Regardless of the nature of your business, content allows you to build trust and credibility among your customers. It can also have a positive impact on your search engine optimization efforts.
Moreover, excellent content might be what your potential customer needs to convince himself to buy your product(s).
Hence, it is advisable to add a blog to your e-commerce site. Here’s why:
1. It helps increase the site traffic
According to a HubSpot study, websites with a blog have 434% more indexed pages compared to those that do not blog.
And in case you are not aware, you cannot rank what you cannot index. So, when you have more content crawled and indexed by search engine bots, the more chances that your online store will become visible on search results.
This is possible by producing keyword-rich but customer-centric content. These content are designed to help your potential customers answer some of their burning questions.
Doing so allows you to convince your readers that you know your business well. Hence, they will be encouraged to do business with you.
2. It improves customer engagement
Other than having an avenue to naturally incorporate keywords on your e-commerce site, having a blog is also a great way to keep your customers engaged.
For instance, you sell coffee beans online. Your blog could be a great way to teach your potential customer the different methods of home-brewing. Other than that, you can shed the spotlight on the local coffee farmers who supply your products.
The key here is to tell a story. Do not treat your blog as a place where you can bombard your readers with ads, saying why your products are awesome.
Instead, engage them by producing content that will educate them on the benefits that your product can bring.
3. It boosts your SEO efforts
As mentioned earlier, your blog post is a great place to incorporate your target keywords. Simply put, this helps you boost your SEO efforts.
However, that does not mean that you should add your target keywords to every sentence on your every post. That would be keyword spamming.
What we suggest is that you treat your target keyword as your primary topic, and then build an outline that can support it. Write your content as if you are talking with a friend, with the intention of helping him with his dilemma.
Focus on providing solutions instead of pleasing the search engine bots. This will allow you to incorporate your keywords naturally.
4. It builds brand awareness
Another reason you should consider adding a blog when you make an e-commerce website is that it helps you build awareness around your brand.
As Chris Garrett puts it, every post that you write is like a friendly salesperson interacting with a potential customer. That’s because your content is one way to educate your readers on the kind of product that will suit them.
Using our online coffee shop example earlier, you can then write a blog post about the different flavour notes of coffee. So people who prefer their coffee with a sweet, nutty aftertaste would know which of your single-origin products they should buy.
5. It helps in generating backlinks
Aside from incorporating keywords on your content, your blog can also be a great way for your e-commerce site to generate backlinks. Mind you, a healthy ratio of inbound and outbound links can also make or break your search engine rankings.
So, can your blog generate backlinks for your online store? Here are some quick tips:
- Make sure to link your products or category page on any relevant blog posts.
- Create a content asset that other websites would be willing to mention and link on their content.
- Make your content easy to share on various social media channels.
- Do not forget to leverage the power of influencer marketing.
6. It sets you up as an authority
We have mentioned it repeatedly on this post that your content is meant to educate your readers and potential customers. Doing so allows you to establish your brand as an industry leader.
And why would you want to be an industry leader? That’s because being recognizable in your niche makes your business a household name for your target market.
Sure, your online coffee store may not be as popular as Starbucks or Nescafe. However, you can be a preferred brand for those who like to brew their own coffee using single-origin coffee beans.
7. It allows more call to actions
Previously, we mentioned that you can use your blog to link to your product category pages. However, your readers are less likely to click through unless you have a call to action.
Luckily, your content can give you room for multiple CTAs, provided that it will not distract your readers’ attention from your content.
So if you happen to sell different kinds of home brewing equipment on your e-commerce site, then you can link on each piece of equipment on your blog post about different home-brewing methods.
8. It is a cost-effective advertising
Another benefit of starting a blog on your online store is that you get to have a cost-effective way of promoting your business.
According to Candice Janneman, e-commerce blogging is both a direct and indirect way of advertising your products.
For one, your search engine-friendly content is what brings potential customers to your site. And if they deem your blog is of high-quality, they will remember your website should they need relevant information about your products (or your niche in general).
Thus, when they need to buy a product that is similar to what you sell, your business will be the first thing they will remember.
9. It opens possible collaboration with other brands
Aside from cost-effective advertising, you can also leverage your blog to collaborate with other brands.
Say, you have an infographic about different kinds of coffee. And then you reached out to another blogger, asking if he can publish your infographic on his site.
To increase the chances of your infographic being published on other websites, you can propose to allow them to guest blog on yours too. Doing so allows both of you to reach a relatively new audience.
Which is a win-win situation!
10. It helps double your sales
Do you know that you can put a display ad on your blog and promote your own products? In fact, this is one of the popular ways bloggers get to monetize their content.
You can check out Google’s AdSense program to learn more about content monetization.
E-commerce blogging is one way to expand your business’s reach and boost your revenue. Hence, for the reasons listed above, we highly recommend that your online store should also have a blog.