Blog Definition

A portmanteau of “web” and “log,” a blog is a method of publishing content on the internet. In the 2000s, blogging became the dominant way to publish content online, giving businesses a new and effective way to connect with their target audience.

Blogs are regularly updated in reverse chronological order (i.e., the latest posts appear first) with a variety of different topics. For businesses, these topics typically include content designed to connect with their customers, such as posts answering common questions, providing solutions or information about common customer problems, or even what competitors are doing (and perhaps how the business outshines them).

In most cases, companies choose to host blogs on their own websites to maintain control and increase site traffic, rather than using third-party services.

Blog Example

Suppose that a company has a website, but the content on it is relatively static. In an effort to increase new and returning traffic to the website, the company decides to begin publishing a blog.

In this example, the blog serves two purposes: 1.) to offer engaging, interesting, or otherwise useful content to site visitors, and 2.) to improve the site’s overall search engine optimization (SEO).

Blogs are a critical component of SEO because the major search engines like Google will have more pages to index with relevant, up-to-date content on them. It can help to consider that Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” If your blog helps people find useful answers to their questions, then Google is more likely to favor it—and so will your visitors.

Why is Blogging Important in Strategic Marketing?

Content Creation

Well maintained and properly optimized business blogs can help improve a company’s overall online presence, through SEO, social media, organic sharing, and so on.

Lead Generation

Blogs are a proven way to increase customer engagement and generate leads (e.g., by collecting leads for an email marketing list).