What's The Purpose Of A Blog? 3 Reasons to Help You Stick With Blog Writing!

Why do I need to blog?

I'm already posting on Instagram and Facebook about my business; what's a blog going to do for me?

Look, I'm already working all the hours, and I haven't got time to write a blog on top of everything else. I'll pass on the blog writing if that's OK.

I totally get it, but let's take a proper look at what's the purpose of a blog and what blogging has the power to do for your business so I can convince you to keep at it!

So today, I want to take you behind the scenes of a blog to show you what the purpose of a blog really is, how they work and how they get you more traffic, more leads and ultimately, clients.

Why You Need A Blog: The Facts and Figures

According to Hubspot, businesses that blog regularly receive 55% more visitors AND 97% more inbound links than businesses that don't blog! (Hubspot)

And why's that? Well, it's because the more high-quality content you publish related to what your customers are asking questions about, the more likely it is that people will click on your post when it appears in the search results and visit your website.

But let's step back a minute and look at how all this showing up in the search results stuff works because it's important for understanding how blogging works.

So, Google sends its bots out into the ether, and they crawl the internet for new and exciting information to bring back to Google HQ so it can be indexed.

Remember the old days when you went to the library and searched through those little white cards in the drawers to find out where the book you wanted to read was on the shelves?

Well, Google's indexing is pretty much the same thing. Information on new pages is brought back to Google HQ, where they take a look at what it's all about and effectively write up a virtual white card on the page and then stick that in its filing system.

Then, when someone comes A'Googling, they reach into their index and pick out the pages that answer that question, and, to make life easier for the Googler, they rank the pages from 1 to however many million based on how well they answer the question (and about 200 other things in the algorithm!).

So, can you see that you need as much content as possible for Google to index to boost your chances of getting your stuff seen?

You want as much quality content as possible on your website, so Google can find it and then index it and show it to people who need answers to the questions you're answering in your blogs.

If you don't have much blog content, Google won't have anything to show people about you and your business.

But if you regularly publish keyword-rich blogs, you'll be creating lots more pages on your website, and you'll have a much better chance of ranking in the search engines. 

Every time you publish a blog post, you effectively create a new page on your website and give yourself another chance to show up in the search engines and generate new leads.

The long and short of it is that blogging gets your website seen by the people who actually need to see it.

Coming around to the idea of blogging now?! 

Good, let's dig a bit deeper.

The Purpose Of A Blog Number One: A Blog Drives Traffic to Your Website

When you consistently post quality content on your blog, it shows Google that you're a legit business and that they should bother looking at what you've got to share with people looking for answers on the subjects you can talk about. 

The following graph from Hubspot shows that traffic generation increases significantly once a website reaches 300+ indexed pages.

Look at this jump!

And blogging is the best way to get that many indexed pages on your website.

The Purpose Of A Blog Number Two: A Blog Helps Convert Traffic Into Leads

So now that you have good traffic coming to your site – thanks to your blog, it's time to convert it into leads.

And yes, blog posts will help you do that too. All you have to do is add a call-to-action (CTA) button to every post you create and invite your new readers to get in touch, download your freebie or invite them to your next event.

But please, do not use your blog as a selling tool. By all means, tell people briefly about a new offer if it's relevant to your blog topic, but a blog is NOT a sales tool. Move them down your sales funnel before you start selling to them.
A blog is your way of engaging readers, educating them, and building brand awareness.

The Purpose Of A Blog Number Three: A Blog Builds Your Business' Authority.

Another purpose of a blog is to show people you really know what you're talking about, which builds the trust factor with your new readers and increases the likelihood of them converting into clients. 

Just think about it, would you be more like to sign up for a course run by someone you'd seen regularly showing up and talking about that subject and whose style you liked than a course that appeared out of nowhere run by someone you'd never heard of and whose approach to the subject you needed help with was a mystery?

I'd go with the person whose blogs I'd been reading for the last few weeks, wouldn't you?

So, if you consistently blog and share useful information with your readers, you'll become an authority on the subject as far as they're concerned, and they'll be MUCH more likely to buy from you when the time comes.

But remember, your blog is not a sales tool… it's for warming people up and establishing you as the person they'd be better off buying from when the time is right.

Ready To Get Blogging?

Now you can understand the real purpose of a blog and the incredible impact a blog can have on the growth of your business, are you convinced you should get a plan to blog regularly now?

If the prospect of blogging every week is overwhelming, don't worry, there are lots of amazing outfits out there that can help you get it done, and if you have your content plan in place, half the work is done already.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing lots of ideas about how to create your content as painlessly as possible, so keep a lookout.

And in the meantime, why don't you have a read of this blog I wrote for you on why you need a content strategy.