Blogging is for Business!

We continually hear reasons from our clients why they can't blog. You've probably heard or said them yourself, "I don't have time to blog," "Who would read it?," "It won't work in my industry," and "My business is too small to make an impact by blogging."

Our answer? If expertise and experience are part of your business offering and your business operates in a competitive environment, you should be blogging.

Long before your customers reach out for information or help, they are doing their homework. 9 times out of 10, that homework will include research on the internet. If you're not blogging, chances are close to 10 out of 10 that customers will find on answers on your competitors' web sites that you don't have on yours. If that's the case, what's the chance they're going to call or email you?

Blogging is an opportunity to build your visibility as thought leader and expert. Every time you share information, whether it's solving the most complex issue in your industry or sharing your opinion on industry news, you demonstrate your business personality, professional expertise, and personality.

Presenting ideas and solutions is a great opportunity to create dialog with your customers and prospects. Most blogging engines give readers the opportunity to comment and every commenter has the potential to be a new customer or business associate. Whether they support or question your views, comments will grow the visibility of your blog and have the potential to make your blog the place where conversation happens.

Blogging makes you more visible to search engines. While you may not always be able to rank for the most common search terms in your industry, blogging on specific issues that are of broad interest will make you visible when prospects search the specific topic on which you are blogging. These long-tail key words can be very effective search tools for small businesses where the big businesses have locked up many of the key search terms anyway!

Speaking of search, have you noticed how your results have changed on your searches in the past several months? You might hove noticed that dates of posts are showing up more frequently, and undoubtedly you, and everyone else, are clicking on the most current results. Google now looks for more current  pages. By updating your blog regularly, your site gains search juice over all those whose content has become stagnant. Your blog is a not-so-secret search engine optimization tool, too!

So do you really not have time to blog? We suggest, that if you are serious about growing your business in today's internet-centric business climate, you need to find time to blog as if your business depends on it!

Are you already blogging? Please share your blog below!