Statistics for Bloggers To Elevate Their Content

Blogs are a great way to boost your content marketing strategy and improve your brand awareness. Whether you’re trying to revitalize your old blogging content or you’re deciding if blogs are right for your brand, it’s helpful to understand the benefits of blogging and the statistics that prove it’s a helpful strategy choice. In this guide, we discuss what blogs are, provide tips for using them in your content marketing, and review the top statistics every blogger should know.

What Is a Blog?

A blog is a webpage that delivers written content and articles to readers. It often displays the most recent article at the top with the previous entries underneath. However, some blogs have different functions that categorize their posts by topic or allow their readers to search for specific articles they want to read.

The word blog is a shortened version of the term weblog. When weblogs first appeared on the internet, people used them as personal diaries. They discussed their lives or other topics of interest. Presently, blogs have developed into a new medium and blur the lines between journalism and popular media. Many people and businesses use blogs to deliver information and promote their products and services. Some blogs are even a business themselves, making money by developing engaging content that attracts audiences, and with them, advertisers.

Blogs vs. Websites

Blogs often differ from websites in content and construction, but nowadays, traditional sites might also host a blog on their domain. By comparing the two, we can see their similarities and differences:

Websites

Websites are static web pages with one-way communication. A website’s primary function is to deliver information to visitors and allow them to interact with the site in small, pre-determined ways. This can include downloading information, like an eBook, or making a purchase if the website hosts an online store. Because some traditional websites help in developing a brand identity, it’s important for developers to keep them consistent and not update the content or design more often than necessary. That allows the brand to become more recognizable and helps customers navigate the site more easily with every visit.

Blogs

Businesses and writers use blogs purely to produce new and exciting content regularly. Unlike websites that try to stay consistent with their design and written content, users with blogs publish fresh articles consistently to stay relevant to their audience. Many blogs also offer more ways for visitors to interact with the brand. Some blogs allow readers to rate the articles they read or leave a comment on the page. This can help the blog owners engage with their audience and develop a relationship with them.

How a Blog Can Help Your Business

Blog posts can help businesses improve their marketing efforts. Here are some benefits that blogs can give to your content marketing:

Increase Your Traffic

Producing consistent blog articles can help you develop a library of content. If that content delivers engaging or entertaining information, it can help attract audiences to your articles and website. From there, you have a better opportunity to convert readers into customers using well-placed calls-to-action. A lot of blogs focus on trending topics, which also helps generate more organic search traffic. That’s because many people are searching for keywords that surround those topics. If you write a quality blog on the subject, you can attract more visitors to your site.

Advertise Your Products and Services

Blogs are a great way to advertise your products and services. They allow you to highlight the major benefits your products can give to consumers. One way to do that is by telling a story. Using blogs, you can connect with your audience and show an understanding of their problems or challenges. In the blog posts, talk about those challenges and then showcase how your products or services can help.

It’s especially helpful to use blogs in your advertising if they already have an established audience. If many people already read the articles you post, it might help to slip in a few blogs on new product releases or promotions your company is currently offering. You know those ads can reach a wide audience and hopefully entice people to make a purchase.

Build Authority

Writing blogs about topics in your industry can help build authority and establish your company as an expert in the field. For example, if you run a publishing company, you could write a blog on “Tips for Self Publishing” or “How To Write a Query Letter.” These blog topics cover material that applies to your industry for which writers, and other industry members, might search. If your brand is facing a lot of competition for keywords, like the ones in the above example, it’s helpful to include additional information or opinions in your blogs to stand out from your competitors.

To do this, conduct a thorough content analysis of your business and your competitors. That way, you can see the topics their blogs cover and if there are any current gaps in your content marketing strategy. CopyPress has a new content analysis tool that you can use to learn more about your competitor’s pieces. Though we usually reserve the tool for clients, we’re offering it for a limited time without charge.

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Humanize Your Brand

When businesses add blogs to their website, they often include the names of the blog writers. Some brands even add a section to their blogs that showcase the writer’s picture and a small blurb about their experience. These features help humanize brands and add a face to the company. That can encourage readers to interact with the brand and engage with the blog posts through comments or ratings.

Tips for Writing Content Marketing Blogs

Here are some tips to help you write better blogs for your content marketing campaigns:

Use Your Analytics

For each content marketing campaign, it’s important to check the analytics of your website and blog. Analytics help you understand how many visitors your web pages receive, how long they stay on the page, and the different demographics of people that view your website. This information can help you adjust your strategies and improve your marketing efforts. It also helps you better understand your audience. When you understand the demographics, you can tailor your content to target them. That can help generate more traffic and develop blogs that apply to your readers.

