Should My Business Have a Blog?

The answer?  Not necessarily!  Most of the writing online right now about increasing exposure, internet marketing, etc. all would tell you that you must have a blog.  It isn’t always the case that you need one.  Let’s talk about why they are so often recommended and how to decide if you should invest the time and energy maintaining a business blog.

First, it is absolutely true that Google likes blogs.  Or, more accurately, Google likes fresh content on websites and blogs are supposed to do that.  If you don’t regularly post to and update your blog, you don’t get any points from Google.   The search engine positioning potential of blogs is also very good since they generally do a lot of things for you automatically that work well for SEO and each post can be a little keyword targeted webpage.  Also, since you can create one using free services such as Blogger, WordPress, or LiveJournal there is an assumption that it is free so why not?  Well, lots of reasons… but there is one that really stands out.

Time!  Look, running a business doesn’t leave a lot of free time laying around.  So, anything you decide to spend time on means you aren’t spending time on something else.  It’s just like money in advertising.  Dollars in one place mean fewer dollars someplace else.  So, here are some things to think about when considering if a blog is worth the time investment and potentially dollar investment for you business.

The answers to these questions will help shape your decision.  If you are buried right now just running your business and adding anything else to the mix means you neglect core operations, don’t create a blog!  You don’t have time.  Focus on systemizing your business, delegating, etc.  When you have room to breathe think about taking this on.

Also, if you have almost no competition in your community for the terms you care about and are positioned well just off of your basic business website you might not be in much of a hurry.  On the other hand, if your customers are active online a blog might be a great way to make closer connections to them so maybe it is worth it anyway.  It’s all about finding the balance of sacrifice vs. return that we all face in running our businesses.

A blog is never going to hurt you and can even be fun.  (Well, it can hurt you if you embarrass your business with horrid writing or controversial opinions.)  If you have time you should create one just based on the idea that it will likely increase in importance in the future as a hub for your social marketing efforts.  It doesn’t necessarily deserve to be a top priority.  There are a lot of other concerns that may supercede it so take the exhortations online to “create your blog now!” with a grain of salt.  Do it if/when it makes sense for your business!

Trying to sort it out in your head whether you should invest time now?  Post a comment below or get in touch with me through the email address in my about page and I’ll help you think it through.  I won’t even try and sell you anything!  Business blogs can be great but create one when it makes sense.