Even if you’re not sure what a blog is, you’ve no doubt come across one at some object in time. Perhaps you’ve stumbled across a blog when you’ve probed “healthy dinner recipes”.

Alternatively, perhaps you used a blog to get more information on SEO strategies.

In fact, if you’re reading this, guess what? You’re on a blog.( Very meta, I know .)

If your business doesn’t have a blog, you might want to reconsider — B2B purveyors who employment blogs receive 67% more heads than those who do not, and blogs have been rated the 5th most relied source for accurate online information.

At its most basic, blogs can help you develop an online proximity, prove yourself a specialist in an manufacture, and attract more tone leads to all pages of your site.

If you’re contemplating creating a blog for your business, or simply want to know what one is, deter reading.

What is a blog?

First, let’s go over a brief history — in 1994, Swarthmore College student Justin Hall is credited with the creation of the first blog, Links.net. At the time, nonetheless, it wasn’t considered a blog … really a personal homepage.

In 1997, Jorn Barger, blogger for Robot Wisdom, coined the word “weblog”, which was meant to describe his process for “logging the web” as he surfed the internet. The word “weblog” was shortened to “blog” in 1999, by programmer Peter Merholz.

In the early stages, a blog was a personal web log or journal in which someone could share information or their opinion on a variety of topics. The information was announced reverse chronologically, so the most recent post would appear first.

Nowadays, a blog is a regularly updated website or web page, and can either be used for personal expend or to fulfill a business need.

For instance, HubSpot blogs about various topics concerning marketing, sales, and busines because HubSpot sells concoctions related to such three themes — so, more than likely, the type of books HubSpot’s blog entices are going to be similar to HubSpot’s core buyer persona.

Alternatively, the status of women listed Kiki started a personal travel blog, announced The Blonde Abroad, to substantiate her passage knows and stipulate readers with helpful tips and walk recommendations. Her blog doesn’t serve a larger company, but it does be used to help create a personal brand.

If a personal blog is successful enough, the writer can also make money off of it via sponsorships or advertisings. Take a look at 5 Strategies to Monetize a Blog to learn more.

What is a blog announce?

A blog post is an individual web page on your website that dives into a particular sub-topic of your blog.

For instance, let’s say you start a manner blog on your retail website. One blog upright are likely to be named, “The Best Fall Shoes for 2019 “. The pole ties back to your overall blog topic as a whole( pattern ), but it also places a very specific sub-topic( descent shoes ).

Blog poles allow you to rank on search engines for a variety of keywords. In the above example, your blog berth could enable your business to rank on Google for “fall shoes”. When person searches for fall shoes and comes across your blog upright, they have access to the rest of your company’s website. They might sounds “Products” after they predict your post, and take a look at the clothing components your firm sells.

A blog post ties-in back to your overall blog area. For example, right now, you’re on blog.hubspot.com/ market/ what-is-a-blog. The “what-is-a-blog” section of the URL is confined back to/ commerce /, which is the blog as a whole.

There are plenty of benefits to blogging — it helps drive congestion to your website, it enables you to better convert that traffic into leads, it allows your business to establish authority in an industry, and it continues to help your business grow and captivate brand-new purchasers months and even years after publication.

To learn more about the benefits of blogging, check out Why Blog? The Benefits of Blogging for Business and Marketing.

1. To help your companionship rank on search engines.

Typically, a business will use a blog to help the business’s website rank on search engines. You can perfectly employ SEO tactics, or use paid ads, to help your company homepage rank on page one of Google — but a more effective, long-term solution is blogging.

To consider how your company can rank on search engines via a blog, we’ll start with an example — let’s say you work for a entanglement blueprint start-up with very little online presence.

You decide to spend the first year writing and posting regular blog content that strongly relates to web design. Over time, your traffic increases and other fellowships link to your website for information regarding web design. When this happens, Google recognizes your busines as a legitimate beginning for entanglement design information. Eventually( with a lot of trial and error ), your blog affixes begin grading on sheet one of Google for words like “web design”, “website builder”, and “e-commerce website”.

Then, one day, you probe “web design firms in X city” and find your companionship is now on sheet one. This may due, in large segment, to your consistent blogging efforts.

Take a look at How HubSpot Uses Blogging to Rank# 1 on Google to learn more about specific programmes you can implement to rank on search engines.

2. To share information about a specific topic and become an expert in an industry.

In 2006, Boston-native Matt Kepnes quit his job and began traveling the world. He documented his excursions in his now infamous blog, NomadicMatt.com.

After about a year, thanks to tireless blogging efforts and SEO strategies that enabled him to rank on Google, he began pulling in $60,000. Matt also started e-books, and used sponsorships and affiliate sell to make money. Additionally, he wrote a New York Times best-seller, “How to Travel the World on $50 a Day.”

Now, Matt’s blog captivates 1. 5 million visitors a month and grosses about $750,000 a year — and he’s become a well-known expert in the travel space.

If you want to become known as an expert in a topic that interests you, from fashion to blogging to fitness, you can — and, oftentimes, it began with a blog.

3. To lure tourists to your site, and turn those tourists into leads.

There’s exclusively so much traffic you can get from the homepage or About Us page of your company’s website. Of track, those pages are essential for results who are already interested in your produces — but they often won’t attract traffic from top-of-the-funnel. That’s where your blog comes into play.

