Blogging is quite often branded as an individual’s tool to complain to the whole of the World Wide Web, so how can it benefit your business?

Although blogs first began as newsgroups and discussion forums, they have evolved to become online diaries, breaking news forums, and most importantly- business development tools.

Firstly, and arguably most importantly, blogs are the perfect tool to drive traffic to your website. Every time you create a blog post, it is another indexed page on your website- meaning that Google will pick up on the activity and push your website up in search listings when relevant terms are used.

Blogging will also attract a new audience, rather than generating the same traffic onto your website. Those users who are already familiar with your website will already have your business on their radar. However, bloggers are an entirely new community, and blogging about your business will introduce you into their stream.

Blogging is also a great way to get your business recognised on social media- every time you write a post; you are creating content that can be shared on social networks. The more your content is liked/shared/commented, the more exposure your business will receive. It also makes things easier when managing content going out onto your own social media- you can fill your social media feeds with your latest blog posts.

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Helping to establish authority is something else creating a blog for your business you can do. Good business blogs will answer any common questions customers have, and act as a conversation device between business and customer. Therefore, if you are consistent in creating useful content, it will help to establish you as an authority in the eyes of the customer.

Blogging will enable you to drive long term results- about 70% of traffic on blogs come from posts that were not even published that month. Therefore, without any effort, a blog post could be reaping the benefits for you and your business months after it was published.

Controlling your online identity is another potential benefit of blogging. There will already be a significant amount of information available about your company online, so a blog is the opportunity to set the record straight. It also enhances the company persona and humanises the business, putting you on a more personal level with the customer.

Blogs are also the perfect place to test campaign ideas more-or-less free of charge. Before investing time and money into them, you can test ideas and request feedback from your blog readers before taking the plunge, and creating a campaign that might not work.

If you fancy giving it a go, many blogging sites offer free, and easy to use blogging tools. Wordpress, Blogger, and SquareSpace all offer blogs suitable for business users.