Blogging receives quite a bit of attention in the online marketing realm.

1. 4 Benefits of Blogging
Blogging receives quite a bit of attention in the online marketing realm. Small
businesses that are already crunched for time and resources, however, might
wonder whether the benefits of a blog are worth the effort it takes to maintain
them. The answer is that blogs have earned their place in online marketing. A
carefully maintained blog can more than repay your efforts. Following are just a
few of the benefits that blogging can provide.
Blogging creates fresh content.
Without content, your website cannot succeed. Not only does content drive your
SEO performance, but it also provides site visitors with the information they
need and serves as a channel for your marketing and branding efforts. The
fresher your content is, the higher it will be indexed by search engine crawlers,
and the more trustworthy it will be for site visitors.
Unfortunately, however, you cannot create fresh, relevant content every day on
your regular web pages. There are also topics that you cannot discuss on your
standard web pages (for instance, discussions of current issues in your field do
not fit neatly on product pages or About pages). The solution is to blog. When

2. you host a blog on your website, the blog becomes a source of regularly
updated content. Not only does this content look good to search engine
crawlers, but it also looks good to visitors, who will appreciate finding a source
of useful information.
Blogging increases leads and conversion rates.
The presence of fresh, relevant content on your blog leads to a number of other
benefits for your business, including more leads and conversions. Research
shows that sites with more than 400 pages of content actually earn six times
the number of leads than do sites with fewer than 100 pages. As mentioned
above, the best way to build these pages of content is through a regularly
updated blog.
A blog that regularly provides solid content is more likely to increase leads
because it drives customers to other parts of your site. For instance,
knowledgeable and useful blogs can establish you as a thought leader in your
field. As a result, potential customers, when they need something you offer, will
be more likely to come to you first, because they already know and trust you.
Blog readers may also choose to explore other parts of your site. In addition,
blogs provide an avenue for you to offer free content and issue calls to action
that can generate leads (and, eventually, more sales). The result is a greater
online marketing ROI that can more than make up for any time and effort you
spend putting the blog together.
Blogging builds inbound links
Blogging is one of the most effective ways to organically build inbound links to
your website. Inbound links, which are links to your website that appear on
outside web pages, lend your website credibility in the eyes of search engine
crawlers. The more inbound links there are to your site, the better your site will
perform in search results.
Blogging helps you to earn these links by providing quality material that other
sites will want to link to. For instance, if you create a solid how-to article on
your blog, other sites might choose to direct people to that article. If your blog
content is good enough, someone might even reference some of your posts in
their own writing. These citations boost not only your inbound links but also
your reputation as an authority in your field. The result is more traffic to your

3. site and more inbound links to improve your search engine marketing efforts. In
addition, your blog provides material to which you can link on social media.
Once posted there, it earns you inbound links and social media credit every time
someone re-posts or links to your blog on that social media site.
Blogging contributes to an active social media community
Active participation in a social media community is valuable for your business,
because it helps you to build brand awareness, find new customers, and earn
inbound links and word of mouth references from others. Blogging contributes
to this kind of active social media community in a number of ways. First, it
provides quality material that you can disseminate through your social media
connections. If you share a blog post on Facebook, for example, you then
encourage your Facebook community to read, share, and comment on your
content. The result can be a vibrant conversation and a broader awareness of
your business and values than would have been possible without the blog post.
Blogging also provides a source of content to which people within your social
media community can link. These links further spread your content and brand to
others, while building your reputation and encouraging conversation about your
values. Plus, social media activity may have an impact on how favorably your

4. web pages are indexed by search engine crawlers. Creating an active social
media community using your blog content, therefore, can mean increased leads
and conversions, greater brand awareness, and improved SEO performance.
Creating and maintaining a blog does require time, just like any other online
marketing endeavor. However, the benefits it offers far outweigh the effort. By
creating fresh content, increasing leads and conversion rates, building inbound
links, and contributing to an active social media community, blogging provides a
rich source of search engine optimization and online marketing potential.