Should I Blog for My E-Commerce Business?

There are numerous reasons for you to create a blog and write articles for your company, such as increasing visibility of your website, building relationships with customers, informing your audience, spreading the word about your products, and getting more backlinks. If you asked “Why Should I NOT Blog for My Business,” that would be a tough question to answer, and we think we wouldn’t have come up with a single reason for not having a blog. 

Blogging Helps SEO – SEO Helps Your Website – Your Website Helps Getting More Customers 

Having a website for your business is an excellent start in creating your online presence. But people aren’t going to open their browsers and start typing your website address – they might if they are already your customers. Most of the visitors will start by typing search queries in search engines, such as “how can I buy X online?” And if your website appears at the top of search results, the users might click the page to get to your site.

Google’s algorithms organize search results from the most relevant to the least relevant pages, and that is called ranking. The better your page ranks, the higher are the chances of getting more traffic to your website.

To put it in a nutshell, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your website increase online visibility and traffic to your website, and this is crucial, as most of the time, your site is the first experience your potential clients have with your company. According to the eCommerce Foundation, 88% of consumers will research a product online before they make a purchase virtually or in the store. If the first interaction of visiting your site turns into a pleasant experience, you will have more chances to convert these visitors into customers. It sounds straightforward but is a long process that needs an investment of time to see results. You may be wondering, what does a blog have to do with all this? 

Just like an aircraft needs jet fuel to fly passengers, a good SEO strategy needs high-quality content to increase traffic to a website. That’s why a business blog is among the most critical aspects of an SEO strategy. Blog posts allow you to write about topics related to your business. 72% of online marketers describe content creation as their most effective SEO tactic.

Your potential clients type words and phrases in a search engine to find the content they are looking for – these are called keywords. To appear in relevant results, you need to target the right keywords related to your business. If you don’t write content and don’t have a blog, you have minimal chances of targeting more keywords that help you appear in more search queries.

Keep Your Website Fresh

Ranking well in search engines doesn’t mean you will be in the top results forever. Google doesn’t want to offer outdated pages to users. If you don’t update anything on your site for years, Google will think it has nothing new to offer, and it will affect the ranking. On the other hand, if you keep updating your website, it will give Google the reason to look at the website more often, and you’ll have better chances to rank well in relevant queries. When you continuously add something to your website, Google knows your website is not outdated.

But what can you update on your website? We assume your “About Us” page or homepage doesn’t need changes every month. Your phone number probably remains the same for years. And so, what can you add or change?

Having a blog allows you to keep your website fresh. By adding blog articles at a regular cadence you let Google know your website is alive, fresh, and up to date. 

Build Relationships with Your Customers

When you write blog articles you don’t try to sell things, but instead try to help and educate your audience. You can write posts that answer questions. Many internet users go online to figure out how to do something they have not done before. 79% of marketers say writing for people is their main priority. And 77% of internet users read blogs. When you help website visitors, you gain their trust and communicate the knowledge you have in the field – this is a beautiful beginning of a valuable relationship. If you help people by writing about steps they have to take to achieve what they desire, you have more chances to be the company they choose when they need to buy products or use services.

Demonstrate the Knowledge in the Field

Blog posts help you demonstrate your knowledge in the field. It’s straightforward: if you create high-quality content and can communicate your knowledge with the audience through your blog posts, it means you know the subject. Many factors may affect your potential clients’ decisions when they choose to do business with you, and blog articles are usually among them. As Albert Einstein used to say, “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t know it well enough.” The same goes for your blog articles; people might look at them to determine your expertise in the field. If you can deliver great content, you probably can provide great products too. People need to believe in you, and a blog is a great place to start building trust.

Get More Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites that point to pages on your website. If many sites link to yours, it likely means your content is relevant and useful. Google looks at the number and quality of backlinks to a page and considers it when sorting results in a query. When you write blog articles, you have more chances of other sites pointing to yours. The more high-quality articles you publish, the higher are the chances of getting more links. Statistics show companies who blog get 97% more links to their websites.

While backlinks from other sites are essential to get, internal links help you connect your content to Google and give it an idea about the structure of a site, which may boost your SEO. Internal links help the search engine understand the relationship between pages, as well as the relevance of content on each page and the value of them.

High-quality Blog Posts Make Visitors Stay on a Page Longer

Dwell time is the amount of time that passes between clicking a page in a search result and returning to the search engine. Although there is no evidence that dwell time is a ranking factor, it might give Google the signal your page is relevant. So, if someone clicks on your page and stays there for 5 minutes to read the article, it means it was helpful and relevant. Having a blog means more people will open your site to read articles, and if you create great content, they will stay on your web page longer.

Build Brand Awareness

The way in which customers recognize and remember your business is called brand awareness. It helps your potential clients be familiar with your brand’s voice, products, style, etc. And it helps you to convert these potential customers to your clients. By building brand awareness, you let more people know what your brand has to offer and help them be more comfortable with your services, products, and business in general.

By writing your blog, you can establish the tone, style, and voice of your brand. People will understand who you are as a brand, and why should they become your clients. Besides, blog articles and infographics you create for your blog can go to your social media. By sharing the articles there, you demonstrate what you have to offer as a company, besides your products.

Topics to Write About 

Now that you know the importance of a blog, you might be wondering what topics you can address in your articles. The best option is to write about subjects that are related to your services. If you own a beauty salon, then write about hairstyles, haircuts, how to keep the scalp healthy, etc. So when your potential clients look at your article about “the best hairstyles for men in 2020,” they consider visiting you.

What you write about also depends on who your clients are. We said you could write about “the best hairstyles for men in 2020,” but if your beauty salon serves women only, then there is no point in bringing men to a site.  Start determining who your potential clients are and what they might look for online. What are the issues your customers might be facing that you can address in your posts? If you sell puzzles, write about the ways to relieve stress with board games, how a puzzle can help improve memory, what are the best gifts for the holidays.

Remember, the blog is for your website visitors, not for industry experts or your colleagues, so write in a friendly manner without stuffing posts with professional terms. Your readers have to feel welcome, and your tone should be more informal and engaging.