Last week, we visited the Mercer County Golf Academy and we were asked about blogging. Specifically, do I need a blog? and if I do what’s the reason behind it. It’s a very good question.

Here is the short answer: Google.

That’s the simple reason to have a blog. Google is now the new yellow pages. If people want to find a specific piece of clothing, they Google it. If they want to find a doctor, they Google it. If people want to find inspiration for a gift, they Google it. If people want to find an answer to a question they Google it.

So, by blogging you create content and by creating content you give more content for Google to index so when someone Googles something, the likelihood of someone ending up on your site is much greater. Blogging has nothing to do with people coming to your site to read about your opinion. The only way you will ever get that kind of audience is by landing on Huffington Post or Mashable or another mega blog website and its likely that audience will be here today and gone tomorrow. You blog simply to build up enough content so when people Google something like “do I need a blog?” they end up on this web page.

Here are some quick tips on making sure your blog is Google friendly.

• Put it under your domain. Don’t use blogger. Use either blog.yourdomain.com or yourdomain.com/blog. This way you get all the credit for the content and you aren’t creating content for blogger.com
• Think of an article that answers a question. People search with intent, so they will ask Google questions. Google doesn’t answer. It looks for the best match so if you title your blog something like Do I need a blog? The likelihood of someone getting to your site is higher.
• Always use an image, preferably one you took a picture of rather than downloaded and reposted. If you are feeling REALLY ambitious, try doing a quick video and uploading it to YouTube and putting it in your blog.
• Post at least once a week. It takes about 30 min to write a decent blog.
• Keep it short and to the point. You don’t need to write any more than 3 paragraphs. If you are writing more, you can probably use what you wrote for two blogs.
• Last but not least, if you don’t have time, hire a blogger. There are plenty of companies, like ours, that offer blogging for business services, there are also freelancers, college kids, interns, etc. who may surprise you with the content they put together.

Blogging is a very good way to build content on your site that can deliver traffic via Google. Don’t expect to move a lot of traffic early. It’s going to take six months of blogging once a week, following the above rules to move the needle. If you need traffic earlier, then you can always buy it via PPC.