If you’ve browsed the internet lately, you’ve probably noticed that everyone is handing out advice for free. We’ve come a long way from Justin Hall’s notes on his personal life and with everything from flowers, to baking, to tech, businesses owners and hobbyists alike are sharing their wisdom on blogs all over the internet.
Aside from being an incredible personal and professional resource on just about anything, does blogging play any part on enhancing the SEO on your website? What do long-winded articles about your industry do for your back end, if anything?
The short of it is, yes! Blogs do help optimize your website’s SEO.
As soon as a user generates a question, Google goes to work, crawling websites, to find the best possible answer for that user. This means Google bots are constantly scanning pages for speed times, rich media data, like video and imaging and of course, text and relevant keywords to pull up the most relevant data for the user.
As a business owner, if you want Google to pull your website as a reputable source and stick you on the first page of the SERPs, you’ll want to enhance your site so that it ticks all of Google’s many boxes.
One of the best ways you can improve your chances of ranking higher in the search engines is to write a blog!
So how, exactly, does blogging improve your SEO?
1. Increases on-page time
On-page time is a ranking factor that Google uses that assumes the longer a user spends on your page, the more they find your content helpful.
This means that if a user is spending more time on your site doing something like, reading your blog, then Google automatically ranks you at a higher position, than a website that a user clicks off quickly.
A blog encourages users to stay on your website for longer periods of time, especially if users are in search of educational or informational content. Because blogs are helpful by nature, this provides businesses with an opportunity to provide interesting, entertaining or helpful information that answers users questions and keeps them engaged. This means users are more likely to stay on your pages longer to browse that information.
2. Helps your website stay current
One way to stay on Google’s radar is to update your website more frequently. If you’ve ever been to a webpage that is old and outdated, you can see it instantly and automatically the business becomes less reputable.
A blog is a great way to help your website stay current and active so that users can see that you are involved with what is currently happening in your industry.
The last thing google wants is to deliver users outdated content. Websites that are updated frequently send a signal to Google that this website is releasing fresh content and is active in it’s space.
This is the best way to release new content, news about your industry, updated, helpful tutorials, advice pieces and more, that can also help you build trust with your audience and establish you as a professional in the field.
3. Creates more opportunity to target long-tail keywords
Unless you are a major competitor in the field, ranking for singular keywords is a really tough strategy and not rarely recommended by any SEO that knows their stuff.
There are an endless number of companies trying to rank for high search volume keywords like “restaurant”, “gym” or “salon” that overtake the SERP based on popularity and sheer size of the business.
This is where long tail keywords come into play as a resourceful strategy in helping you stand out in the SERPs.
Long tail keywords target phrases or industry related terms that are related to your keywords, so instead of going up against a ton of competition, long-tail keywords aim to rank for a more niche, targeted demographic.
Rather than targeting a word like “restaurant” you may use “farm-to-table” or “vegan restaurant” as topics in your blog posts, which will target a demographic that is directly searching for you and points your audience in your website’s direction, through your blog.
A blog gives you an endless amount of opportunities to create content around long-tail keywords and rank in higher positions for those keywords.
Each one of your blogs can be hitting a handful of long-tail keywords that are in the sphere of your industry, and these don’t have to live on your main pages, avoiding stuffing your main pages with keywords and providing users with a better experience.
4. Creates more opportunity for internal linking
Blogs provide a canvas to build internal links that direct the user to important pages of your website. Not only is this helpful in guiding users to similar content and potentially keeping them on your site longer but it is helpful in notifying Google about important pages on your site.
Internal link building assists Google to establish a hierarchy of your website and to single out the most important pages.
The more internal links you have pointing back to the main pages of your website, the more Google will assume that those pages are important.
This strategy also helps you build link value to important pages on your website. Meaning that pages that are linked to more often are assumed to be of higher value to Google.
5. An opportunity to create shareable content
As you know, linking strategies are high on every SEOrs strategy. The more high quality links you can build within and leading to your site, the more authority you build with Google.
Creating quality content gives others the opportunity to backlink to your website or share your blog posts.
These shares help you build link authority and strengthen your website and build trust, not just with your audience but with Google as well.
6. Helps you build trust with your audience
Building trust online is really the end goal of all SEO! One way to build and nurture relationships with your audience is to provide consistent, quality content that they can rely on.
A blog gives you the space to share your knowledge and connect with an audience who is interested in your business. This not only helps establish you as a professional in the field but has your audience re-visiting, sharing and browsing your website.
A blog not only provides value to your audience and positions you as a professional in your field, but it also helps optimize your SEO. A win-win situation. With the opportunity to create more backlinks, keep your site relevant and fresh, and build trust with your audience, give us one good reason you shouldn’t be blogging? It’s okay, we’ll wait.
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