If you don’t have a blog for your business, you’re falling under the radar – of visitors, leads, ideal consumers, collaborators, and anyone else who could be helping you scale.

Not having a blog means ignoring (at your peril) one of the most vital aspects of content marketing. It’s that important for your conversions, as well as the overall success of your company.

“But that’s a bit contradictory”, one might think. “Are people really going to take the time to read a blog when they’re so busy with more important stuff?”

Great question.

And the answer is:

If you write specifically to your audience about topics they’re interested in and solve problems you know they have, they’ll drop everything, read it, share it, pin it, and most importantly, remember it. And when they remember a helpful blog, they’ll remember your brand.

Sounds too good to be true? It’s both.

At the end of this article, we’ll talk about how to write content that captivates your audience. But hold your horses–let’s first see why blogging is so important, even in an information-saturated decade.

Blogging Increases Your Chances of Ranking Higher on Search Engines

Aren’t top Google positions what we all want?

A blog is a palladium opportunity for high rankings. (It turns out palladium is even more valuable than gold).

That’s because, according to Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines, something called E-A-T pops up 186 times, so it must be important.

E-A-T stands for three main elements:

1. Expertise
2. Authority
3. Trust

For SEO (Search Engine Optimization), those are…palladium.

And here’s where your blog struts in: you can generate three of the above by creating consistent, valuable, and helpful content.

Think of a brand you admire. Any brand. Then go to their website. When you view their menu, you’ll probably see the word “blog” hanging around. Click on it.

There, you’ll likely find content such as:

1. Informational posts (How to…)
2. Comparisons (X versus Y: Which One is Better?)
3. Handy lists (7 Steps to…)
4. Long-form guides (The Ultimate Guide to…)

When you write diligently about topics your readers can benefit from, you’ll get more clicks. More time on the page. More shares. More visitors. This type of website–the one where people immediately find what they need–is what search engines want to put on top.

It Brands You as an Expert – and Your Brand as an Authority

Let’s see how E-A-T is working for these two fictional entrepreneurs.

Who would you rather buy from (or subscribe to, or hire)?

1. Joe, who writes a smattering of 400-word posts every 3 months (and it’s visible he doesn’t put a lot of effort in it), his “ultimate guide” is at least 2 years old, and it’s clear he’s been regurgitating things he’s heard around the web.

Or…

1. Jim, who publishes original content every 2 weeks, links to research or case studies to back his claims and writes in such a useful way you feel like commenting “hey man, this helped me a lot”. He varies the length of his content. His writing sounds like advice from a friend. At least once a year, he publishes a long-form updated guide about an industry-hot topic.

No need to answer. In fact, if you’re going to pull a Joe, starting a blog will be a waste of time.

When Jim launches a new product or service, it’s clear who the masses will turn to. He knows his stuff. He knows what’s helpful, and what isn’t. Plus, he makes people feel comfortable to reach out to him anytime.

We buy from people we trust. And we trust those who can talk (or write) about what they know in a compelling way.

You can be like Jim. In fact, here’s how he goes about creating ground-breaking blog content that keeps his audience clamoring for more.

What to Write About on Your Blog

Content that’s consistent, helpful, and valuable will keep readers coming. But how do you know you’ve scratched your audience’s itch?

The first step is always to know your audience to the core. A few questions you can ask to determine that are:

1. What are their main problems, and what expert advice could solve them? You can do this by directly talking to some of your customers, if you have any, or by creating a reader persona.
2. Are they busy people? For instance, if they’re also entrepreneurs, you might want to consider writing in a quick-scannable way so they can grasp the most important points without it taking their time.
3. What type of content do they respond better to? Lists? How-to posts? This will require you to write and observe the analytics. Do more of what they like–but don’t forget to vary.

Why is that so important?

When you know what questions are gnawing on people’s brains and you expertly answer them, they’ll label your brand as knowledgeable and trustworthy. And trust leads to value. Ultimately, value leads to conversions.

When you feel like you’ve run out of ideas for blog posts, try BuzzSumo. It’s a great place to find SEO-relevant topics in your industry and draw some inspiration.

Next step: start a blog Or dust yours off and make it worth your readers’ time!