With the rising popularity of social media, are blogs still a thing? We took a deep dive into what it means to set up a blog page in this generation.
Each year, business owners constantly ask themselves, are blogs still relevant? Social media has completely overtaken the way we do business, and as such, more and more web owners question the value of blogging year after year.
With social media at our disposal, are blogs still really necessary?
We already have Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn to help us educate our audience and connect with them. Social media platforms already come with advertising features to help us generate brand awareness and enhance our conversions.
So is doing a blog worth it, or is business blogging akin to just screaming into the cold, meaningless, void?
The quick answer to this question? A big, resounding yes – but with a few caveats.
If you’re wondering how blogging has changed in the past ten years, you may be surprised.
Most of the blogging strategies we employed a decade ago are no longer effective, and along with the evolution of the internet, landscape came a plethora of new things to consider when publishing blogs.
Like now is more important than ever to build an email list or a tribe that can follow your articles.
So are blogs still a thing? Let’s find out.
Table of Contents
What are blogs?
A blog is a type of informational website that consists of informal text entries. Posts in blogs are displayed in reverse chronological order with recent posts appearing first. While some websites are blogs in their entirety, other websites only reserve a section of their page for blogging.
Blogs can focus on absolutely any topic and usually have a comment section where readers can leave their reactions or ask questions. Tips, stories, reviews, insights, and listicles are among the most common types of content included in blogs.
If you're a business, chances are you already have a website that showcases your products and services. Adding a blog to your website gives you an opportunity to express your thoughts, offer insights, or discuss a new product or service release, among others.
If you're a freelancer aiming to showcase his or her services, having a blog dedicated to your expertise can paint you as an expert.
Blogs may be used in a variety of ways, but they're always written informatively – often with goals to teach readers or tell them something new.
A blog's main purpose is often to give your visitors reasons to reaccess your website. Without some sort of updated content, your visitors have little reason to visit more than once.
The best part about blogging is that it's a business that is super cheap to start.
It costs only $2.95/month and you get FREE domain name when you set up a blog with Bluehost.
So are blogs still a thing? Here’s are the three most common reasons why.
See Related: How to Choose the Best Blogging Platform to Make Money
Why blogging is still relevant
It keeps your website fresh
Fresh content inspires your visitors to come back, thereby enhancing your traffic. To this, some business owners would defensively say, “Why do I need a blog section if I can just promote my website on social media?”
That's well and good, but if you knew you'd see the same thing on a website you accessed just a week ago, would you pay another visit? Probably not.
Being consistent with publishing new blogs entices new readers, encourages repeat visitors, and increases the amount of time they spend on your website. This means more chances of people securing your service or buying your product.
Not to mention, time spent on your site is an important metric for attracting advertisers, and also increases the worth of your website should you plan to sell it through platforms like Flippa.
Here's a guide I made about how to start a blog with success.
Soft selling has never been more important
Hard selling sucks and drives potential customers away – a fact that has never been more true in today’s day and age. Research has shown that around 80% of businesses prefer to have advertisements in the form of articles instead of the aggressive “buy now” agenda.
Customers are also tired of conventional methods of commercials and advertising. If you’re looking to sell, you have to look human – and blogs are great at humanizing your company.
Having a blog page gives you an avenue to creatively promote your products and services to the more modern business environment.
Also, soft selling directly to your email list is important.
Learn how I increased my email list by 550% in this free email course with just a few tweaks to existing blog posts.
Today’s consumers are attracted to businesses that stay relevant
Today's discerning customer has never been more conscious about upcoming trends, and as such, they gravitate more towards businesses that offer their takes and opinions on the latest happenings.
While social media is a great avenue to express relevancy, nothing beats the long-form capabilities of a blog to help you thoroughly pin down an issue.
When thinking about what to blog about, always consider relevancy. Is your business into gaming? Writing a review about the latest video game will attract new visitors.
Are you a social media management agency? Why not express your reaction to Facebook's recent advertising policy? There are so many topics to blog about if you’re constantly updated with trends.
In today's fast-paced world, being relevant and looking relevant lets your customers know that you’re the better and smarter choice.
See Related: Ad Arbitrage Guide – Is It Possible?
Blogs are still important for search engine optimization
Are blogs still a thing? For SEO, the answer is definitely yes. While there are a variety of ways to enhance your SEO ranking, adding a company blog is one of the best ways to improve your SEO score.
One of the most common ways blogs are able to do this is by ranking your website for certain keywords. Having multiple blog posts with different keywords allow you to optimize your site and attract different audiences.
If you're a gaming business, you may want to rank for keywords like “best video game of 2020” on one blog post and “best Skyrim cheats” on another. This assures that you're really penetrating your target market.
Having a blog also offers more content for bots to crawl, more backlinks to post (an essential SEO strategy), and so on. Blogs are incredibly useful in helping you climb search engine rankings.
Determine the value of blog post before you write it by combining keyword research and analytics. I created a free ad revenue calculator to help you.
It takes just a second to download and get started. As a bonus, you'll get my tips and tricks for building an email list.
Want to learn more about it? I'll walk you through it in this video below.