Your blog can be a general rich to help your website visitors even before those pilgrims are ready to purchase from you. For example, let’s say you sell products for e-commerce collects. You might allure some e-commerce proprietors who are already probing online for your commodities, but in most cases, the e-commerce owner isn’t going to be ready to buy right out of the gate.

Alternatively, if you begin blogging about tips-off to help the retail owner who is just starting out — like “How to start a retail website”, or “Benefits of e-commerce vs. physical store” — you’ll slowly entice an audience who enjoys your material and pinpoints it is helpful. Then, when those site visitors’ e-commerce supermarkets begin developing( thanks, in part, to your blog ), they’ll previously know about your brand and once trust it as a helpful beginning. That’s when they’ll check out your commodity pages.

4. To prepared an online community and engage with an gathering.

At the very least, you might create a blog to engage with an online community of books with similar interests. Maybe you start a food blog and invite readers to share their own recipes with you.

Alternatively, perhaps “youre starting” a blog that focuses on DIY projects. You announced the merriment, DIY programmes you’ve completed in your own home, and you ask your readers to share their own DIY tips-off in exchange.

1. Choose your target audience.

When you’re starting your own blog, it’s important to think of your target audience. Who are you organizing the blog for? And who do you want reading your blog uprights? Before you can get started, you have to consider the niche you’re writing about and what topics you’ll cover and why.

Brainstorming your target audience is similar to creating a buyer persona for your busines. Plus, this will give you an idea on what kind of content you want to produce.

2. Brainstorm content feelings routinely based on your marketplace segment.

Once you’ve started a blog, you’ll want to churn out high-quality, consistent material on a regular basis. This isn’t ever easy. Creating content is a time-consuming task. You want to ensure your content is something your books is in our interests and hopefully can help with your SEO — more on that in a minute.

To begin brainstorming content, consider what your contestants are doing. Look for cracks in their content that you can fulfill. Additionally, you should also do SEO research to verify that users are searching for and interested in the topic you want to write about. Site like Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and Answer The Publiccan help.

You’ll want to brainstorm content routinely so you always have ideas that you can execute.

3. Research and recollect a content control method( CMS ).

In order to host your blog, you’ll most likely use a CMS. A CMS is a tool you can use to design, succeed, and publish on your website.

Once you’ve decided to start a blog, figure out if your current CMS has all the capabilities of hosting a blog. If not, you’ll want to review CMS alternatives that might integrate with your locate or look for an entirely new CMS to migrate your website on. There are various alternatives in the CMS world including HubSpot, WordPress, and Squarespace.

4. Create a blog programme and editorial calendar.

Just like creating a business, you can’t create a blog without a strategy in mind. Your strategy should answer questions like 😛 TAGEND

Who are you targeting?

What type of content will you produce?

When will you post?

Where will you promote your material?

Overall, you should have a mission, seeing, and objectives for your blog.

Then, create an editorial calendar to keep you organized and on track. A schedule will assist you move what announces are coming up, ensure scribes are fulfilling deadlines, and assure you have enough content ideas for the foreseeable future.

5. Pay attention to article structure.

When you’re writing your blog affixes, it’s important to consider the article structure. For example, are you using subheads to break up the affix so it’s easy to accept? Are you abusing missile points and idols that build the announce easy to scan? These are important factors that will help keep your reader on the page.

Additionally, you’ll want to make sure that you’re expend calls-to-action( CTAs ), that will guide the reader on what you want them to do next. This is how you can start making money and generating precedes from your blog.

6. Become an expert in marketing and promoting your blog.

Another element of blogging is marketing and encouraging your blog uprights. It’s like the age-old adage — “When a tree falls in the groves and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a seemed? “

Consequently, if you write a blog post but nothing reads it, will it have a positive effect on your company or brand? Probably not. That’s why you’ll have to market your affixes. You can use social media, SEO, your website, or your email newsletter to reach current and potential customers.

7. Learn about SEO.

Like I noted above, you want people to read your blog uprights. One behavior to do that is to get organic congestion through SEO. If you require your blog is efficient, learn how to research keywords, how to grade in search engines, and how to build an SEO strategy.

8. Use a variety of blog berth forms.

Your blog posts should be interesting to everyone who predicts them, and especially for customers who read every single post. For those that are active partisans and diplomats of your blog, you should use a variety of blog post styles so your blog doesn’t get stale. Consider using how-to poles, list-based poles, or felt leadership.

9. Repurpose aged content.

Producing blog content consistently is also difficult. But you don’t have to reinvent the rotate every time you write a blog post. You can update old-time blog affixes to keep them precise and extensive. Additionally, you can use other contents of yours, perhaps a YouTube video or a podcast, and repurpose the contents into a blog post.

10. Perform a competitive analysis.

To understand your audience, passed a competitive analysis on your top blog competitors. This will help you identify veers, uncover gaps in the content in your industry, and give you meanings on topics and ways to promote your blog.

Running a competitive analysis will help you build and iterate on your own blog strategy.

With a blog, the sky’s the limit — and so are the benefits for your business. If you’re officially ready to get started with your own blog, take a look at How to Create a Successful Blog Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide.

Alternatively, if you’re starting at the beginning and anxious about your first upright, spoke How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide [+ Free Blog Post Templates ].

Editor’s note: This affix was originally published in February 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Read more: blog.hubspot.com