5 Reasons Not Blogging Is Hurting Your Business

Hey there and to on today’s episode, we are going to talk about blogs. Some people want to know do I really have to blog is blogging dead? With all the buzz about podcasting and other things? Sometimes blogs get a bad rap. But we’re going to talk about why they’re so important for your business. And one data point I want to share with you is that companies that blog gets 67% more leads a month, just by blogging regularly. So we’re going to dive into the top five reasons you should be blogging in your business. And we’re going to share some of the things you need to do on those blog posts. It’s easier than you think. And I know you can get started if you’re not doing it already. To beautiful friend, welcome to Business and breakthroughs. Do you want to optimize your online presence so you can get more traffic to grow your writing, speaking or coaching business? Are you constantly trying things online? And wondering what actually works best to grow your email list? get leads and book more opportunities? Are you looking for ideas that will help you grow your brand? I’m Kristin, an online traffic growth coach who built an online brand that reached millions of people. I’ve worked in online marketing for over 20 years. And I know how frustrating it was to work so hard and feel like I wasn’t seeing more engagement opportunities or leads, until I learned to optimize my online presence. After putting the systems in place, I was able to grow an online audience to over 10 million with 38 million pageviews and grew an email list to 50k, all with one brand, I want to help you do the same. Getting traffic online doesn’t have to be so hard. 

I created an easy to follow online growth system in online marketing strategies that work to grow your audience and increase your traffic, grab your coffee in a notebook, and let’s grow your traffic. Alright, let’s dive right into today’s topic. This is part four of the six part series secrets to optimizing your website to grow your traffic and leads. So we’re talking about blogging today, why you need to do it, how it can help you get more traffic and leads to your website and how it can be easier than you might think. So the first thing though, that I want to talk about is blogging is considered a long form content type. Okay, so what we mean is, I’m going to be talking about blog posts that need to be at least 300 words, in some of the ones I’m going to recommend to you there’s different types are over 4000 words. And that’s why we’re calling it long form content. Because we’re not talking about just a little blurb, or you know, something like your about page on your website, those are all needed, right, your basic pages of your website, this goes above and beyond that, where you’re regularly going to be writing content, right? It’s written content to help your audience you know, in other words, the blog posts should be informative, or educational, but it should help them solve something, it should help them give them information about a topic they’re interested in. So that’s the idea here. 

Okay. So the first thing I want to share with you is the five reasons why you need a blog today in 2022. And beyond. Here’s the first one. Blogging regularly improves your search engine results. So the more often you blog, and you have, you know, rich content, you know, rich information that someone wants in those blog posts, the more that you will start improving your search engine page ranking, right. So you’ll you’ll rank higher on the Google pages. Number two is you get more social shares when you blog, because people, you know if they read your content, or maybe you email it out to them, or you post on social, if it’s relevant to them, it might be relevant to someone they know and they might share it with others. Number three more people will link to your website if you have valuable content. And you are setting yourself up as a subject matter expert in that area. All right, and that’s another way that we get more we rank higher in search engine results is by getting other people to link to us what some kind, sometimes called backlinks or inbound links or incoming links. Number four, you get more leads, as I mentioned in the intro, because when people read about a topic you’re talking about you once again, right look like someone that knows what they’re talking about. And they often then want to learn more about what you do and how they can work with you. So that’s how you get more leads. Number five, is it shows you have authority on that certain subject or topic. And while that helps both the people that might want to work with you, it also helps Google see that you are an authority, right? So that your blog post may be one that they rank higher because of that authority. 

Alright, so those are five reasons that you should be blogging. And if you’re already blogging, a lot of times we can improve. Just going through the motions. We can make our blog post better or as we go forward, we can improve them a little bit. So there’s two core things here I want you to understand. One is you need to do regular blog posts, those blog posts, typically Should never be under 300 words. And they definitely can go up from there. Some of the data from HubSpot and other companies say the magic number for for standard blog posts is between 20 120 400 words. Okay? Why is that, because they found that that range of a blog post is long enough free to share enough information that’s valuable to your reader, you know, to your visitors to your website. And so that’s the first thing you can do is, if you’re blogging now, and you’re finding they’re really short blog post, try doing your next blog post, increasing it. Now, every blog post does not have to be 2100 words or more, they can definitely be 300 800 1000 2000. But you do want some that are longer, because that’s going to help with your authority, and you’re going to most likely rank for those longer blog posts. Okay. They also there’s also data that says that sites that have blog posts around 2500 words when they’ve compared all their different, let’s see blog posts, links, that’s where the sweet spot was to get the most leads. So blog post around that same size that I said that 2100 2400 are just over it, often will help you get more leads, because you’re sharing a lot of content in that blog post, which hopefully will help your user you know, with something they’re trying to figure out or solve. Alright, next, there’s something called pillar posts. pillar posts post just mean that you are going to write a longer even longer blog post on a topic, or keyword that’s all encompassing like a guide on a topic. 

