Are blogs still worth your time? The pros and cons of having a blog.
Blogs - they’re a bit early 2000s, right? Surely digital marketing and reaching new audiences is all about TikTok, Instagram and Threads these days?
Wrong. Blogging is still really popular.
Roughly 70 million new posts are published on website publishing site WordPress each month (WordPress).
Also…
77% of internet users read blogs (Social Media Today), and nearly 26% of people in the U.K. aged 5–18 are reading blogs (Statista).
The stats don’t lie - blogging is still relevant.
But, there are definitely pros and cons to using blogging as part of your content marketing strategy. Let us help you figure out if you want to incorporate blogs into your marketing and SEO plan.
The benefits of blogging
1. More visitors to your website
Every time you publish a blog, you’re introducing a new page to your website. A new page that can answer the questions people are searching for and appear in search results.
Every blog is an opportunity to reach new people.
2. Help convert ‘leads’
Jargon-busting: a lead is someone who has the potential to become a paying customer.
Add a call-to-action to your blog, with the opportunity for a user to get something they’d be willing to exchange their information for, and you have a way of generating new leads.
For example:
Someone reads your blog that offers them a free downloadable resource.
They click on the call-to-action button to download the resources and get directed to a form.
They fill in the form with their contact details, and get sent the resource.
You’ve then got their details (email, number, address etc) to be able to follow up and contact them again.
You also end up with a happy website user who has received something for free and will hopefully visit your site again!
3. A source of content for your other channels
You can use the blog content that you’ve put time, effort and research into on your other digital channels. Repurpose blogs into newsletters, emails, print and social media.
Repurposing content is also an easy win to keep your marketing messaging consistent across your channels. And, as a source of ready-prepared content to quickly share when those inevitable gaps appear in your content schedule!
4. Improve your website SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
A blog is a great way to get some new keywords on your website. And, to show search engines that you’re adding up-to-date and interesting content to your site.
Blogs are also an opportunity to introduce fun and visual elements easily to your website. And, (most importantly) show your website users that you’re real people with new things going on!
Blogs are a quick win for including links on and to your website. Links are SEO gold. If you’re publishing well-researched and interesting content on your website, the chances are that other websites will want to feature your blog and put links on their websites to yours!
Read more about link-building strategies and get excited about the link-building potential of blogs.
5. You don’t have to be a tech wizard
All these great things that blogs can do for your business or organisation, and you don’t need a degree in website development to make it happen! You can create a new page on your website and away you go.
We did promise a balanced overview of blogs. So, what are the disadvantages of having a blog on your website?
Cons of blogging
1. It takes time
Obvious, but true. You have to make time to research, write, build and publish a blog.
If you start a blog, users of your website will expect to see new content published. You don’t need to be publishing a new blog every week - but you need to make time to invest in creating quality content.
2. Ideas
If you haven’t got anything interesting, or relevant, to write about that will add value to the experience of users of your website, we don’t recommend starting a blog.
We recommend planning out a content strategy for your website. You could start with some keyword research to come up with a list of words and phrases you want to base blogs around.
Or, get in touch with us: we help a few businesses and organisations plan, write and optimise blogs to keep their websites fresh and interesting! Read about Wild SEO Agency’s content marketing services and get in touch if you want to know more.
3. Skill
We didn’t lie when we said that you don’t need to be a tech-whiz to write blogs. But, there is some skill involved. You do need to be able to write engaging, easy to digest and interesting content.
You don’t want to publish content with spelling mistakes or display your blog in a hard-to-read layout. You want to think about the accessibility of the content you are creating and think about your audiences too.
It’s better to have one well written, interesting and accessible blog published once every two months, than one badly written, repetitive and non-relevant blog every week!
4. It’s not an instant win
While blogging is a great way to boost your SEO and generate customer leads. There is a longer lead time before you’ll see results than other content marketing strategies such as Google Ads.
Blogging is a method to get people interested in what you do, to inform, educate and interest people. But, blogging won’t have the same fast impact that publishing an advert with a ‘click to buy’ call-to-action button on it will.
So, what do you reckon?
Are you going to start a blog right now? Or, are you going to have a think and work out what content you could publish in the future that could add authority, interest and value to your website?
Whatever happens - we hope you read more of our blogs and continue to learn about content marketing and SEO strategies!