Improve Readability

Improving the readability of your content is important because it encourages your audience to keep reading your blogs and articles. This can help increase your chance of converting them into customers. It also helps improve your website’s ranking. That’s because when Google or another search engine recognizes that people spend a lot of time viewing your content and site, it shows that your blog is providing them with the information they need. That tells Google to rank your webpage higher so more people can find it. There are a few things you can do to improve your blog’s readability, including:

  • Making sure all paragraphs are 100 words or less
  • Using bulleted lists
  • Breaking up information into headings and subheadings
  • Adding relevant images to break up text

Focus on SEO

Just like readability can improve your content’s search ranking, so can search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is an action you can perform on your website and blog to help people find it more easily on search engines. That’s because search engines use bots to crawl your web pages and determine their subject and quality. When you optimize your content for those bots, they can better understand what your content is about and display it to the right people. There are many ways to improve your search engine optimization, including:

  • Building backlinks: Backlinks occur when other domains link to your website. The more quality backlinks you gain, the more easily you can increase your rank on Google’s search engine.
  • Targeting keywords: Keywords are the terms people type in when they search for something through a search engine. By targeting the right keywords, Google can match your content with relevant search queries to help increase your organic traffic.
  • Adding metadata: Metadata is information that search engines read to better understand your content. They include things like the blog’s meta description and titles or descriptions you add to your images.
  • Decreasing load times: Decreasing load times are like improving your content’s readability. Doing it lowers your blog’s bounce rate, which tells Google your site is providing helpful information.
  • Writing quality content: One of the most influential ways to increase your SEO is to provide your readers with content they find informative and helpful. That way they’re more likely to share it and link to it, which can help improve your search ranking.

Related: Best Practices for SEO Content Writing

Write Interesting Headlines

Creatives have filled the internet with content that competes for the same keywords and top rankings on Google. Headlines are a great way to attract readers and stand out from the competition. One great way to do that is by using numbers. If your blog contains a list, whether you’re sharing tips or steps to complete something, you can add the number of listed items to your headline.

That helps showcase exactly what’s in your content and helps you compete with other similar blogs and articles. For instance, if a competitor wrote an article titled “8 Tips for Improving Your Cardio” you could try to find nine or more tips to make your blog more attractive to searchers. Other ways to write interesting headlines include:

  • Create a sense of urgency
  • Use emotional words like “amazing,” “stunning,” or “spectacular”
  • Be specific about the content’s topic
  • Offer a solution to a challenge

Add a Call-To-Action

Calls-to-action are phrases that help encourage readers to further interact with your brand or company. They can include signing up for an email list, downloading an eBook, or even making a purchase. By placing calls-to-action in your blogs, you can convert visitors into potential customers. Most often, calls-to-action include phrases with verbs and action words, such as “click here,” “download today,” and “buy now.”

Though you can place multiple calls-to-action throughout your blog, it’s most helpful to place one at the very end. That’s because it asks your audience to take action right after reading your content as the last thing they do before they leave your blog. If your content is high quality, it can better convince them to explore the brand and company further. That can help them stay on your blog for longer, increasing your conversion rate and decreasing your bounce rate.

Set Up Blog Post Notifications

Blog post notifications are alerts that people can sign up for to get notified when you publish a new blog article. There are several ways you can alert your users when you post new content, including:

  • Email newsletters: On your website, you can have visitors sign up for your email list. Using this list, you can send your audience information on new blog posts, as well as new product announcements and current promotions.
  • Social media posts: Social media is a great way to announce updates on your blog. You can also post the links to your blog articles on social media so people can easily share them on their own profiles and pages.
  • Website push notifications: Website push notifications are like mobile notifications, but they also work with desktop and laptop computers. You can have your visitors sign up for notifications so you can easily share new blog posts with them or notify them about important company updates.

Top 13 Statistics for Bloggers To Find Success

Here are some of the top statistics for bloggers and content creators:

1. There Are Over 2 Billion Blog Posts Published Every Year1

That equates to just over five million blog posts every day. That means blogs are still an incredibly popular form of content on the internet. It also means that businesses and brands have a lot of competition. It’s important for your blog articles to stand out from others in your industry and field.

2. The Number of Bloggers on the Internet Has Increased Every Year Since 20142

Since 2014, the number of bloggers on the internet has increased by 4.3 million. Today, there are 31.7 million bloggers writing content for websites and brands. That means there’s no shortage of exceptional bloggers to help you develop your content marketing strategy.

