We recently wrote about the advantages of blogging using your own domain as opposed to the URL given to you by a free service like WordPress.com or Blogger.
If you are blogging to support your business (which we’d advise nearly every business to consider), you’ll want to go further by integrating your blog and your website.
There are four main benefits of having your blog a part of your website:
- Show what your company is all about. While your site may have an “about” page, your blog posts help to further and more convincingly convey your expertise, corporate values, character, and more.
Your customers want to do business with people they know, and an integrated blog will help you build the trust necessary to turn visitors into customers.
- Increase the amount of search-able content. Even if search marketing is not currently part of your plan, having a regularly updated blog on relevant topics will help search engines determine what your site is about, and help lead potential clients to your company’s website. The earlier you begin generating content, the better, because, in the search world, longevity equals reputation.
- Generate backlinks. Backlinks (incoming links to your webpages) help people land on your site, and also help search engines determine the popularity or importance of those pages. You can get backlinks in various ways such as by paying for links on popular sites (not recommended!), having an affiliate program, and issuing press releases. Blog content though is perhaps the best way to naturally generate backlinks as people who find your content valuable will be more inclined to share and reference your content on other websites. Along with creating search-able content, backlinks are another important aspect of search marketing, as well as a natural way to lead potential clients to your site.
- Simplify customer conversion. Having the blog visually integrated with your site simplifies your visitor’s transition from a blog reader to a client — and vice versa. Tightly linking your blog and your corporate website helps link the two both literally and figuratively.
If you are interested in integrating your blog with your website and would like some help – search up and come on out to a local Meetup – where small businesses will gather to discuss challenges and solutions.