It would be difficult to find anyone who hasn't heard about the concept of blogging, these days.
In fact, it would seem most people are already doing it themselves.
The myriad blogs on the internet today, indicate that people are not only willing to write about everything and anything but are also willing to read about everything and anything.
Some blogs get millions of visitors and become institutions but most are visited by very few and are given very little importance.
Should you start writing a blog about the progress of your cactus, you are not likely to get many readers! Even if you were to have something more interesting than that to blog about, you are still not likely to be noticed by the web community.
But if you are a business, you don't really need to ask that question because you will already have people who are interested in what you have to say: your customers.
Why have a blog There are actually many good reasons and here are a few: Being Human A blog will make your website more "human".
It shows that there are living, breathing people behind the corporate logo - it gives your site a voice.
Instead of being just a dry sales tool, a blog will give your website personality.
We're all more likely to buy from something more human than from something less human.
Do more than just sell Instead of just yelling "buy, buy, buy" with your website, a blog gives you the chance to say something more.
If your blog contained an entry about various uses of your product that most people wouldn't have thought about, you have not only created a stronger bond between your existing customers and your company but also increased the likelihood of a visitor converting into a new customer.
Even if your blog entry is not directly related to anything you offer, it might still generate some word-of-mouth advertising.
For example, imagine a conversation starting with "I read something really interesting on the Company X blog today...
" This takes us to the next point: Reach a wider audience You have the opportunity to reach a wider audience.
Imagine if the other person in the conversation above didn't even know your company existed - he or she will now know about you because you engaged someone with your blog.
Maybe people find your company because they searched on something that wasn't related to your products but was related to your blog.
Improving your position in Google - anchor text If you want to be a bit more technical, another advantage with blogging on your business site is SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.
SEO is basically the art of getting your website noticed by search engines like Google.
One way to tell the search engines what a destination page is all about is to have relevant anchor text which links to that page.
Anchor text is the words that make up a text link from one page to another on your site.
For example, if you sell hats and have a link on your homepage taking visitors to section that sells red hats, it is bad for SEO purposes to "call" that link "teapots".
If the link is "red hats" (and therefore relevant to the landing page content), it is good for SEO purposes and your site gets a higher page ranking.
Improving your position in Google - fresh content Another thing search engines love is sites with continually added content.
If there is no activity on your website for a period of time i.
e.
the content is the same, search engines are likely to apply less importance to it.
However, if there is a lot of activity on your site (like the continual addition of blog entries), you are likely to be regarded as more important by the search engines and as such, achieve higher positions on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).