3. 77% Of Bloggers Report That Blogging Drives Results3

Of course, “drives results” is a subjective term. But an important takeaway is that all bloggers have varying goals, and more than half agree their blogs are helping to meet them. Whether they want to increase traffic or improve their sales numbers, 55% of people believe their blogs are creating some results and 22% believe their blogs are creating strong results.

4. The Length of an Average Blog Post Is 1416 Words3

Just like the number of bloggers, the length of the average blog post has steadily increased since 2014. In 2014, the average blog post was 808 words. In 2021, the average blog post is now 1416. Though shorter blogs used to be more popular, that trend has now reversed. Currently, 63% of blogs on the internet are between 500 and 1500 words, while only 6% are less than 500.

5. Longer Blogs Yield Better Results Than Shorter Blogs3

When Orbit Media surveyed bloggers about their marketing results compared to their blog length, 36% said that articles over 3000 words gave them “strong results”. On the other end of the survey, only 18% said articles between 1000 and 1500 words produced the same.

Does this mean every blog you write should be over 3000 words? Not necessarily. If you’re cramming unnecessary information into your blog article, it can lower its quality and ranking. It’s important to include only the most relevant information in your article, so it’s most helpful to readers. Likewise, if your blog is covering a large topic, it might need more words to talk about it fully.

6. 409 Million People View Blogs Each Month on WordPress4

Every month, 409 million people view over 20 billion pages on WordPress sites. One of the most popular features of WordPress is its content management system. Most often, people use that system to develop blogs and articles to attract visitors to their site. That means a majority of the pages people view most likely belong to blogs.

7. WordPress Blogs Receive 77 Million New Comments Every Month4

Blogs are more than just useful tools for spreading information. They also help brands and businesses engage with their audiences. When brands add comment sections to their blogs and articles, people can leave messages that help businesses improve their audience’s satisfaction. People can use the comments to praise the article or provide feedback on how they think the business could improve it. For opinion blogs, readers can also leave their own opinions to start a discussion that might attract even more readers to the content.

8. Over 50% of Marketers Use Blogs as Their Primary Form of Media5

Blogs are currently the second most created form of media for content marketing. The first is videos. Because businesses and brands want to use blogs to boost their traffic and revenue, it’s safe to assume blogs are still creating impressive results.

9. Blogging Is One of the Top 10 Skills Required in the Content Marketing Industry6

SEMRush conducted a study that analyzed job postings in the content marketing industry. Out of those job postings, 17% mentioned blogging as a necessary skill for the role. If other content marketing teams are looking for bloggers, consider finding one for your own brand. Hiring writers is a great way to boost your blog marketing efforts while focusing your own time and energy on other areas of your business.

Looking for expert writers to help you develop high-quality content? Consider teaming up with a content marketing company, like CopyPress. We have a vetted team of writers, editors, and quality assurance specialists who can develop excellent blogs for your marketing campaign. Schedule a free call with us today.

10. 31% of Companies Say Blogs Are Most Effective for Building Brand Awareness7

Writing a consistent blog is a great way to talk about trending topics in your industry. When you write articles on popular topics, it can help get your content seen by more people. This can improve your brand awareness and set you up as an expert in the industry.

11. 85% Of Brands Use Blogs as an Organic Content Distribution Channel7

Organic content distribution channels help generate traffic without paying for advertisements. The Content Marketing Institute talked with brands to see which channels they’ve used in the past 12 months. Blogs were the second-highest on the list, just below social media. That means content marketing teams still see blogs as a great and inexpensive way to generate traffic to their site and build brand awareness.

12. Blog Posts Containing at Least One List Every 500 Words Get 70% More Traffic8

Readability on your blogs is important. It helps make them more engaging, which can keep people on your web pages for longer and improve your bounce rate. This helps Google see that your content is high quality, which can convince the search engine to show your website to more people, increasing its traffic and ranking. A great way to increase readability is to add lists to your articles. Whether you make the lists using headings or bullet points, creating them breaks up large chunks of text, making the article more enjoyable to read.

13. List Articles Receive 80% More Traffic Compared to Others8

Compared to other forms of articles, such as how-to and definitive types, list articles generate the most amount of traffic. That’s not surprising considering the last statistic which had articles generating more traffic by placing more lists throughout their text. Lists are a great way to organize information, while simultaneously attracting people to your content. That’s because they’re easy for your audience to read and absorb. You can also compete better with other companies by attempting to make your lists of content longer than theirs.

Blogs are a great way to improve your content marketing strategy and develop stronger brand awareness. If your brand is looking to see how blogs can affect your marketing campaign, use these statistics for bloggers and tips to help you make an informative decision and get the most out of your blogging efforts.

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