Search Engine Optimization

In my 12+ years as an SEO professional, I’ve found that just about every business can benefit from publishing a company blog. It doesn’t matter if it’s B2B or B2C, or what industry your business operates in—a good business blog can be invaluable for your SEO and Internet marketing in general. There are probably hundreds of blog posts out there full of great reasons why you should start a company blog. (I have even written a few such posts myself).

But are there any good reasons to NOT launch a company blog?

If you think launching a blog is enough.
“If you build it, they will come,” doesn’t work with business blogging. You can’t throw up a blog and hope that readers are going to magically appear. It take a lot of work and time to get your blog noticed, attract a loyal readership and build your blog to be a reputable source of industry news and advice. Without a strong content promotion campaign, your blog is like a ship that has never left port. It floats, but doesn’t really do much else of value.

If you don’t have anyone to write new posts.
For most businesses, the number one problem with content marketing is actually creating the content. You may not be the best writer on your staff, you may not have the time to write 2-3 blog posts a week (hint: you do), but you have to find someone who has the skills and the time! Launching a business blog and failing to regularly update it means you’re sitting on stale content. It can negatively reflect on your brand and won’t attract any new readers. What good is an outdated blog?

If you are just doing it for SEO.
Content must always be written for the reader, never the search engines! Yes, a business blog is a critical component of any inbound marketing campaign (which includes SEO), but that can’t be the only reason to decide to launch a business blog. If that’s the only value you can see, you’re focus is too narrow and you’ll end up pigeonholing yourself. Don’t lose the forest for the trees with your blog!

If you’re doing it because you are “supposed” to.
If you aren’t excited to write for your business blog, you’re readers are going to notice. The best blogs have personality and useful insights for their readers. They don’t just rehash the same tired information in the same boring way. Yes, you probably should have a business blog, but there has to be some internal motivation to update it with great content. If you don’t believe in it, no one else will.

I am a huge fan of blogging (obviously so, seeing as how I have been writing for this one for the last four years) for numerous reasons. Content marketing is one of the most critical components of any web marketing campaign because it can be leveraged across all mediums. A blog post isn’t limited to existing solely on that blog. It can be shared on social networking sites, submitted to social bookmarking sites, used to develop your company newsletter and more.

Still not convinced? Here are 7 reasons a company blog can be valuable:

1. Establish yourself as an industry authority
Customers want to purchase from/work with the best in the business. Routinely updating a company blog can help you build brand’s reputation as an industry expert and valuable resource.

2. Help educate your consumers
Having an educated target audience can make it much easier for you to promote your products/services. If potential customers have a firm understanding of your industry, it is easier to position your brand as the solution to their problem. You don’t have to explain as much general information in your messaging and can focus on more important topics.

3. Build your online brand presence
Individual blog posts can rank in the search engines like any page on your website. When optimized to include the most appropriate keywords, your blog can help your increase your brand presence in the SERP for the related long-tail keywords searches.

4. Humanize your brand
People like to do business with other people, not faceless corporations. When you attach an actual name to your blog (whether it be your CEO, VP of Marketing, etc), you are giving your company an actual persona. Having content written by a person and not “Company Name” means you can afford to throw a little style and personality into your posts.

5. Promote your products/services
A business blog should mainly be used to inform and educate, but a little self-promoting post every now and again is perfectly acceptable. Your business blog is the perfect place to announce new product launches or let your readers know about an upcoming tradeshow or conference you’ll be appearing at. Someone who reads your blog has already self-identified themselves as your target audience.

6. Respond to a crisis
When bad news breaks, companies don’t have the luxury of hiding out until it blows over or holding a press conference next week. The public expects a response and they expect it now. Silence is almost never the best option. A company blog is a good place to issue public statements and updates as a situation develops. You want to keep the lines of communication open and transparent.

7. Build links
A company blog can become part of your internal linking structure. Not only should you link relevant posts to each other, but you can also link different blog posts to pages of your website and vice-versa. This kind of horizontal linking can help spread link juice and increase the trust factor of some of your internal pages.

So, you’ve decided to start up a business blog. Good for you! Blogging is great from a search engine optimization standpoint. We all know that the search engines like new content, which is what every blog post that you post to your website will be. It also provides you with the opportunity to target more keywords by posting content based on those words. However, when it comes to blog writing it’s important to write to your audience and provide relevant and engaging posts. The goal is to position yourself as an industry expert and keep your readers coming back time and time again. After you’ve set up the blog the next step is to start writing! This is where some people may have difficulties. However, don’t stress. There are numerous things to write about.

Here are some blogging ideas:

Industry News
If you’re working in an industry, you should know what’s going on. If you don’t, find out! Pay attention to the news, read industry magazines and other publications, and check out other people’s blog and forum posts. This should give you an idea of what’s going on. Write about it and provide your companies opinions and reactions.

Company News
A blog is a great outlet to reveal a new service or product that you offer. You can also notify your customers of a location move, branch addition, or new personnel that have recently been hired. Really, anything going on in the company is fair game.

Insider Tips
While you don’t want to give away all of your “secrets”, you can use your blog to provide some tricks of the trade. This confirms that you know your stuff and can be trusted. It’s a great way to get customers or clients.

Guest Posts from Employees
These “day in the life of” blog posts can be written by employees from every department and at every level of the company. They can explain their background, what led them to your company, and what their duties are.

A blog is great way to show your personality to customers and prospects. It should be less formal than your website, but still appropriate and business-like. So what are you waiting for? Get to it!