All businessmen worth their salt know it is important to tailor the business practices and evolve with time. In online marketing, there is a simple and effective strategy that is known to show lasting results when implemented correctly. We are talking about blogging. More specifically, having a blog on a business website. A blog that is a source of valuable knowledge, news and shareable content for your audience.

There are no two ways about the significance of blogging. The positive impact of organized blogging strategies cannot be understated. But if you are still on the fence whether blogging will improve your business, we discuss a few reasons why you should jump on board too. Here is what blogging does for your business:

#1) Increases Traffic, Conversion & Revenue

Great blogs provide readers with valuable information, solutions and tips that are useful.  That gives readers more incentive to spend time on your website, increasing the chances of conversions. They also share your content in their social media and private circles, providing you with brand exposure.

As you can see, simply creating a relevant blog post and promoting it properly gives you much more traffic than you would otherwise get. More traffic also means more leads and more conversion if you add appropriate call-to-actions at the end of your content. More conversions mean more customers and more revenue, and who doesn’t want that?

To track your blog’s progress, use analytics tools and stay on top of key metrics. Google Analytics will tell you everything you need to know about your blog’s traffic, conversions, leads and other important KPIs.

#2) Builds Your Brand

Blogging also helps you share your own story as well as your brand’s story with the readers. Show the consumers that there are only regular people behind your business who love their work and like to have fun. Just like the readers themselves. It humanizes you and urges people to connect with you. Building a brand is about creating a narrative around your business and what it is about. Blogging is a tremendous resource in achieving this goal.

The essence of inbound marketing to give each customer and each prospect the right amount of attention. One that is designed according to their requirements and interests. When you try to form a relationship with your readers and customers, it establishes long term rapport that is beneficial to everyone.

If you look at websites of the biggest brands, you will see that they regularly create content that is high performing and useful for their consumers. There is a correlation here which presents a blueprint for success to small and medium sized business.

#3) Establishes You as a Thought Leader

If you are being a valuable contributor to the online audiences on a consistent basis, people start to respect you. Usually, if that is the case, your opinions and reflections on the subject start gaining traction in your specific niche. When you become an authority figure in a niche, lots of good things happen. Journalists and writers approach you for quotes. Your competitors link to your content because of how good it is. Effective and readable content gives your readers more reason to buy your services & products. The discussion in the comments or on social media gives you opportunities to further interact with consumers and share your expertise.

Use BuzzSumo or a similar platform to keep track of high performing content and analyze what makes it tick. Enough research and good writing, presented in a simple manner, will usually attract readers who will likely share the content too.

#4) Improves Your Search Engine Optimization

When you have a website, you need to rank high for your targeted keywords. Blogging is directly helpful in this regard. Google emphasizes on the freshness of your website i.e. how often the website is being updated. However, there is little reason or opportunity to do so when you only have a handful of pages on your website informing readers about your business, products and services. Besides, you can’t change or update those pages too often. A blog gives you the opportunity to frequently index new pages to Google and keeps your site fresh.

Now take into account the traffic and conversions a blog can bring in and you’ll see how important its success is for SEO and sustained high rankings. Tech Client estimates that having a blog gives you a 434 percent better chance achieving a high search engine ranking.

Try using a platform like Moz to keep track of your content’s rankings on the chosen keywords. It has proven to be reliable option to gauge search engine performance and rankings. This way, if you see a blog underperforming on a particular keyword, you can then re-optimize it for better search rankings. For those who don’t have the time to manually check each content piece, you can set up instant alerts for when a page goes below a threshold in search rankings.

#5) Allows You to Test New Strategies

A blog is a place where you announce business related news. Provide important updates to your readers. Test their reaction to the new updates or products you may be planning. You can also analyze the market by asking your readers to give their suggestions on new advertising campaigns or lines of products. If you constantly interact with the audiences, you will have a good idea of their mood. You would know how a particular campaign or product is going to be perceived and what changes if any, you may need to make.