Statistics don’t lie
Is blogging still relevant? The numbers certainly say so.
- Around 77% of Internet users read blog posts regularly (ImpactBnd)
- 71% of B2B buyers read blogs at some point during their buyer journey (DemandGen)
- Businesses that publish 16 or more blog posts every month generate 4.5x more leads than companies that publish just four posts or less (Hubspot)
- Content marketing produces three times more leads than paid search and is 62% cheaper than traditional marketing. (Demand Metric)
- Around 61% of Americans prefer reading blog content compared to email content. (Social Media Today)
See Related: List of 18 Free Traffic Sources
How your blog can adapt to changing times
Are blogs still a thing today? While blogging is essential for any business, we have to face the facts: blogging today isn't how it used to be a decade ago. With the advent of social media, consumer behavior has massively changed.
Here's how to grow your blog during changing times.
1. Embrace other platforms
The truth of the matter is, people aren't spending as much time reading blogs like they did a decade ago. This could be due to a variety of reasons, but it's mainly because they choose to spend their time elsewhere.
Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Tiktok have made it possible for users to view content from all their favorite bloggers at once without having to visit multiple websites.
So, are blogs outdated and does this strike a blow to the future of blogging? Not quite. Blogging is still essential, you just need to embrace other platforms to fully saturate your target market and get more value from your blog posts.
Are you an aspiring photographer? Write a blog post about your recent travel photos and promote it on Instagram. Got recipes to share as a chef? Host your very own YouTube cooking show and link to your blog page to give users access to your recipes.
The trick is to integrate and promote your blog posts wherever possible.
See Related: How to Make Money on TikTok: Can You Earn Legit Money?
2. Utilize videos
If you've ever been online for a length of time, you've probably noticed how videos are blowing up in popularity. Modern customers want to see products and services in action, and video is one of the most essential driving forces of content marketing.
Around 68% of consumers would prefer watching an explainer video to solve product-related problems, while 41% of bloggers reported strong results when using a video format.
Video also encourages social sharing – but with a caveat: your videos must tug at your user's emotions instead of hard-selling as people are more likely to share a branded video if it was entertaining.
What does this mean for blogging then? Since videos are becoming increasingly more popular year after year, try to incorporate videos in your blog pages whenever possible.
Create explainer videos, share tips, discuss your insights, or share an opinion – there are so many ways to utilize videos when blogging!
See Related: How to Get 100,000 Monthly Pageviews in 6 Months
3. Integrate new SEO strategies
No marketing channel has evolved as dramatically as SEO. What used to be the practice of merely stuffing keywords into an article and tweaking back-end code evolved into an algorithm with the powerful capacity to weed out bad content from valuable ones.
Are blogs still a thing? If you employ the right SEO strategies, only then will you be rewarded. The Panda update in 2011 and the Hummingbird update in 2013 marked the end of keyword stuffing and spammy content.
Today, blogs won't thrive without quality and substance. This means that you would need to provide true, valuable content that users would actually want to read. Google now has the capacity to decipher user intent instead of mapping out individual phrases and keywords.
With the capacity to understand the meaning as opposed to keywords, today's modern blogs shouldn't be centered around keywords. While keyword research still helps to provide you with ranking opportunities, you need to make sure that your keywords are used in a way that provides value to the reader.
Several hosting providers like Bluehost and GoDaddy offer pre-built SEO tools to help you employ modern SEO strategies. These tools can routinely check your website for SEO weaknesses so you can regularly improve your SEO score as algorithms change.
See Related: 30 Fun Hobbies That Make Money
4. Be a better copywriter – or hire one
The most important skill to have when blogging is obvious: you need to know how to write well. Blogs are textual pieces, and as such, bloggers need to be persuasive with words.
If you're wondering how bloggers make money, it's mostly because of their writing chops.
Great writers can draft compelling sales pages, write convincing reviews for affiliate products, and produce content that is generally better and more entertaining to read.
With today's search engine algorithms that put a premium on blogs that offer value, a great blogger becomes more likely to climb the search pages.
Of course, not all web owners are great writers. If you’re a sizeable business but you don’t have the writing chops, consider hiring a copywriter to manage your website’s blog section.
See Related: 4 Ways to Get Paid to Write Reviews
5. Write for the web.
Here’s one thing to know when blogging for today’s audience: most users have short attention spans. Most of us are constantly bombarded with new information every day – our social media feeds are always full and there’s always a new notification begging us to take a quick peek.
When time is of the essence, make sure that your blogs are written for the web. This means that you need to make your posts easier to read by dividing your content into headers while keeping your sentences short.
Do away with lengthy paragraphs and prose-like ramblings.
A good rule of thumb is to keep your paragraphs at least three sentences long. Try to express just one thought per sentence to avoid overwhelming your readers.
This is also the main reason why listicles (list articles) have been all the rage – they're a fantastic way to make your content easier to skim.
While blogs are a great way to enhance your site's engagement, there are a lot more that you should know. This free four-day audience building course teaches you expert strategies on how to build more email subscribers and in effect, make more money.
Do you have a blog or are you planning to have one? How are you staying relevant this year?