Does a Business Blog Make Sense Today?
Twenty years ago, conventional wisdom said if you had a business and a website, you needed to blog. It would bring in traffic through Yahoo and let customers “get to know you.”
Today, most businesses have blogs. They can seem like obligatory white noise, they have no novelty, and there’s a ton of competition.
What reasons could possibly justify writing a blog to help promote your business today?
Good reasons for a blog:
- You naturally have something to say that relates to your expertise, product, or service.
- You have industry insights that genuinely help your readers.
- It’s part of a well-thought-out plan, with a clear goal and the ability to measure progress.
- You enjoy writing.
- It helps answer questions customers ask you repeatedly.
If you meet at least some of these points, then a blog could be worth the effort. Research analyzing 912 million blog posts found that longer, more comprehensive content significantly outperforms shorter posts in both social shares and backlinks, suggesting that readers and other sites recognize and reward substantial, helpful content.
Though there are millions of blogs already, that doesn’t matter in your specific case, any more than millions of books existing should stop an author with something to say from writing a new book.
Bad reasons for a blog:
- “Everyone else has done it.” Yes, just about everyone has. So having one, in itself, doesn’t help much.
- “AI will write everything.”
- Just doing it for SEO purposes without any real plan, passion, or consistency.
- Absolutely no interest in writing the blog, not even enough to delegate to someone else.
- Copying what competitors do without understanding why they do it.
- Thinking any content is better than no content.
The world really does have enough of these types of blogs already.
The hidden costs of a bad blog
Typos and poor formatting are a pretty regular part of bad blog posts, as they’re typically slapped together by someone who’d rather be doing something else. This sends an unprofessional message to customers because bad writing reflects poorly on your overall business quality. According to Backlinko’s analysis of content performance, poor writing quality is one of the factors that leads to higher bounce rates and lower engagement.
Bad blogs also:
- Waste your time and energy on content nobody reads, and that might not even help your page rankings.
- Frustrate visitors who come looking for useful information.
- Create an ongoing maintenance burden.
- A dead blog with its most recent post from 2022 makes customers wonder if your business is still active.
Bottom Line
Even today, blogs can be valuable, but only when done thoughtfully and with realistic expectations. According to Orbit Media’s research on blogger success factors, the bloggers who report strong results share common traits: they have clear goals, measure their progress, and consistently create content that serves their audience’s needs.
The blogging industry has become extremely saturated, and it’s difficult for business blogs to stand out without genuine effort and strategy.
In case you were wondering, there’s really no such thing as a business that’s too strange, niche, or “boring” to have a blog if it’s done well. If septic tank services, concrete pumping companies, and carpet cleaners can have blogs, your business can too. Provided there’s a need and motivation.
What’s the most unusual business blog you’ve read?
If you do decide you want a blog, but don’t want to write it all yourself, contact me for painless blog pages that work for your business, written by an actual, experienced human.