If you have a website, you need a blog.
Whether you are a therapist, a fitness company, a local store, or anyone else, business blogging writing should be a core part of your marketing strategy. It will help you get more visitors, increase your reach, keep people moving through your sales funnel, and boost your SEO.
At this point, you may be thinking one of three things:
- I’ve already got a great website that gets me paying customers … so why do I need a blog?
- I could use more leads, but is blog writing really the answer?
- I’m open to the idea, but what should I blog about?
What is a Blog?
Before we jump into the how and the why, let’s take a moment to answer the most simple of questions: what is a blog?
A blog (shortening of “weblog”) is an online journal or informational website displaying information in the reverse chronological order, with latest posts appearing first. It is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views on an individual subject. ¹
At its core, the idea is simple: create articles and resources that your dream client will find useful – then make sure they see it.
Each blog post you publish becomes a valuable piece of content, which you can promote across your various social media channels, newsletters, and to everyone who visits your site. This is called content marketing, and a big part of why business blogging should be a cornerstone of your digital marketing strategy.
What are the Benefits of a Business Blog
If you’re wondering why you should start blogging for business, here are 4 great reasons to inspire you:
- New content gives people a new reason to visit your website (which they probably haven’t done in a while).
- You can share each article on social media and in your newsletter.
- Well-written blog posts make a personal connection with your customers and help establish you and your business as an industry leader.
- Google loves to see new content added to your website, which is great for SEO
Still with me? Then let’s dive deeper into the benefits of blogging for business.
Business Blogging is great for SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of the most important marketing activities you can do for your website. While there are countless strategies for “doing SEO,” a blog is generally a centerpiece in all of them. Why, you ask?
How long has it been since you’ve added new pages to your site? Probably a while. Search engines love fresh content just like rabbits love fresh carrots … and Google prioritizes the freshest and most relevant content it can find when someone performs a search.
Furthermore, Google rewards sites with more pages, and each blog post counts as a new page on your site. New content and business blogging provides another opportunity for search engines to find you, which can bring more targeted traffic (aka, your dream customers) to your website.
Business Blogging can be a great source of backlinks
The better your business blogging writing efforts (and the more work you do promoting it), the more likely people are to link back to it from their websites. These backlinks are an integral part of SEO and are like gold for your site’s reputation online.
Regular blogging increases your credibility
It happens all-too-often. You find a blog you’re excited to read, only to see that it hasn’t been updated in two years. In that case, it’s almost better to NOT have a blog at all. However, if you can commit to at least 1-2 posts per month, that will show your prospective customers and clients that you’re truly dedicated to your business (and, of course, to them). Plus, as we discussed earlier, search engines also appreciate the regular updates and fresh content.
Blog writing gives you something great to share
If your business has a social media presence, creating original content is of paramount importance. Otherwise, the links and articles you share on your page are just sending people to someone else’s’ website. Plus, a well-written article that gets liked and shared can actually get you more followers … especially on Facebook.
If your business has a newsletter, your blog writing become an easy source of new content for those as well. Just write a brief intro, say hi to your subscribers (to keep making a personal connection), and share your latest resource.
Speaking of which, if you like what you’re reading, please sign up for our newsletter below.
What should I blog about as a therapist?
As you now know, publishing new blog posts on a regular basis is one of the key components of both SEO and content marketing. However, before you just start writing articles about any old thing, it’s a good idea to come up with a strategy. Start by asking yourself some key questions about your dream client.
- What questions do they have?
- What problems can you solve for them?
- What style of resources are they drawn to?
- What do they find valuable?
Therapists can create meaningful and client-focused blog content by addressing common issues and concerns that clients often bring up during sessions. To maintain confidentiality and respect ethical guidelines, therapists should never mention specific clients by name or share personal details. Instead, they can draw inspiration from these client interactions to identify broader themes and topics that resonate with their audience.
Effective blog topics featured in websites for therapists might include discussions on managing stress, building healthy relationships, coping with anxiety or depression, enhancing self-esteem, or improving communication skills. Therapists can also provide general insights into therapy approaches, mindfulness techniques, and self-help strategies without revealing confidential information. By aligning their blog content with the challenges clients face and offering practical guidance and support, therapists can establish themselves as a valuable resource and build trust with a broader online audience seeking guidance and mental health resources.
When blogging, make sure to craft your copy in an engaging way, with information they can put to good and immediate use. These blog posts will help you build a strong relationship with your readers/potential clients without having to do resort to any “hard sells” or snake oil salesman techniques.
Blogging Tips and Best Practices
Should I do keyword research for my blog posts?
Good question. The answer is, of course, yes! Keyword research is the foundation of digital marketing, and marketing is what you are doing with your website, whether you realize it or not. According to Moz:
“Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field. Ranking for the right keywords can make or break a website.”
Don’t just throw in words you think might work. You want to make sure and use words that people searching for your service or product are actually using.
It’s also a real good idea to make use of something called “longtail” keywords, because they have more to do with user intent, and are less competitive. They are becoming ever more important because people are increasingly more specific in their search queries and forming them as questions. And, best of all, research shows that searchers using long tail keywords are more likely to convert.
Blog early and often.
As we’ve already covered, you want to make sure and update your blog as regularly as possible. Humans love this, and so do the search engine robots that index your site.
Search Engine Indexing (n): The act of adding your webpage’s content into a search engine’s database. This can be done manually or through automated software.
The more often you publish new content, the more often the search engine crawlers will visit your blog posts, and the faster that new content will be indexed.
Publishing four times a month is good, eight times is better, sixteen times is fantastic … providing what you’re posting is useful, relevant, and interesting content, of course. Which bring us to our last point …
Make sure your blog posts are interesting!
Attention spans are very short these days. Look, a cat video! Wait, what were we talking about? Oh, right. Here are some shocking stats:
- The median average time spent reading an article is 37 seconds (Source: NewsCred)
- 43% of readers skim blog posts (Source: HubSpot)
- Longer, in-depth blog posts generate 9x more leads than short ones (Source: Curata)
What does that mean? Basically, most people aren’t going to read every word of your post – so it’s extra important to make sure it’s absolutely amazing.
I mean, let’s be honest … you probably skimmed this article. Maybe you read the headlines, the bullet lists, and a few paragraphs here and there. Are you even reading this sentence?
If you made it this far, reach out and see how our expert therapist copywriters can help you create blog posts for your business.
