Set up and managed properly, a blog on your small business website can help boost your business on Google and other search engines, keep people on your website longer (and keep them coming back), increase sales and boost customer engagement.

The trick is finding time to brainstorm, write and manage the blog -- something many business owners struggle to do. (We can help. More on that later.)

Here are just some of the ways a blog can help your business succeed:

1. Increase Traffic to Your Website - Blogs can be traffic magnets. Because content on a website is usually limited to a few pages that are infrequently updated, blogs are the perfect way to bring more people to your website and increase traffic, time spent on site, and repeat visitors. (Hint: The more you promote your blog, the more traffic you’ll get.) Studies have shown the longer a person lingers on your website, the more likely they are to become a customer.

2. Create Entry Points to Your Website and Fuel SEO - Blogs help bring new people to your website. Many consumers use Google or other search engines when looking for a business or service. (In fact, more than half of searches on mobile devices are local in nature, according to Search Engine Land.) Having a blog with high-quality content and good SEO helps your business to be represented in customers’ search engine results. Plus, having a frequently updated, keyword-focused site helps boost your presence in search overall.

3. Create Long-Term Sustainability and Help with Marketing Strategy - Blogging can help build your brand while boosting your word-of-mouth advertising. Business blogging can help your business showcase expertise in its field and gain a brand-loyal following for years to come. Blogs help support all your content marketing efforts, as it’s great material to share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, your email newsletters and more.

4. Build Community - Blogs help build community by allowing you to engage with your readers in different discussions based on feedback you receive from your posts. By giving your readers and potential customers a place to engage in two-way communication (and responding promptly to questions online), you can continue to build your community while building your brand and boosting customer loyalty.

5. Establish Yourself as the Industry Expert - By blogging about what your company does and how your business has solved customers’ challenges, you help establish yourself as the expert in your industry. You can do this by posting useful tips and customer-oriented content, helping people resolve issues and offering new ideas and providing solutions through your blog posts.

6. Acquire More Customers - A recent HubSpot survey found 82 percent of marketers who blog daily acquired customers using their blog. Not up for blogging daily? No worries. The same survey found 60 percent of those who blog monthly also acquired new customers.

7. Build Your Email List of Potential Customers - If you have an active blog and your website is set up to capture email addresses, you can use your blog to build your mailing list. As a way to capture customer’s email, not only ask them to sign up but also think about offering a small promotion, a free industry-relevant ebook or another incentive in exchange for their email address.

Many business owners find they have no time to blog, or they aren’t sure what to write about. And some people just don’t like to write!

LTH Media Services can work with your company to develop an editorial calendar (so you have plenty of blog post ideas to use), write or edit blog posts for your business, and post and promote them. Contact us for more on how we can help your business grow with high-quality content marketing.