Remember in 2012-2013 when everyone seemed to have a blog? For individuals, it was a way to put their thoughts into the open and connect with strangers dealing with similar issues and life events. For businesses, it was a chance to engage directly with current and potential customers.
Then something changed. All these blogs seemed to slowly dry up and disappear from our social feeds. Meanwhile, YouTube channels and Podcasts exploded. This led some to think that blogging was mostly dead, replaced by video and audio outlets.
But is that true? No. Blogging is still an incredibly popular & powerful tool for reaching people, especially if you’re a brand or business.
Why Does Blogging Seem Less Popular These Days?
There’s no doubt that quite a few individuals and businesses fell off the blogging-bandwagon years ago. After all, maintaining a blog isn’t easy. As with most activities, it’s exciting to start, but after a while, that excitement wears off, and it becomes work. Next thing you know, the blog has closed down altogether.
Still, the drop-off in blogging isn’t as extreme as it may seem.
The truth is, you’re just less likely to see blog posts in your social media feeds. Ten years ago, social media platforms actually showed you posts from people and accounts you followed. Today, their feeds are filled with ads and “suggested content” in hopes of keeping you scrolling and scrolling until the end of time and space. They want to keep you on their platform, not clicking out to an external blog post.
This has given some people the impression that blogging is a dying medium. The stats say otherwise:
- 77% of internet users read blogs in 2023
- The average person reads a blog at least once a week
- There are 31.7 million active bloggers in the US
- 80% of bloggers say that their blog drives results
- WordPress (the most popular website platform) has 70 million new posts added every month
Why Not Just Post on Social Media?
Social media (including YouTube) can be a great way to engage with current customers, potential customers, peer organizations, and more. But these platforms should be seen as a supplement to a blog, not a replacement. Especially if your goal is to get people to your website.
Why?
If someone sees a post on social media, they may “like” it. They may even comment on it. But in order to get to your website, they have to find a link and click on it. A lot of people don’t want to do that. The social media platforms aren’t incentivized by that action either. They want to keep their users on their own platform.
This is why social media platforms tend to have low clickthrough rates. On average, about 4-5% of viewers will clickthrough to your links attached to your video/channel. In total, traffic from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram combined provides just 16% of website traffic.
By comparison, websites receives over half of its traffic from Google on average. This is because people go to Google to find website results. When they click on a search result, they’re immediately on your website. Consistent, quality blog posts get your website in more search results, which in turn drives more traffic directly to your website.
Blogging and social media accounts can actually benefit each other.
Your posts can link out to your social accounts. Meanwhile, blog posts provide you with content to share on your social platforms. You can take the featured image, create a short summary, and use that as an Instagram or Facebook post. You could record yourself reading the content of the post and turn that into a YouTube video.
This is just the beginning of blogging’s benefits for businesses in 2023.
Why Blogging is So Powerful for Modern Brands
Still not convinced about the power of blogging? Let’s take a deeper dive into the many benefits it can provide your brand.
Appearing in Search Engines
Like we said before, the more content you have, the more Google searches you can appear in. Of course, this assumes your website is appearing in Google already. If it’s not (or you’re not sure), make sure to check out this post about why your website isn’t showing up in Google. By creating content around the questions, needs, and pain points of your ideal customers, you can bring them directly to your website and convert them into leads.
When incorporated into a proper SEO strategy, blog posts can also increase your rankings on priority keywords that you’re targeting. Depending on how competitive these keywords are, it may be the only way you’re able to rank for them.
Provides Opportunities for Shares and Backlinks
A backlink is when an external website links to yours. This is beneficial for SEO, as Google interprets it as a sign of your authority. It helps show that you’re legitimate and others value what you have to say. When you start creating blog posts, you increase your chances that someone else may link back to yours website.
It also increases your potential to be shared across social media websites. While social shares don’t count as backlinks, research shows they do have a positive impact on your SEO. They also expand your reach and drive more traffic.
Long Term Value
Have you ever paid for an advertising campaign? They can be an effective way to get immediate attention and drive traffic when done correctly. However, when the money is up, the ads go away. Whatever benefits the ad campaign brought are almost immediately lost.
This is not the case with blogging. In fact, the value of a blog post often increases over time.
As long as the blog posts remain on your website, they will continue to appear across the internet. A successful blog that ranks high for a popular search term can drive continuous traffic to your website for years, and it won’t require any additional money or effort from you.
Establishes You as An Authority & Builds Trust
Getting new traffic to your website is great, but if you want to convert people visitors into business, they need to trust you. Online reviews such as Google and Yelp can help with this, but for brands that aren’t bound to a specific region, they’re not as effective. Also, people tend to use Yelp for negative experiences more than positive ones.
Having a robust backlog of blogging content shows that you’ve been around for a while and you know what you’re talking about. It can establish you as an authority in the eyes of a new visitor, earning their trust (and their business).
How to Get the Most Out of Blogging
As you can see, blogging can be very effective for businesses in 2023. It will take time and effort. But with an effective strategy, you can reduce both the time and effort that it takes. Blogging should be a piece of a larger content and SEO strategy. This ensures that you’re targeting quality keywords, speaking to the needs of your customer base, and improving the search engine performance of your entire website.
Without an effective strategy, blogging is mostly just noise that will occasionally bring a handful of visitors your way.
Before you start any blogging, you should find your brand’s voice and establish an overarching content strategy across your website. With those in place, a blog can become the fuel that powers the lead generating engine of your website.
Not sure where to begin? We can help with that. This Blank Page is a content strategy and brand voice agency that helps organizations connect with their ideal audience through their website and convert them into leads.
Click here to schedule a free consultation.
If you’d rather handle your blogging yourself, make sure to read our post about how to blog effectively.
