Why a Blog is Key to a Website’s Visibility

After all, your clients and potential stakeholders won’t care about articles or infographics – they care about results and revenue, right?

However, you would be hard-pressed to find a professional without curiosity to explore a company site to its fullest. Stumbling on a company blog and seeing what the staff is working on internally has more benefits than you might think.

Let’s take a look at how featuring a blog on your site can help you with SEO, visibility, traffic, and, most importantly, sales.

The unknown benefits

Before we get into the ins and outs of having a blog presence on your corporate site, let’s take a look at the benefits of doing so. You might be unfamiliar with the terms SEO and SERP at this point, but by the time we are done with this feature, you will look for ways to implement them in your own line of work. So, what are the benefits of having a company blog?

 It boosts your sales potential – your site is much more attractive to would-be clients

 It presents a showcasing opportunity – presenting your previous successes and enabling people to read about them makes your brand larger than life.

 It offers internal activity possibilities – your blog is written and managed from the inside. Giving your employees an opportunity to express themselves and focus on teamwork is a great benefit of corporate blogging.

 It builds respect, authority and trust in the public eye – Blogging about your internal activities and external business means that you are proud of your employees and clients alike.

 Finally, blogging boosts your site’s overall visibility on search engines – this is done through SEO optimization.

The question of SEO

You probably heard about SEO before, but what is it exactly? Search Engine Optimization is perhaps the best opportunity for anyone to become popular and trending online. All you have to do is optimize your content (in this case, blog articles) according to Google’s standards of conduct. In doing so, you enable those who search for relevant content to find your site and blog more easily.

The rules of SEO vary from niche to niche, and what works for a marketing blog wouldn’t necessarily apply to a legal or home improvement blog. A search through Google AdWords can give you a good indication of what you should prepare for if you decide to feature a blog on your site.

The more nurturing and optimization your blog receives, the higher it will rank on SERP, or Search Engine Result Page. No matter what browser or search engine someone might be using, they are bound to abide by Google’s search algorithms. This makes it fairly straightforward to rely on one service alone for your optimization needs.

Google’s search patterns

Why would anyone listen to what Google has to say about SEO and SERP? Well, the truth is that Google has become the predominant force in the search engine race for the perfect optimization tracking service. This means that whatever trend or keyword becomes popular in Google’s algorithm has to find its way into your content.

Simple keywords and raw optimization are not enough to become visible on the web – you also need high-quality content relevant to your audience. This means that copied, paraphrased or outright “borrowed” content doesn’t bode well when it comes to Google. So much so that your site might be dropped to the bottom of the search list or delisted altogether.

High-quality content with original thoughts, tips, lists, and graphics is the way to go today. Make sure that SEO optimization comes second if you decide to feature a blog on your site – focus on creating relevant content first and foremost.

SEO optimization today

Since SEO matters so much, what are some of the main parameters you should pay attention to when adding a blog to your site?

The most important factor to consider is the increased offering of your written content. Sales that are purely created for sales purposes rarely have as much content as blogs. Some of the biggest mistakes and misconceptions come from a mishandling of blog optimization, so here are some factors to look out for:

 Short-form and long-form content are both good for blogs. Make sure not to repeat yourself throughout the article you post and keep the flow of information going.

 Your multimedia content should be well-optimized. This means using third-party hosting services for your images, videos, and other non-written content. Linking them back to your site will boost your site performance significantly as opposed to having them on your own server.

 Page quantity on your blog doesn’t matter as long as there is a pattern to it. Categorize your articles based on

their theme and audience. Give your readers an indication of when the next article might drop by introducing a subscription and scheduling system. This will help you not only attract more traffic but also gather some much-needed leads as well.

Your next step

Depending on what you have gathered so far, you can start implementing a blog connected to your website by hiring a professional content manager who can post fresh content regularly. Giving free reign of maintaining a blog to someone without proper experience is doomed for failure.

When introducing a blog to your existing and future audience, always be extra careful. Start on a high note from the get-go and strive to provide quality content with every piece that you publish. Only then will your blog justify its existence and significantly boost your brand visibility.

** About the Author: Luisa Brenton was a brand developer in the past; a mom and an educational writer in the present. She writes for a variety of venues, creating academic, business, and online marketing content. Find out more about her on Facebook and Twitter.