You’ve put money into an effective content strategy, and employed an amazing writer and you’re publishing fresh blog posts on a regular basis. There’s a lot of traffic coming to your website, you’re turning some of it from a casual visitor into a customer , and things are looking up.
Have you ever considered what the reason people read your blog?
I’m not referring to where the visitors come from It’s not about where they come from – Google Analytics will tell you this – but rather why they’re landed to your website.
No this isn’t about keyword phrases or clickbait headlines. I’m talking about the SEO strategies both you and the rest of your staff implemented to get clicks.
Think about it this way What is it that draws readers to check out blogs on a regular basis and what makes them prefer to visit your blog in particular?
It’s a completely different matter and one which content marketers seldom think about, but instead assume that people will search for information and that quality content will draw more of them.
But it’s actually slightly more complex than that. Getting the answer to the question on your blog will assist you in creating more engaging content, engage your readers more efficiently and keep them returning.
In this blog, we’ll examine the 9 reasons readers read blogs. Which one draws your readers?
The Science behind Reading Blogs
In finding out what draws readers to blogs, the most thorough research has been conducted by Prof. Barbara Kaye at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 2010, she published an article that was peer-reviewed and titled Going to the blogs: Toward the development of a Uses and Gratifications Evaluation Scale for blogs published in the Atlantic Journal of Communication where she detailed the nine reasons why people are drawn to blogs for information.
The study, which is frequently cited in the online and academic discussion about blogs revealed the different motives behind the clicking of visitors to blogs. This is the first instance that, blog owners, including business owners could be aware of why visitors visited their websites and what they expected to discover when they arrived.
However, what it didn’t attempt was to categorize readers into groups of nine. Actually there were a variety of reasons why people came to blogs in search of information were consciously connected to their usage of the internet and other reasons were more in the background and linked to the larger way of life and expectations of the users. Additionally there were some reasons that were clearly close (having something related to the particular activity of searching for information on a blog at this particular time) while other reasons were more general, possibly the blog is a popular source of information on the subject, in contrast to other media sources.
For marketers, acknowledging the nine reasons that a user decides to look for information about blogs and the consideration of the factors driving people to their site is a crucial step to creating, launching and continuing to maintain a blog as well as strategy for creating content.
We’ll go through the reasons why people go through blogs, one by one.
1. Convenient Information Seeking
They are updated regularly and are rapidly found by search engines and are usually managed by experts of the specific field the blog is focusing on. Blogs are useful sources of data for people who are looking to learn the latest happenings within a particular domain because the best and most up-to-date information is only an Google search and a mouse click away.
Did you know? Gazzed News contains the latest stories from beauty and travel…
2. Anti-Traditional Media Sentiment
Blogs can be described as a form of media that is a part of the citizen. They could be funded by a business or even be the primary and sole source of revenue for bloggers however, they are far away from the multi-billion-dollar companies that comprise the mainstream or traditional media. When a blogger is hesitant to trust conventional sources for information, they fill in the gap.
3. Expression/Affiliation
Blog readers typically join and be identified as members of a community that is related to specific blogs or subject. When a blog is set around a particular theme, an athletic team or political candidate, for instance bloggers visit not just for the content posted on the blog, but as well for the chance to join the world that the blog represents.
4. Guidance/Opinion Seeking
Bloggers are part of public media, but they’re more in line to the op-ed columns that are is the clear, unambiguous news gathering arm of traditional media. This means that bloggers are more likely to voice their opinions without fear of reprisal. Some readers visit not only to discover what bloggers believe and the reasons why they believe it. The mix of explanation and opinion is what drives this.
5. Blog Ambiance
If bloggers create an environment that is warm, pleasant to visit and positive for their targeted audience, readers will come and then stay. The atmosphere of a blog’s environment might not be apparent at first for those who are avid readers of blogs it’s simple to differentiate the blogs they regularly read into ‘information-only or information and community’ sites that have distinct ambiances.
6. Personal Fulfillment
There is less emphasis on the satisfaction which comes from finding the best information, by the term ‘personal fulfillment’ Kaye is talking about enjoyment and entertainment. Blog readers who enjoy browsing blog posts because…reading blogs is an enjoyable activity. If a blog is enjoyable or amusing when the writer or creator of the content offers something that readers will enjoy who come back.
7. Political Debate
For certain kinds of blogs that specialize in specific specialties, politics is the place to be. If it’s red state versus blue state, conservative versus liberal or young people of the democratic party and autocratic autocrats with ingrained roots and political debates, as well as participating in can be a major reason why people read blogs. The liberties that blogging offers as opposed with traditional outlets just amplify the debate.
8. Different Opinions
If you visit the editorial page of New York Times you know the kind of information you’re going to get. This is also true for MSNBC and, more politically, to Fox News. The blogosphere, on contrary, offers many opinions and perspectives that traditional and mainstream media can not provide. If you are looking for a single opinion, then read the Times If you’re seeking all opinions, check out blogs.
9. Specific Requirement
The ninth reason that people visit blog sites is when they have a particular question. Perhaps they’re seeking an exact fact, searching for facts that Wikipedia could not provide or opinions from an expert offered for free by an expert in the subject. No matter what the case, if someone has an inquiry in particular it is likely that there will be a blog that can provide the answer.