Obviously, this needs to match with what you do, what kind of business are you in? How do you help people? So those guides should be about that. Okay. So why are those important? They’re important, because that really shows authority and other people will start linking to your pillar posts, you know, your guides, if you will, because you have so much information that you’re trying to be the expert on it, you’re trying to be the place where someone can learn all about something, they are longer, they, they aren’t going to take you an hour or two, they’re probably going to take you a couple of days to write them. But you don’t have to do this all the time, right? Because for months and years, there’s pillar posts will drive traffic to your website. And you can even update those pillar posts in the future. If there’s other valuable content to share about that topic. You can update it, and then you don’t have to rewrite the whole thing. You’re just updating it with even more information. Okay, so pillar posts, the recommendation is that they should be 4000 words. And I know that seems like a lot. But remember, you’re only willing to do a couple of these pillar posts during the year. Now, they can range from 2100 to 11,000 words, but the average pillar posts in a really good sweet spot is 4000 words. 

Okay, so here’s the thing, how do you blog or where do you blog? Well, if you’re on a site, like WordPress, which is the most popular content management system right now, or has been for some time, they have a area in the dashboard that just says posts and that’s where you go and you you actually publish, you know, add and then publish your posts. If you’re on a different site, like square space or something like that, obviously, it’s going to be different. If you use show it, which is just layered on top of WordPress, you should also have the option to be able to post blog posts easily. Let’s see. So the next thing to know is how do you what do you have to do on your blog post in order for it to do well in order for it to be worth your time? Okay, so here’s just a couple highlights. Let’s see, I’m going to go through five. Okay. The first is, number one, you need to have proper formatting in your blog post. In this includes the right heading or using heading and paragraph tags. The reason for that is so that Google can understand what’s what’s the main like what’s the most important important thing on the page. That’ll be your headline right in your head or your different headlines. And then your paragraph tags. It’s important one because Google can see how it’s broken down the page can be read easier. 

Okay, number two is you need to put your text into the alt text fields. So that’s alternative text. But once again, it helps for reading it helps people that are visually impaired. That sort of thing. Number three is make sure you fill in and edit your Meta Title and Description data. Because once again, that’s what Google’s typically pulling, if you have it filled in for when your search results page comes up. Like if you search something in Google, the little the first sentence you see and then underneath it, that’s the meta title and description. If you don’t fill that information in, they’re going to pull typically, the first copy From your webpage, but often that’s not optimized. So that’s not ideal. Adding them or altering the Meta Title and Description only takes a couple minutes. And if you do use WordPress or you know, other sites, there’s often a plug in I use Yoast SEO. But that just shows you exactly what’s there. Now, it shows you as you edit it, if they think it’s a good choice or not, you know, it has colors red, yellow, green, so it makes it really easy. Okay, next, you want sites to backlink to you, of course, by having great content, but in your own post, you need to link to other parts of your content. So or other sites that have great content. So what I’m talking about is in your pillar posts, let’s say it is about caring for a newborn. Okay, and you have a huge post all about that. But then you have some smaller blog posts that you do regularly, maybe one is about the first two months of having a baby or how to pick the best baby, you know, products and that sort of thing, or how maybe it’s how to get your baby to sleep through the night. Well in your main big, big, big pillar post. You can link to those other smaller blog posts that are related to your bigger topic. Okay, so you need links, you need links in your blog posts, especially are really long pillar posts. Next is, what are you going after? What keywords should you be using to make sure that the people that want your information can find it. 

