Blogs are an essential tool for businesses that plan on taking the online arm of their operation seriously. Of course targeted and keyword rich SEO copywriting is essential for websites to attract customers for the most commonly searched keywords, but what about those ‘long tail’ searches you might otherwise miss out on?That’s where a business blog comes into play, helping you to mop up those customers entering ‘long tail’ key search terms you are unable to incorporate into your onsite copy.

Let's take a look at an example: You may have a website offering outdoor furniture, in which case your onsite pages will be geared towards keywords such as ‘outdoor furniture’ and ‘garden furniture’. However, this does not account for those customers who are closer to knowing exactly what it is they want. For example, some may search for ‘contemporary garden furniture designs’ or ‘garden furniture on a budget.’ These ‘long tail’ keywords are less likely to attract search volume in such numbers as the more generic terms, so it may not be worth creating and optimising a main sales page for these terms, but by writing an optimised blog post, entitled ‘the most popular contemporary garden furniture designs’, you will show in the search engines for those key term ‘contemporary garden furniture designs’. As the competition for ‘long tail’ key terms is less, you have a good chance of appearing higher up in the search engine results.

Also, it is worth considering that blog posts can bring in high quality traffic. As these ‘long tail’ search terms are often more specific, the traffic can convert at a higher rate than the more generic, research based keywords, as the searchers are often further down the buying path, as they show that they already know more about the products and services they are looking for.

There are other positives of a business blog aside from the SEO benefits. Website copy alone cannot address every query or all the information your customers are likely to need. This is where a well written, informative blog can help. By providing answers to common questions and information that customers want to know, your business can become an authority on a particular field of expertise, attracting visitors purely on the basis of the informative resources you provide. The blog posts will then help with your social media efforts, as you have relevant, informative content to distribute across sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and a place to direct visitors that isn’t a sales page.

If you have any questions about blogging or creating a content strategy, then feel free to give us a call on 029 2076 6467 and chat it through with our SEO and copywriting teams.