My Take on Business Blogging in Kenya
As a writer and blogger, I am amazed at how the Web has progressed when it comes to using the Internet for business. I am also disappointed at how slow Kenyan businesses are at adopting new ways of doing business. Websites that maintain a regularly updated blog are well aware of the importance of pushing content on a regular basis. The benefits of doing this are not only short term but also long term. Any content that is shared on your website takes on 2 lives – It benefits not only the current visitors of your site, but also those who will later learn of your site months or years from now. Nothing you publish on your site goes to waste.
If you take time to visit most of the local business sites, you will be amazed to discover how many get regularly updated. Unless the website is used as the gateway to transact, most business put little effort in ensuring that it is fresh and updated. After going through a number of local banking and insurance websites, I can tell that this was not a good picture. Some of these sites received an update almost one or two years ago (including by own bank). In an age where the Internet is the main source of information, where people go to learn about your business before visiting your physical office, shouldn’t a little effort be put into ensuring that the first place where potential clients learn about you is both appealing and presentable? The truth is, we are yet to realize the potential of having an online presence that adds value to the physical business.
For any business to have exponential growth, long term goals are needed. These goals need to be clearly defined for successful growth. The future markets must be defined as well and steps must be taken to ensure that a business is able to reach and target these markets. In Kenya, it does not take a lot of insight to see that the upcoming young generation is a prime target for most of these businesses and corporations. This generation is growing up in the Internet age and is using technology to learn and interact with its peers. What are businesses doing to target the upcoming and young tech savvy generation?
Blogging for your website also has a direct impact on your Google page rankings. Google robots are always scrolling the web looking for fresh content. Sites that are regularly updated get to be indexed more quickly, which in turn, means that they rank higher on Google Search results. With thousands of websites being created every day, most people will not even know you exist. A Google search is thus the best way to help you be found. Since Google is responsible for over 67% of all searches on the web, it is easy to see how this works to your advantage if you regularly push fresh content on your website.
The importance of blogging cannot be over-emphasized. If you feel you don’t have the time to maintain a regular blog, hire a freelance writer or have one of your employees do the job. Whatever you do, stop neglecting your website and especially your blog. Build authority with your blog and provide valuable information about your business, products and services. Help visitors make informed decisions by providing tips and solutions to problems they may be facing. The more you blog, the more credible you become and when it finally comes the time to make a purchase, you will have educated them enough to help them make the decision on what to purchase and where to purchase.
