photo credit: Evelyn Proimos
Most marketers used to think blogs were strictly for writers, authors, and the opinionated.  With the birth of the blog, millions who needed an outlet to vent, pontificate or simply self-publish finally had a platform to do so.  Soon enough, it seemed like everyone and their brother had a blog.

At last count (according to Blog Pulse and this site) there are around 130 million blogs on the Internet.  There are only about a million more websites (around 235 million total) than blogs online.  So if it feels like you’re the only one without a blog, you’re not imagining things – blogs are breeding like rabbits.

But why blogs for business?  And if you’re an entrepreneur or marketer, why should you care? It all boils down to the structural nature of the blog.  In a nutshell, it’s easier to consistently add new content to a blog than to a Web site because that’s what blogs were designed for – to be “online journals” if you will.  They were also designed to facilitate conversations – like closed forums – so you could not only put content online, but also give people a means of reacting to it.  They can link to your posts, comment on what you said, and even share your content via Facebook, Digg, Twitter and more.

Here’s the kicker:  the search engines love fresh content. Every time fresh content shows up online with your product or brand or company name attached to it, it boosts your rankings in the search engines (you know, those 800 pound gorillas like Google and Yahoo).  My High Altitude Marketing Academy business partner Mande White calls blogs “search engine candy” and I couldn’t agree more.

Ah, but it’s proof you want? Okay, here’s the “why you should care” part. Online marketing firm Hubspot recently posted results from a blog study that you’d be crazy not to take to heart. The study included websites for more than 1,500 small and medium sized businesses. The results were very clear cut – your website needs a blog. And the more often you can post to it, the better!

Check out these findings:

• Websites that have a blog received 55% more traffic. Makes sense, right? The more quality content a website has (i.e., the more pages in that website’s library of pages), the more opportunities for links and landing pages. Even more important: the more traffic, the more chances for conversions.

• Websites with blogs had 97% more inbound links. Stop right there. You don’t need to know anything else. If links are like gold in the world of SEO and blogs deliver that many more links, then you need to blog as soon as you’re done reading this post.

• Finally, websites with blogs racked up 434% more indexed pages. This one’s a no-brainer. The more quality pages created, the higher the amount of pages that are indexed. But the key thing to remember here is that Google likes sites with lots of original, quality content. So the more pages indexed, the better.

Back to that other big advantage of blogs: they’re social. You publish, readers comment.  You can build a community through a blog and converse with them too – plus make it possible for them to talk to each other all at the same time.  Better yet, all on your (digital) home turf!

What better way to create engagement – that million dollar marketing buzzword – than a well-orchestrated blog, email, and social media strategy? (Need a self-study course that teaches you how to create one? Here it is).

So, let’s summarize with 5 Key Take-Aways about why you need a blog in your marketing mix:

1. Blogs are an easy, search-optimized way to put fresh content online and/or on your site.  Most blog publishing platforms, like WordPress (which I use for all my blogs) require no knowledge of HTML or programming.  You don’t need to call your Webmaster every time you want to post.
2. Fresh content improves your rankings in the search engines, making it easier for people to find you, resulting in better online visibility.
3. Blogs are an easy, effective tool for sharing information with customers and prospects immediately.  No waiting until you can get that next email out – post to your blog, then follow-up with email when you have time.  Or, see this post for how to get your email and blog working together.
4. Blogs are the foundation for a successful social media marketing strategy AND search engine optimization strategy.  Did you know you can integrate your blog with your Facebook page? Automatically generate tweets to Twitter with every new blog post?  (Yes, when I said “immediately” I meant it!)
5. Blogs are a credibility machine.  And as a business owner, marketer or both you’re expert enough on something to write, talk or video about on your blog.  Journalists love to interview bloggers and authors, and becoming a blogger puts you in the running when the media is looking for a knowledgeable source.  Plus, since a blog will typically rank higher than a static website, the media will find you more easily if you have a blog.

The bottom line? Blogs are actually replacing traditional websites. To an increasing degree businesses that still don’t have a website are creating one on a blog platform and building out from there. Blogs are to conventional websites what the Internet is to print newspapers – they’re real-time, fluid, fresh, and conversational. Get yourself a blog and instantly establish credibility in the eyes of your prospects, future clients, existing customers and the media.  Then, enjoy the extra attention, traffic and sales that come with it!

If you’ve integrated a blog into your marketing, how has it helped you? Share your comments below, and if you liked this post, please give it a thumbs-up.