13 Ways Adding a Blog Can Increase Small Business Website Traffic

Blogs… aren’t those just Tumblr feeds of hipster photos? Does my website really need a blog section? What value would it add to my small business?

We often get these types of questions from our clients. The answer: no, blogs are much more than DIY platforms for recipes and fashion photos. Yes, your business should have a blog. And the value? A lot. Content marketing has become key for companies to reach their customer base in the digital realm, and one of the main ways is through regular blogging. Here’s why a blog is crucial for your small business, and why it’s provided in all of our packages:

Keyword targeting. Static pages (About Us, Services, etc.) can’t target as many keywords as a blog allows. Sometimes there is no room for certain information elsewhere on your site, so a blog adds depth for keywords and relevant information to show up in search. If you get anything out of this list, it’s that blogs are essential for search engine optimization.

Improves bounce rate. Blog posts have much lower bounce rates than static pages on a website, meaning users are staying on your site longer and more likely to continue clicking around.

Engagement. The comments section and share buttons on blog posts offer opportunities for engagement with your customers. Comments provide valuable feedback for you and information about the people interested in your business. Blogs provide calls to action: leaving a comment, re-sharing, and clicking through to other pages on your website.

Return traffic. Most of a business’s sales come from return visitors rather than new ones. Blogs attract followers, resulting in more people coming back to your website.

Shareability. Blogs are the purest, original social network, and therefore a starting point for social media. So much social media sharing revolves around blog content and vice versa—blogs provide links to social profiles and pull information from them.

Relevancy. Adding frequent, useful content gives your website relevancy for keywords related to your industry. Accurate and helpful blog posts show that you’re knowledgeable and can be used as a resource.

Contributing to the Internet. Google ranks sites higher if they provide information to the online community. Posting regularly on a blog shows Google you’re a valuable contributor to the Internet, and will reward you by placing you higher in search results.

Attracts links. Blogs attract and provide links. Most sites don’t want to link to another’s static pages—they want people to land on useful information provided by that source. External links will most often direct to a blog post.

Directs to other pages. Blog posts can include anchor text that links to the main pages of your site. You can leverage the authority of your blog to direct users to the pages you want them to see (services, booking, online store).

Brand personality. Most users learn what they know about a brand from the blog. The writing style shows users how to understand the business, giving your brand a voice that is harder to find on a services or about page.

User experience. People want to see cool stuff. Blogs give you an opportunity to show off your cool stuff.

Archive. Just like an online library, blogs act as a history of your company. Users can search for past articles or specific categories/keywords that have been archived by date. Some information may still be relevant to your business but not timely, so a blog provides an area for this content to live and be expanded upon in future posts.

Multimedia. Blogs provide a platform to share cool videos, photos, audio, infographics, and other forms of media related to your business. Posts with multimedia elements are significantly more likely to be clicked on and shared.

Need more reasons? We could keep going…