If you’ve read anything I’ve written before you’ll probably have cottoned on to the fact that I think blogs are the bees-knees when it comes to small business marketing. Attract new customers, build brand awareness, and establish yourself as an industry expert? Yes, please! But, before you start to think about blogging you need to know where to post your articles.

In my opinion, there’s only one answer to this: on your website.

While platforms like Medium or LinkedIn offer a convenient way to share your thoughts, hosting your blog directly on your website provides numerous advantages that will significantly benefit your business. Let's take a look at why your website is the only place your blog should truly live.

1. Ownership and control

When your blog resides on your website, you are the sole owner of that content and have complete control over its destiny. This means:

• No platform limitations: You're free to design your blog as you envision, customize its layout, and experiment with different features.

• Freedom from pesky algorithms: We all know how frustrating social media algorithms can be. Even the people who want to see your posts will only get to see a few of them, and they’re constantly being updated which can significantly impact your reach and visibility. By hosting your blog on your own site, you're not subject to these unpredictable changes.

• Data security and ownership: Your website is your digital property. You maintain full ownership of your content and data, so you don’t run the risk of losing your blog posts (and audience) if the platform shuts down.

• Branding consistency: Your blog is an extension of your brand. Hosting it on your website allows you to maintain consistent branding across all aspects of your online presence.

2. SEO boosts

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is crucial for driving organic traffic to your website. Hosting your blog directly on your site gives your SEO strategy a huge boost and helps you to get fresh eyes on your brand:

• Keyword optimization: You can strategically incorporate relevant keywords throughout your blog posts, meta descriptions, and image alt text to improve your search engine rankings.

• Internal linking power: Create links to other relevant pages on your website within your blog posts and build a strong internal linking structure that’s invaluable to your overall SEO.

• Domain authority boost: Each blog post you publish contributes to building domain authority for your website. This signals to search engines that your website is an up-to-date, credible and trustworthy source of information, leading to higher rankings in search results.

• Direct traffic boost: When your blog posts rank well in search engines, they drive valuable traffic directly to your website, increasing your chances of converting visitors into customers. Win, win, win!

3. Brand building! Establishing yourself as an authority

Imagine being thought of as the go-to person in your industry. Blogging helps to establish you as an expert and thought leader, but this becomes even more powerful when combined with the branding on your website.

• Showcase your expertise: Consistently publishing high-quality, informative blog posts positions you as an expert in your field.

• Develop your unique voice: Your blog provides a platform to showcase your unique brand voice and personality, building a strong connection with your target audience. Help them to get to know the real you.

• Build long-term relationships: Consistently publishing helpful, relevant and interesting articles will keep people coming back for more. And, once those relationships deepen, they’ll start to share your content on your behalf. Having loyal fans promote your business on your behalf is the most incredible feeling and the easiest way to make sales.

4. Turn readers into customers

Your blog is so much more than a tool to educate your readers, it can generate leads and drive conversions for your too (among other things! Take a look at this article to see what else it can do for you.)

• Strategic calls to action: Incorporate compelling calls to action (CTAs) within your blog posts, such as "Download my free guide," "Schedule a consultation," or "Shop now." When your blog is on your website you’re not limited to what you can do.

• Lead capture forms: Integrate forms within your blog posts to capture email addresses and other valuable information from interested readers.

• Product and service promotion: Naturally weave information about your products or services into your blog posts, demonstrating their value and encouraging readers to take the next step.

5. Understand your audience

Another bonus to your blog living on your website is that you have access to valuable data and analytics about your audience:

• Website traffic insights: Track key metrics like page views, bounce rates, time on page, and conversion rates to understand how your blog is performing.

• User behaviour analysis: Gain valuable insights into user behaviour, such as which blog posts are most popular, which topics resonate most with your audience, and where users are dropping off.

• Data-driven decision-making: Use the data you gather to make informed decisions about your blog strategy, such as which topics to cover, where to promote them, and how to improve your overall user experience.

Taking the leap

Now that you understand the undeniable advantages of hosting your blog on your website, it's time to get cracking! But, first, take a moment to check that your website is up to the task. It ideally needs to be user-friendly, mobile-responsive and optimised for search engines. If you’re not sure how to check this yourself, I know some great (and affordable) web developers who can help you.

Saying this, please don’t use your website (or your hate of it!) as a reason to not get started blogging. There’s still tons to be got from it and you can create a whole load of valuable content so that once it’s had some work done to it you’ll be in a great position.

I’m always here to give you a hand with your small business marketing; whether you need advice or someone to take it out of your hands. Get in touch and we can arrange a call.