I find today that I am still, quite frequently, confronted with the question, “Why blog?”. This is especially true with people who aren’t on Facebook or Twitter, or simply aren’t using the web that much. “Why blog” is a particularly relevant question for small businesses (like me) that are time constrained. They are busy dealing with the day to day issues of running a business. They feel that they are never going to get to page one of a search engine inquiry, and feel that the time investment just isn’t worth it. Convincing them that it’s worth the time or financial investment is tough, but worth the effort. I can tell them that back as early as 2008 39% of the Inc. 500 companies were blogging, but that doesn’t always resonate.
What I like to do is remind them of how they are using the web right now. What do they do when they sit down to search for information? Usually they type an inquiry into a search engine. If they don’t find what they are looking for on the first search, they refine the inquiry until they find what they are looking for. That longer phrase they type in is what the industry calls “long-tail keywords”. It’s one of the ways smaller enterprises can get found. By creating relevant content, pages, titles, headings, and URL’s around “long-tail keywords”, those small businesses can be found. And, importantly, one of the easiest ways to do this is through a blog. It provides you with the opportunity to create more pages of relevant content that your customers are looking for.
When people are on the web searching for information, pretty pictures or flashy websites are great, but what people are really looking for is information about a certain topic. Once found, those pretty pictures and flashy websites can help to convert a potential customer, but first that customer has to find you. If I can get my customers to provide information that interests their prospects in an engaging, attention getting way (via a blog), then the battle to the first page of a Google search inquiry gets just that much easier… not to mention the fact that my customers become the “go to experts” on that topic.