If you are planning on marketing your business online, then you have to have a website - and if you have a website, then your web design has to include a blog. The blog is one of the most important parts of a good web design. It's a page that holds a collection of content, usually articles. The blog is basically the foundation for your content marketing strategy. Without a blog, you're going to find it extremely challenging to execute a successful content marketing campaign.

Why You Should Have a Blog

The following are some of the specific reasons why a blog should be a part of your web design:

• A blog will improve your SEO - Your website's SEO (search engine ranking) will improve drastically with the presence of a blog. Remember, Google rewards websites based on the quality of their content. If you have a blog full of properly optimized content, it will help improve your SEO.
• A blog will help you increase brand awareness - By improving your SEO, you'll improve your search engine rankings, which will provide your site with more exposure and, as a result, more web traffic. Readers can also share your blog content on social media, thereby increasing brand exposure as well.
• A blog will help you build your brand authority - If you focus on publishing high-quality content on your blog, it will eventually help you to increase your brand authority. This will, in turn, make it easier for potential customers to trust you and current customers to stay loyal to you. Strong brand authority can result in more backlinks as well, which will help to boost your search engine ranking.
• A blog will help you develop relationships with your visitors - By providing your visitors with content that is helpful and informative, they will be more likely to return. You can also encourage conversations about your blog posts in the comment section of your blog.

Tips For Running Your Blog

Your blog will only achieve success if you run it properly. A bad blog isn't going to do much to help improve your web design. The following are a few tips for making sure your blog will be effective:

• Publish consistently - To keep your readers and to remain relevant, make sure that you publish new content on your blog consistently. This means, posting new content at the same time every day or week so that readers know when they can expect updated blog posts.
• Use call-to-actions - Always include a call-to-action at the end of a blog post. Your readers won't know what you want them to do unless you tell them.
• Encourage social interaction - Social signals are an important part of your search engine ranking, so encourage comments (and respond to them) and add social share buttons to your blog posts.
• Promote your blog - Just because you have a blog doesn't mean people will come flooding onto your site. Promote your blog via your newsletter and on social media whenever you publish new content.
• Optimize your blog - Use well-researched keywords to optimize your blog for SEO to boost your search engine rankings and attract more traffic.
• Publish high-quality content - Don't just post to your blog in an attempt to get web traffic. If you want your business to truly benefit from your blog, you have to offer readers content that is well-written, relevant, informative and helpful.

Unless marketing your business is of no concern, every company website should have a blog. For more information on how you can improve your web design with a blog, contact us at Envision IT Solutions today.