blog
Posted On Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Author: Philip Sampson (Account Director)
Blog is one of the weird words that has entered the public lexicon thanks to the explosive growth of the internet. Originally. ‘web logs’ were basically public internet diaries so that people could share their lives with the rest of the world… and for the most part, no one cared.
Now the term has become a lot more ambiguous, meaning anything from someone's day to day life to industry news. As time went on, blogs started to lean more to niche writing to cater to people's interests, hobbies and careers.
So the main question is, should your website have a blog section on it and why?
If you are catering to a specific industry or group of industries then it is probably a good idea. Here’s why…
Blogs give people another reason to visit your site other than just to search for jobs. By becoming a resource of industry news, information, events, tips and more, you give people reasons to regularly visit your site and get more familiar.
By providing quality content, you will find that people will share your articles more on social media. Hell, it even gives you something to share on social media yourself! Not just on your own pages, this also gives you non spammy reasons to post links to your website in relevant industry forums such as Facebook or LinkedIn groups and drive fresh traffic to your site.
If you are using email marketing then having a string of articles to drip feed to people who sign up for your newsletter is a good way of making sure you have something to actually send them.
A huge thing to consider is the SEO boost you will receive. By having a website full of industry articles combined with local events, news, and of course jobs, you are signalling to Google and the other search engines what your industry is, what you do and where you are based. Search engines will see that you have a wealth of industry information and this will surely shoot you up the ranks when people search for relevant terms in your region. And as you continue to grow, you can even expect to see more organic traffic from an even wider area.
Maintaining a blog isn’t always about driving that instant traffic and getting businesses and job seekers straight on the phone to you. A big part of blogging is building up your brand identity and growing a reputation as an industry authority.
If you can get a director of a company in your industry to sign up to your newsletter, or maybe they see you posting articles regularly on LinkedIn and read them every now and then, then you are growing in that person's mindshare. Your name and logo will start becoming more familiar to him. You will stand out. Then when it’s time to hire, you’ll be at the front of his mind.
Likewise, if someone sees you posting regularly in a niche relevant Facebook group that they are also a member of then they will start to associate you with the industry and see your agency as an authority. Guess where they’re going to come looking when they want to move employers.
As you start to drive more traffic organically by sharing your blog posts online and attracting more clicks from search engines, you will be able to learn from this traffic. You can see what articles are getting your attention and which aren’t doing so well, allowing you to focus more on what is working. You can write articles super relevant to roles you are currently trying to fill to help find candidates. You will get more traffic on your job board which will allow you to learn more about your job search audience and optimise your marketing and increase your remarketing for them.
Put simply, more data means more chances to optimize your organic and paid marketing, which in turn means even more data… round and round it goes.
Building a blog increases your traffic, increases your data collection, increases your brand recognition, increases your industry authority and most importantly increases the amount of clients and candidates you connect with.