It is no coincidence that a common question asked by marketers is, ‘Why are blogs good for SEO?’. Suffice to say, managing a blog is time consuming and nobody wants to waste their time. Also, it can be difficult to think of good topics to write about regularly, to provide helpful information to your readers. Another key consideration that all content marketers want to address is the impact a blog will have on their search engine rankings.
One mantra that is almost as old as the internet itself is ‘content is king’, and this has never been more true than it is now. Bill Gates, who originally said this, realized the key role that content would play in marketing strategies. Publishing and optimizing lots of blog posts for SEO increases the chance that your content will appear prominently in search engine results. This allows more potential customers to find your website, when searching on Google. Keep reading to learn how a blog can transform your SEO fortunes, and why you should seriously consider starting one.
Target Long Tail Keywords
When you blog regularly, you can target an unlimited number of keywords that make your business money. All blog posts published on your website can include SEO keywords that attract more visitors. Also, if you concentrate on keywords containing four words or more (i.e. ‘long tail keywords’), it is easier to promote your services and products.
According to Econsultancy.com, long tail keywords account for more than two thirds of website visitors, while only a low percentage of visitors come from phrases with one to three words. Also, it is more likely that visitors originating from long tail keyword searches will buy something, because they are looking for specific things. It is worth researching different keywords and noting the ones that are likely to be used by your intended audience. This will improve the search engine rankings for your website content, if you insert those keywords into your blog posts naturally for optimum SEO impact.
If you are attempting to rank for particular keywords, like ‘why are blogs good for seo’, it is best to craft a blog post around that subject. This should attract people who are looking for that information. Then, you can convert them into customers by providing relevant offers — like freelance writing services.
Benefit From Updated Content
Another way that a blog can improve your SEO efforts is with fresh content. Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines reward websites that publish regular updates. This means that if you keep posting new content on your blog, the search engines will keep coming back to it.
In addition, new content tells the search engines that your blog matters and is not defunct. Google aims to offer internet users the latest, most relevant search results for their queries. Therefore, if your website only features pages that have not been updated for years, it will not rank highly for its intended search phrases.
iPullRank reports that updated content is a key ranking variable for certain kinds of content https://ipullrank.com/how-fresh-content-influences-google-rankings. To gauge how up to date your content is, Google uses a function called QDF, or ‘Query Deserves Freshness’. This allows Google to decide whether your blog content is suitable for particular search terms.
A case in point is when high profile politicians hit the news headlines. Usually, during such periods, old blog posts about them do not appear on the first page of Google, unless they have been updated. This is because Google wants to display the most up to date results for users, and older blog posts fail to do so.
Essentially, blogging is a vital element of SEO, because it allows you to post fresh and new content on your website continuously. As we have seen, posting lots of updated content gives the search engines more pages to index. This creates more channels through which visitors can find your website.
Enhance Your Internal Linking
Blog post links that point to your other blog posts establish your website architecture and highlight related content. This type of internal linking distributes SEO ranking power throughout the pages of your website. In addition, internal links reduce the bounce rate of your pages and give users a better experience. It can boost the number of views your pages receive as well.
It is common knowledge among SEO experts that good strategies for internal linking can make targeted keywords rank higher in the search engines. One such expert, Kyle Roof, tested this theory and discovered that two to three internal links had the same ranking power as a single equivalent external link. Search Engine Land makes the following points too, which are worth bearing in mind:
-The power of internal linking is evident when this inadvertently causes low value web pages, with numerous links, to rank highly in the search results. Examples include the ‘Contact Us’ and ‘About Us’ pages of a website.
-The amount of value Google assigns to a page correlates with the number of links it receives. In the same way that external links reflect the total value compared to third party websites, internal links tell Google how important a page is compared to your other website pages.
-Links from updated content transfer new value, so this can alert Google to fresh content and help this content to be crawled.
When you develop your content strategy initially, you will find it hard to use internal links. However, as time passes, it becomes easier to devise a strategy for internal linking. This will ensure that your blog is optimized for the search engines.
Use Images to Attract More Visitors
Many bloggers do not optimize the images they use for SEO, however this can improve the search engine ranking of your website significantly. Jumpshot reports that over sixty percent of users visit a website, after clicking an image when carrying out a search. And, Google Images account for over twenty percent of all internet searches.
Furthermore, according to Jeff Bullas, blog posts featuring images are read over ninety percent more often than text only blog posts. This information highlights how much easier SEO becomes when images are included in your articles. This will help your website to appear in more search listings and attract extra visitors to your offers.
Use Backlinks to Boost Website Authority
Google’s algorithm takes more than 200 factors into account, when ranking websites. Many people believe that the quantity of backlinks from quality sources, which point to your website, is one factor that carries a lot of weight. In 1996, Google introduced its PageRank algorithm feature, which used the type and number of links pointing to web pages as a measure of quality. As a result, blogging allows you to boost the authority of your website by creating more domain backlinks.
Moreover, when other similar websites link to you, extra visitors will discover your content that you would not have attracted otherwise. When people look at the articles on other websites and notice links to your content, they might click the links out of curiosity. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing can rank your blog posts higher, if they see that people are sharing them and checking them out. Therefore, updating your blog on a regular basis increases the chance this will happen.
Of course, be mindful that it takes time to acquire quality backlinks. This is one reason why SEO techniques do not provide immediate benefits. Google and other search engines have to crawl the backlinks, decide how valuable they are, then assign those ratings to your website.
Grow the Credibility of Your Brand
Finally, a blog can address your visitor’s concerns and provide helpful guidance on key industry issues. This increases the credibility of your business in the eyes of search engines and potential customers alike. When using a blog to establish authority in your chosen field, you will inevitably attract new and repeat website visitors. In doing this, you will prove to Google that people like your website. This increases the status of your brand in Google’s algorithm.
Moz reports that company brands do not affect rankings directly, but favorable brands are something that positively influence SEO in all niches. When people see familiar brand names in search results listings, the CTR (click through rate) tends to increase for those URLs. And, if many people are carrying out searches and visiting your website halfway down Google’s first page, instead of the websites at the top, it is only a matter of time before your website moves up the page.
Why are Blogs Good for SEO — Final Thoughts
Suffice to say, the initial impact of a blog will be greater numbers of website visitors, however a blog increases the effectiveness of your broader SEO efforts. By producing quality content regularly to be indexed in the search engines, you create more opportunities for people to find your website. Over the long run, there are few better ways to achieve this than with a blog.