Now, you’re not trying to what they call keyword stuff your page, but you’re trying to clearly have keywords in there that are related to what people are looking for. Okay. So that’s the other big thing. And then I’ll give you an extra one. In your blog posts, it is helpful to add media rich content to your website or to your blog post. That can be videos, you know, short videos that can be social media embeds, you know, images, but just break up your content, because visually, it’s easier for people to read, write. And you can also do things like add bulleted points, add numbers, you know, like different steps, just break up your content, and then also have other ways to interact with your content other than just reading everything. That doesn’t mean you have to do a video, recording everything you talk about, you could just do some little snippet videos, or like I said some other social media ways people can share it on social media. Okay, but that’s sort of the gist of blogging. Really, you’re just coming up with? How do I want? What’s the type of topic I would talk on so that people would want to come work with me, you know, what is your business offer? Whether you’re a solopreneur, right, you’re a coach, or a speaker, or a writer or whatever you might be a consultant, or whether you’re a business with more people, what do you specialize in. So that is the first thing I’d recommend is come up with your three top three topics that you could do a blog post on, you know, in the in the next couple of weeks, and then plan out a, you know, day or a couple of days to do your research on these blog posts. And then set time aside to write them. 

You know, maybe you start with one or two blog posts, it’s more of a standard, you know, range, you know that 2100 Strange, if you will, and then plan to do a pillar post, you know that much longer one that’s more like a 4000 word, post it plan when you have a little more time that you can work on that or work on it a little bit each day for one week, so that you can get it done. Of course, let your audience know, once you do get this blog post going. Just like you share with your your user base, you know, hopefully on your email list, and we’ll talk about that next week. But if you share with them, your podcast episodes, or what you have going on maybe a new course or something, you definitely should start sharing your blog blog posts out with your audience, you know, both your email list and then wherever you also hang out on social media. So it’s super important. So blogging is not dead. So many people wonder about that. Because let’s be honest, podcasting is kind of like the sexy thing at this point. You know, it’s the hot thing. And we’ll definitely talk about podcasting and some future episodes. I have a series coming up after this one that will talk about podcasting. Is it right for you is now the right time and what to consider before you decide to dive into that. But what’s cool about blog post is it truly is an evergreen content, meaning if you do the work now you will keep seeing benefits from it down the road for for years to come truly on the site that I started with that I talked about in my intro. So youtube.com even when we’re not regularly publishing new content, I get traffic to that site. Yes, it’s gone down because I’m not actively working in that business right now all the time. But we’re still getting traffic. 

We’re still getting backlinks from other websites. We still get traffic from Pinterest. pins that I put on there years ago or other people pin. So the point is, is blogging is a unique thing because unlike podcasting or YouTube videos, yes, people can still find your content discover it. But if you’re not actively doing it, it’s harder to keep getting those downloads unless you’re getting on other programs and other shows, unless you’re really pushing people there. But blogging, if you have some really great content that’s getting found in search, or from other high profile websites that are linking to you, for your content. For years, you’re going to get traffic from those other sites or from Google. And like I said, people or companies that blog, you know, businesses that blog are getting a lot more leads per month than people that just have, you know, a couple page or a one page website, where you tell a little bit about yourself, but they really aren’t getting value. Right. So the reason you blog is because it is a long form content that’s evergreen, and it allows you to provide value to people before they work with you. So they start to see, Hey, okay, I get how this person might be able to help me or my business. Alright, so it’s really invaluable. It’s worth learning it. There are so many people that can help you through this, obviously, I work with people to do audits of their website. And also I have a course coming up in the next month that will be helping you do this and so many other things to really increase your traffic and your leads to your website. But really to get clear to on how you speak to people, what’s your message in that you’re really in your sweet spot. So obviously, that’s of interest, just reach out to me. 

You know, what I love is helping people see that things that seem complex, often are a lot simpler than we think we just have to realize the reasons why we should do it. And then figure out what are the simplest steps to get from where we were to where we want to go. We don’t have to learn everything right away. We just need to know, hey, this is something I should start. Even if my first blog post or my first several aren’t that great? It’s okay. Right? Because we have to practice to get better at it. So here’s to stepping into blogging, and knowing that it is worth it for you to do so. And like I said, reach out if you have any questions. If there’s something I didn’t answer and you want to know, you know something further about this, let me know I’d love to hear until next time, have a great week. If today’s show got you pumped about building your online traffic so you can grow your business. Let’s celebrate, pop over and leave a review. Tell us what you loved about today’s episode or share this with another boss who’s ready to grow next level comm network with other entrepreneurs, authors, speakers, coaches and podcasters at my Facebook group to take your business to the next level. or head on over to Kristin Fitch that comm to find out more about my online growth system