7 KEY BENEFITS TO BLOGGING AND GUEST BLOGGING
When I’m in my flow of talking all things visibility, chances are you’ll hear me extolling the virtues and benefits of blogging and guest blogging.
Yes, blogs are still ‘a thing’.
Yes, blogs are still important even in the age of social media.
Why?
Let’s break it down. The benefits of blogging and guest blogging are quite intertwined, so let’s take a look at blogging as whole.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation): This is a big benefit to blogging. What blogging on your own site does, is show Google that your website is active, live and being refreshed. It allows you to pack in key words that are relevant to your brand and concept. It allows you to link to other areas within your website with the aim of holding people in your ‘web sphere’ for longer. All of these elements increase your favourability with search engines. It’s a good thing. This also applies to any guest blogging although one of the KEY benefits to guest blogging in SEO terms is being able to create an inbound link to your website from another - this is a great way of demonstrating to Google how relevant you are.
Expertise: Oh yes, if you’ve got knowledge you want to be sharing it EVERYWHERE! Sharing on your blog gives you a chance to build a ‘trust factor’ with your audience by giving them value and showing that you know your stuff. You can write on any topic that shares your expertise on your own blog but also when guest blogging. If you are given a platform to share your value, you are able to garner credibility for your expertise.
Audience Reach: Blogging on your website will open up your audience as you place better in the search engines and seed your content out through social media, however in addition to this, guest blogging gives you access to a whole new, warm and receptive audience that are ripe for your content. It’s a great way to expand your network and raise your profile with a new audience that could become social media followers, mailing list subscribers or even clients.
Referral Traffic: Quality blog posts that you are able to create for other platforms are likely to generate referral traffic from any inbound links included. This is great for increasing your traffic, showing Google how relevant you are but also it’s a great starting point for data capture.
Email Database: Referral traffic is brilliant and works even harder for you if you can capture data from it. With a ‘new subscriber’ pop up on your website, you can maximise this traffic by using it to build your email database. More names, bigger personal audience for you and more ‘warm leads’ for you to reach out to with your newsletters and promos.
Social Media: Guest blogging is a great way to build your social media following. If your guest blog includes your social media links, you are likely to see an upturn in your followers. This will only improve if the blog you’ve written for then shares your content on their social media. It’s a great way to further expand your social community.
Thought Leadership: Blogging and guest blogging as an expert is a great way to position yourself as a thought leader and an authority on a subject. This is all about building your credibility and kudos while also engendering trust from your audience.
Blogging on your own site will also enable you to share news with your audience, better explain products or services, put the spotlight on clients/suppliers, take your audience behind the scenes and so much more. Think of it as a scrap book. A log of all the things that you get up to and encounter in business, and if you feel like you have nothing to say on a blog, challenge me! Reach out, let’s talk and we can explore some ideas and starting points.
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