it’s always on the lookout for fresh new relevant content.

Blog posts also fill your website with keywords and phrases so when people search for these on Google, your website is in a prime place to show up in the search results. Remember to blog about questions or ideas that people have around your service and you’ll be found a lot easier.

Bonus: check out answerthepublic.com to find out what words and phrases people are searching for on a given subject.

3. Blogs provide value to your audience, attracting new leads with ease.

Blogging answers to peoples questions around your service doesn’t just help you get found on Google. When you provide value to your audience time and time again, you’ll build trust factor and they’ll be more inclined to buy from you.

Reciprocity is one of the 6 principles of persuasion (I highly recommend you check out this video if you’re looking to sell more effectively) and it’s the reason why downloadable freebie content works so well. Bottom line, if you do something for someone, they’ll most likely return the favour.

4. Blogs help position you as an expert.

We’re only human and we instinctively follow those we position as leaders. Blogs are one of the easiest ways to create authority marketing and by sharing your knowledge, you show off your expertise, making it easy for people to position you as the leader. This builds trust factor as people will feel safe and supported by you.

Remember, your clients come to you because you have a wealth of knowledge in your specialism. You are the expert so don’t be afraid to own it and share it with the world! #impostersyndromehappenstothebestofus.

5. Blog posts provide tonnes of social media and newsletter content

It’s hard to get stuck for content ideas when you’re consistently running a blog. Nothing to post on social? Consult the blog! Stuck for a newsletter idea? Consult the blog! Unsure of my next blog post? Consult the blog! 😆

Not only do my posts provide singular pieces of content to share but each post often has ‘splinter pieces’ too. These are little parts of my blog post that I can splinter off into more detail, giving me a completely new post idea.

Take this post for example. I’ve already discussed traffic building, lead generation, SEO and authority marketing. 4 topics I can talk about ‘till the cows come home’!

Consistency is key!

So there you have it. 5 reasons why adding a blog to your website is a great idea for your business. Especially if you’re looking to boost SEO, traffic and sales. This comes with 1 caveat though: Do not start a blog unless you can keep it updated regularly.

I always suggest blogging a minimum of once a month (once a quarter at the absolute minimum if your quarterly content is really good!!). It’s better to have no blog at all than an outdated one. Landing on a blog page that shows posts from a year ago is a real lead repellent!

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