Blogging can be a great way to connect with potential customers, develop an online voice for your business and start to establish yourself/your business as an authority in your industry. While you may be aware of all of this, what you may not realize is that blog development – when done right – can be just as powerful from an SEO perspective, potentially boosting your site’s rankings and promoting the overall success of your website.
Taking a closer look at this, in this blog series, we will reveal just how blogging can work towards optimizing websites. When you are ready to take the next step in optimizing your website – or when you want to build a properly optimized site for the first time, don’t hesitate to contact Epic Web Results. We are experienced at developing customized, optimized sites for our clients so that they can grow their businesses online.
How Blogging Can Enhance SEO
1 – Blogs continually add fresh content to sites.
Fresh, unique, well-written content is viewed very favorably by search engines, and blogging can be an easy to develop such new content on a regular basis. In fact, when new blogs are published to websites, they essentially create new pages on sites, and each of these pages can be indexed by major search engines – as long as, of course, the blogs are sufficiently long (i.e., at least 300 or so quality words).
This is very important considering the facts that:
- The other content pages on your website likely won’t change/be updated as frequently, so blogging can provide a solution for consistently adding fresh content to a site.
- Search engines tend to pull from sites with “fresher” (i.e., more up-to-date) content when generating results for users.
- Your business competitors who are regularly blogging likely have better site rankings than you do if you aren’t regularly blogging.
2 – Blogging can give you more “keyword coverage.”
Although the role of keywords in SEO has evolved significantly over recent years, a few of the things that remain unchanged are the facts that keywords still need to be used and that they are still relied on to generate query results for online users. So, by blogging on various topics related to your business’ industry/field, you can effectively:
- Expand the coverage of relevant keyword phrases on your website – So, if you have a criminal defense law firm, blogging can help you target more precise keyword phrases related to your practice, such as DUI lawyer, traffic offense lawyer, etc.
- Bolster coverage for variations of strong keyword phrases – Using the above example, such various can include DUI arrests, DUI stops, DUI defense, etc.
Here, it’s also important to point out that, with keywords/keyword phrases in blogs:
- Choosing the right word or phrase is crucial, as choices that are too general won’t likely generate great results (because there’s already a lot of content out there targeting general phrases) while too specific phrases may never actually be used/searched.
- Doing a little bit of keyword research upfront can help you select the right words or phrases to target.
- When using keyword phrases in blogs, do NOT overuse them; instead, try to use them in a natural way that provides meaningful information to users reading that blog.
3 – Blogs can be easy ways to share more dynamic content.
While the standing pages on your website may be more formal, blogging can create a space to share less formal, more dynamic content, including:
- Images, which can serve as powerful hooks for potential readers, as images can usually capture people’s eyes/attention faster than words. In fact, what’s becoming more popular these days are infographics that combine text and visual content to deliver as much useful info to readers as possible.
- Videos, which can also be an appealing option for potential blog readers, particularly if the video is instructional, offers some unique insight, etc.
By including images and/or videos in your blogging – and by adding appropriate alt-text to this dynamic content, you can create another way for search engines to find and favorably rank your content, as well as your website.
4 – Blogs can be easily connected to social media.
Google can generate results that may include social media posts; therefore, by connecting your blog to your social media accounts, you can provide Google with yet another way to find your blogs and list them in search results, further boosting the SEO for your site.
Additionally, when you connect your blogs to your social media accounts/activities, you can:
- Increase the potential distribution of your blogs, providing an easy way for other social media friends/followers to share or repost them – In fact, search engines take notice of content that is widely shared, and such content will typically be more favorably ranked the more it’s shared/viewed.
- Possibly drive more social media users back to your website.
More traffic to your blogs (whether that comes via your social media accounts or search engine queries), as well as wider distribution of these blogs, can both also be beneficial in terms of your site’s optimization and how search engines view/rank your site.
5 – Blogging can create opportunities for “guest” bloggers to add to your authority.
While it’s important for you to blog consistently (to keep a readership while promoting ongoing optimization efforts), you don’t have to be the only one writing blogs for your business’ site. In fact, it can actually be beneficial for you to have guest bloggers add content every now and again because this can:
- Bring a fresh voice/perspective to your content while potentially targeting new keywords or topics you haven’t previously tackled or addressed.
- Add to your authority from an SEO perspective.
Here, it’s important to note that:
- Who you choose as a guest blogger is important. Try to select colleagues who are industry leaders, are established, etc.
- Guest blogging can work both ways – While you can have guest bloggers, you can also be a guest blogger. Such cross-marketing efforts can be really powerful when executed properly.
6 – Blogging can create natural, powerful linking opportunities.
Although linking can be one of the more complicated aspects of SEO, blogging can open up a lot of natural linking opportunities between:
- The pages/content on your own website
- Your website and other credible sites.
With linking, blogging and SEO, however, you should be aware that:
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- Poorly developed linking strategies can backfire in terms of SEO, as it can lead to Google penalties.
- When working with links that have been purchased, having “no follow” designations can be essential to avoiding penalties.
- It’s generally advisable that links only be to/from quality sites that fit your blog’s topic/niche.
- When links to poor quality or off-topic sites are associated with your blog, it’s crucial to remove these to avoid sabotaging your optimization efforts.
The Bottom Line about Blogging for SEO
When it comes to blogging for SEO, the bottom line is that:
- Crafting well-written, unique, and informative blogs can be a huge boon to your SEO efforts.
- If your blogs aren’t optimized, aren’t using links properly and/or aren’t connected to your social media accounts, they could actually hurt your optimization efforts.
- Working with an experienced Internet marketing company – like Epic Web Results – can help you get your blogs and SEO efforts on the right track, helping your website and online marketing efforts be as successful and profitable as possible.
Effective Internet Marketing Solutions at Epic Web Results
Are you ready to optimize your website and make it as successful as possible? If so, it’s time to contact the trusted professionals at Epic Web Results. To learn more about our customized, innovative Internet marketing solutions, contact us today by calling (800) 501-9724 or by emailing us using the contact form on this page.
