Everyone and their mother has a podcast. New YouTube channels are popping up left and right. Businesses are going viral on TikTok. Is there any love left for blogs?

Yes, people still read blogs! And blogs can still help you accomplish your marketing objectives and business goals, like increasing site traffic and connecting with your audience. Read on for tips on using blogs for your business.

Are people still reading? The numbers check out

Don’t believe that blogs are still a thing? Blogs may not be as popular as they once were compared to our shiny new social media tools, but they’re still valuable marketing channels. Here are some stats on blogging:

• With nearly 2 billion websites in the world and over 600 million blogs, the blogging industry makes up one-third of the web.
• Approximately 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages each month.
• WordPress, one of the most popular blogging platforms out there, sees about 70 million new posts every month.
• More than 9 out of every 10 content marketers use blogs to help achieve their marketing goals.  
• Blogs play a part in the purchase process; 6 out of 10 buyers find blog posts valuable at the start of their customer journey.

The consensus? There are literally millions of blogs out there and millions of people looking at them and commenting on them. Customers are using blogs to help them decide whether to buy, and marketers are using blogs to persuade their audience to do something.

To get in on the blogging action and reap the benefits for your business, you have to use blogs strategically and create excellent content. 

Use blogs to boost your SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, helps your website rank higher in organic search engine results. The better you rank, the more traffic you’ll get. The more traffic you get, the higher your chances are of turning site visitors into leads — and eventually, customers.

SEO strategy has lots of moving parts, but when it comes to blogs, we have three pieces of advice to give you.

DO YOUR KEYWORD RESEARCH.

To achieve a high rank in search results, your blog needs to include keywords that your customers are using. A keyword for this blog may be “read blogs” or even “people still read blogs.” So when site users Google those keywords, our blog should pop up in the results at the top of the list.

Use your keywords strategically in blogs. Put them in your headers, and integrate them naturally in your posts. Link to credible, trustworthy websites to boost your own authority. Hit the optimal word count for blogs. That’s all part of good SEO practices. 

CREATE RELEVANT, VALUABLE CONTENT.

Think “E-E-A-T,” which stands for “experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust.” EEAT is part of Google’s algorithm, and it’s used to help rate a website’s page quality. If your EEAT is good, your blog is more likely to be seen. 

GIVE IT TIME.

Using blogs to boost your SEO won’t change things overnight. Keep creating optimized blog posts that meet your target audience’s needs — and stick to it. Track your rankings and traffic for at least one to three months. Not seeing the results you want? Revisit and revise your keywords. But keep blogging!

Nurture leads with blogs

Once people arrive at your blog thanks to your fabulous SEO skills, then what? You’ve attracted new visitors (and possible leads) to your website. Now your blog has to encourage engagement and eventually convert those leads. 

USE GREAT CALLS-TO-ACTION, OR CTAS.

You’ve already written relevant, valuable content. Take your content to the next level by incorporating smart calls-to-action, or CTAs, in your blog posts. 

Like their name suggests, CTAs encourage your readers to complete an action, like downloading a freebie, booking a call with you, or checking out one of your products. They have huge nurturing potential, so don’t leave them out of your blogs.

PROMOTE YOUR BLOG ELSEWHERE.

Share your blogs wherever else you’re online. Instagram Stories and posts. Threads and Twitter (if you’re still using it). Pinterest. Facebook. Your YouTube channel and podcast. Seriously, we mean everywhere.

You already have followers who like, trust, and engage with your content on those platforms. It’s not that big of a leap for them to start reading and following your blog, too.

Repurpose other content on your blog

Blogging, like any other part of your content marketing strategy, takes work. It involves planning, researching, and actually creating the dang content. Blogging takes time, but that doesn’t mean it has to eat up all of your time.

One way to keep generating new blog posts without burning out creatively or throwing your computer out the window is to repurpose your content. Repurposing content ensures you get the most bang for your buck out of your existing content.

How can you repurpose your content?

• Refresh your older content by removing outdated or irrelevant information, adding new sources, editing links, and writing a new CTA. Boom. Done.
• Turn YouTube videos or podcast episodes into blog posts. Not by sharing transcripts on your blog (although you should still do that for accessibility’s sake) but by turning audio or video content into a well-structured, well-organized blog post. 
• Mix up your content types. Turn an older blog into a skimmable checklist or listicle. Dive deeper into the topic of an old blog post by turning it into a how-to guide or downloadable ebook. Try different types of blog posts and see what resonates most with your audience.

As long as you’re not duplicating your content and calling it something new, repurposing works for your blog. It keeps things interesting for your audience and helps you create consistent blog posts.  

Blogs are still great content marketing tools

Blog posts help your brand get seen. They deliver trustworthy, relevant, authoritative content to your audience. And they can help you nurture leads. Plus, if you host your blog on your website, you own that content. The same can’t be said for social media.

Blogs are not dead, y’all. They’re getting up there in age, and other content formats are rising in popularity, but they’re not redundant or obsolete. Blogs can still be used to your advantage. So…take advantage of blogs for your business. 

By the way, we’re starting a new series here called, “From the Uncanny DMs,” where we talk about YOUR thoughts on copy and content. If you have any super-specific, weird, or controversial questions you’d like answered, hit us up or send us a DM on Instagram!