Importance of Blogging
Blog. It’s a noun as well as a verb. It’s also a vital piece of your online presence. While some think that blogs are simply outlets for self-inflation, there are many reasons that this creative outlet has persisted for decades and is important to your business.
The first blog was written by a student in Pennsylvania in 1994, initially as a place for them to share their thoughts. It wasn’t until 3 years later that it was given the term Weblog (Web log) which was quickly shortened to blog. Since that time, stand-alone blogs have blossomed as an art form, entertainment sources and as a way that some people’s livelihoods.
But why is blogging on your company’s website important? It might be so outside of your company’s business that the notion to you seems ludicrous. We assure that indeed it is not ludicrous for many reasons, most notably because of Penguins.
That’s right. Penguins.
Penguin was the name Google gave an algorithmic protocol that crawled and indexed ranked websites. They have since moved on to a new similar protocol which has a different name that is neither as cute nor as funny as Penguin, so we’ll stick with using that for now.
The protocols that Google uses to order and rank the internet is shrouded in mystery and secrecy so that black hat (as in bad guys in the westerns) marketers are unable to rig the system like they did back in the early age of the internet. What is known is that the more Google crawls your website, the higher the ranking you receive. The higher the ranking, the more likely it is that your website will be delivered to someone Googling your business/industry. Each blog post that is published by you is detected, crawled and indexed within about a week.
Additionally, blogs are great for Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO. Search engines, like Google, attempt to deliver the most relevant information as quickly as possible to a person using it. The more that your website uses trade lingo and discusses your industry on your blog, the more relevant you rank for that search engine and the more likely you are to be served up on the first page. However, don’t think that blogging alone fulfills all your SEO work as there is a significant amount that must also occur behind the scenes on the backend of your website.
Along those same lines, blogging should not be a random selection of related keywords strung together in a semi-coherent sentence. A good blog is one that you can use for content. The old adage “content is king” is somewhat true, except now, the content should also be good. A proper blog informs and communicates with your customers who you are as a brand and as a business. It can also be used to engage on social media and to get much needed back links.
So remember, next time you have downtime at your job, do some writing! If you never have a moment to spare, hire someone to fulfill that need. Over time, you will see the return on your blogging investment coming back in spades!
