I look at a lot of websites in my line of work. I’m constantly researching products, news, topics and opinions, to inform copy for clients. No matter the industry or business type, I come across so many websites that have a blog page set up, but inconsistent or out of date posts on it. This makes the website, and therefore the company, look out of date. So, why do companies stop writing blogs, and why is this problematic?

The pattern of writing blogs inconsistently

Just out of interest I’ve been scrolling back through some of the out-of-date company blogs I have landed on recently, to analyse their blogging history. I wondered whether maybe they had been writing so many blogs for so many years that it had naturally run its course, or whether there was something else going on. Interestingly, the same thing happens almost every time.

In the beginning companies seem to enthusiastically write and post blogs several times a month. Then the posts become less regular. Then there are months where nothing is posted at all. After this they either stop altogether or post every now and then.

This shows the intent is still there to use a blog, which means the benefits aren’t in question, so why else would companies stop blogging?

No deadline, no rush to write a blog

One of the problems with writing blogs for a business regularly is that there is no deadline. You don’t have an editor chasing you to meet a magazine deadline, you don’t have a product launch waiting on your brochure, and you don’t have a design team waiting for your content. This makes it very easy for that task of writing blog posts to slip down the to do list, behind the other priorities that do have a deadline.

The only potential solution to this is to set your own deadline for your blog. I’m a little sceptical about this because we tried it in a previous agency I worked for and while it helped us for a while, it wasn’t a long-term solution. When you have an article that needs to be done for a magazine deadline, an award entry to be written and submitted on time, or a designer waiting on you for copy for a website or suite of marketing materials, however much you might want to write a blog post for your own business, you have to prioritise the deadline driven customer work.

It’s not just marketing agencies that are struggling either, for business owners, the same thing applies with accounting tasks that have a set deadline, manufacturing milestones that need to be hit, or proposals that have been promised to prospects by a certain date. Every day there are other more pressing deadlines to attend to.

Time poor marketers

Another factor that is affecting companies who want to write blog posts, is the increasing amount of pressure being put on marketing professionals. Over the last 5-10 years the role of a marketer in a business has expanded to include more and more things. They are sometimes now responsible for all PR coverage, media relations, ad spend, ad design, social media design and implementation, web design and copy (including blogs), e-mail marketing, as well as physical brochures. And they’re expected to analyse all these channels as they go to make sure they’re all performing well.

This leaves very little time to produce a 1200-word blog that requires thought, research, writing and editing. When they have a pocket of time they might come back to the blog and manage to post something again, but on the whole, there are too many balls in the air to give long thought-provoking blog articles the time they need.

Not enough to write in a blog 

Another reason companies stop blogging is because they feel they have run out of things to say. Lots of the businesses I speak to think that because they have covered a topic once, they shouldn’t cover it again. But a certain amount of repetition in marketing is a good thing, as long as it’s done in the right way. It’s about finding new angles to cover the same broad subjects.

For example, a home improvement company selling windows and doors to consumers might write a blog post about energy efficient windows and talk about what Window Energy Ratings are and the ratings their products achieve. That should not be the only article about energy efficiency on their blog page. These companies could also blog about the importance of energy efficiency as we see climate change in action with the heatwaves we’ve experienced this year or talk about the pros and cons of triple glazing, or how windows and doors can help government reach its Net Zero targets, or how energy efficient windows and doors can save money on fuel bills in the winter. The list goes on.

Sometimes it’s a question of modesty too. Businesses quite often have experts within the business that assume everyone knows what they know, or that no-one wants to hear what they have to say. This can be a fantastic, untapped source of content for your business blog.

Does it matter if my blog posts are out of date?

The short answer is, yes!

Leaving blog pages out of date creates the perception that the business is behind the times. If someone lands on your blog and sees that you used to populate it regularly and now only write blog posts every now and then, it gives them the impression you don’t have as much to talk about anymore. This might even be an unconscious picture they build, but if they’re researching suppliers and one has a fully populated and up to date blog page, and the other has an out-of-date blog page, it makes sense that they will assume one is more up together than the other.

Another negative impact of letting your blog page stagnate is the effect on SEO or GEO. Old content on your website is still valuable, which is why a lot of companies leave the blog pages live, despite being out of date, but it is a lot more valuable when they are current. Search engines like it if you go back through old articles and update the information in them, or if nothing has changed, include a note at the top to say you have reviewed the information recently and it is still up to date. So, if your last post is now 6 months old, it won’t be performing as well as new content.

Regardless of SEO, not updating your blog page with new posts is a missed opportunity to generate trust with your audience. Consumers and businesses alike still scrawl the web to research companies they want to buy from. And if your prospects and customers come across a supplier who is offering genuinely helpful advice and even giving information out on topics they hadn’t considered yet, in a well populated and up to date blog, they are more likely to trust that company to be more helpful if they work with them.

If it’s simply impossible, outsource

So, if your blog has fallen off the to do list, it’s worth reviewing how to get it back in the mix. This might be assigning it to one individual internally, or perhaps putting your own deadline on it will work wonders for you. If not, it might be worth looking at outsourcing it. The great thing about getting an independent writer on the case is that it will be their business to prioritise your blog. Just as you prioritise your customers, they will prioritise you so there is no risk of your page getting out of date again.

I used to be a time poor marketing professional that was desperate to write blog posts for the agency I worked for but struggled to prioritise it over deadline-driven customer work. So, I now love helping people in the same position. I strive to remove all the hassle of planning posts, researching, writing in the right tone of voice, and editing. And the best bit? No-one needs to know that I have written them for you. They will appear on your site as your posts.

If you understand the value of blogs but simply can’t find the time to write blog posts, I’d love to hear from you on [email protected]

About Blog Write Ltd

Writer of smart, engaging copy for businesses that understand the importance of great copy, but struggle to find the time to give it the attention it needs. I offer a proactive approach to deliver fresh content.