Many millions of people create and read blogs. Everyone from politicians, media sources, the entertainment industry, corporations, small businesses, and individuals have learned to take advantage of the communication and marketing potential of this powerful online tool. So can you.
Importance of Blogging
Blogging is proven to be one of the most widely utilized search engine optimization (SEO) strategies available. The technology is always evolving, but whether you use traditional blogs, microblogs, social media, vlogs, or podcasts, it all comes down to website conversions—getting visitors to your blog, linking back to your website, and using a call to action to email, call, or click.
And blogging ranks high in search results on Google—people read posts not as marketing targets, but as learners seeking information. Blogs also bring you more online visibility when people share your content. Although many think blogging is not worth the time and effort because it “only” increases your online traffic, the benefits outweigh any perceived disadvantages as you see higher search rankings and more conversions. And you can always pay professionals to create your written and multimedia content and get it out there at least weekly.
WordPress has been the most popular traditional blogging software since 2003. Today, it is used on 60 million—and 26.4% of the top 10 million—websites. Automattic, the owner company, likes to say WordPress is “both free and priceless.” The core software is built by volunteers and offers free tutorials, forums, and help from its “Happiness Engineers.” Features include hundreds of free themed templates. Originally created as blogging software, you can also use WordPress to construct a website that includes a blog.
You don’t have to pay a cent, but WordPress also offers customized options and themes for a fee that help you transform your blog or website into almost anything you want in a user-friendly environment. The software can be used on its own platform, WordPress.com, for free or at an upgraded level, and you can pay for your own registered domain name. It can also be “self-hosted,” or downloaded to your paid hosting site from WordPress.org.
WordPress Techniques for Expanding Outreach
- attracting followers from the WordPress community
- allowing outsiders sign up for new posts by email
- enabling readers to comment on and repost content
- using polls, testimonials, and contact forms
- embedding social media icons
- automatically linking posts with multiple social media accounts
- including categories, tags, and alternate text found by search engines
- uploading photos, PDFs, videos, podcasts, and more
- writing and selling e-books online
- utilizing WordAds
These features all offer the potential to reach many thousands of readers and build your online strength with WordPress.
