Nowadays, it’s rare to find a company without a website. And if you do, how annoying is it to scroll through Google and Yelp just to find their contact information? Having an online presence is necessary in today’s technologically centric world – just read our previous blog post about the importance of having a good web presence to see why.

What’s becoming increasingly important as well, though, is having a blog. Blogging has become a staple for businesses both big and small. It provides companies an outlet to show off their personalities, industry knowledge, and to engage their audiences with stimulating content. Nevertheless, blogging is a time commitment, so the big question still remains:

Why Blog?

1. There’s no excuse not to blog– with platforms like WordPress, essentially anyone can set up a blog. Such sites have user-friendly platforms that enable users to navigate around them with ease.

2. Blogs bring visitors to your site. Visitors who may become customers.

3. Having a blog can boost your site’s SEO. The more fresh, regular and quality content you add to your blog, and the more often you link back to your site on your blog, the more you’re helping to build your site’s ranking. Similarly, with each new post that links back to your blog, your site rankings go up.

4. Blogging is shareable. Blog posts can easily be shared via social media and reposted to other news outlets. Think of it as free PR.

5. Blogging is an opportunity to start a conversation with your audience and customers. Make sure you enable readers to comment on your blog posts—when people comment, respond constructively. Even the negative comments are a good thing. They provide you with the opportunity to address the issue intelligently and respectfully, giving you the upper hand.

Some Tips for Blogging

1. Be consistent. Creating a schedule or calendar can help. For instance, aim to send out at least two blog posts a month. At the same time, don’t overwhelm your readers by posting content every day. Writing blog posts ahead of time and scheduling them out in advance is helpful.

2. Be relevant. If you’re a tech company, don’t throw in a blog post about your favorite sports team. Your readers probably won’t care.

3. Don’t be too serious. Your audience isn’t trying to read a thesis paper. Rule of thumb? Write how you would speak, and get off of thesaurus.com. There’s no need for elongated, loquacious, verbose adjectives (catch my drift?).

4. Graphics are your friends—use them. They’re great for splitting up those boring blocks of texts.

5. Utilize tags. Tag each of your posts so that people can search by category—your readers will thank you.

6. Politics and religion are typically taboo topics. Avoid including them in your blog posts.

7. Invest in your own blog domain such as “yourcompany.com/blog”.

The possibilities of why your company should blog are endless. Did I miss any crucial tips that you’ve found helpful when blogging? Feel free to share them in a comment. So what are you waiting for? Get blogging!