How to get started with a Blog

One of the first things that any SEO or Inbound Marketing agency will recommend as the most important thing to generate more traffic to a website is to start a blog or increase the frequency of blogging. The stats do not lie and they say that:[arrow_list]Blogging provides 55% more traffic[/arrow_list][arrow_list]Blogging provides 88% more leads[/arrow_list]These statistics are telling but they do not tell exactly why blogging increases traffic and therefore generates more leads. The answer to this is a little more anecdotal, but it boils down to that blogs provide content that contain information that people may be searching for. And when people read content that they find provides them value they will be far more likely to read other articles that you have written and come back in the future to read future blog posts. Blogs allow you to show that you are an expert in your field and that you have pertinent information to provide. It also lends a voice to your company and helps develops trust.What to blog aboutTo many people, starting a blog can be a bit daunting, myself included. They are unsure how to get started with a blog. A lot of people say they do not know what to blog about because they do not have anything new to say. While it is true that having unique content will be appealing to people, only concentrating on unique information makes the wrong assumption that your audience is already informed of all existing information regarding your field/industry. Almost all of your prospective customers or clients will not be fully informed of everything that is relevant to your industry. And more importantly these prospects will be searching for similar information about your industry.So what should you blog about? The best way to start a blog strategy is to think to what your existing clients or customers are asking you or better yet what questions prospects have when you talk to them. If you think about your own experiences using search engines, I’m sure there were many times that you searched for information and a few clicks later you were reading a blog post. Blogging should provide valuable content for prospects to target them when they are searching for information regarding your industry.How often should you be blogging?There is no set figure for how often you should blog, but the more that you blog the better the return. The more that you blog, the more indexed pages you create for search engines, which in turn increases the opportunities for you to be found online. There is no maximum number of blogs that you should be posting, but an emphasis should be made of quality over quantity. However, at a minimum you should be blogging 4 times a week. While that may seem like a lot, not every blog article has to be a long, detailed essay. You can provide lists of ways to improve something, a response to news relevant to your company or even post a video where you discuss a topic. There are so many jump-off points for blog articles, the key is to mix it up and provide varying content to attract a wide array of prospects.