You know Google, or any other search engine, is there for just about any question or need you could have. Most people look to Google first when looking for almost anything. When you have a website for yourself or your business, you want people to be able to find it, so you need it to show up on search engines. Ranking high on search engines can be challenging, but starting a blog is one of the best things you can do to achieve that top spot. This blog will discuss how blogging helps SEO and how you can incorporate one into your website.
Does Blogging Really Help SEO?
Yes, simply put, it does. But just having a blog isn’t in and of itself a ranking factor. Blogging is good for SEO because it helps with various things that are important ranking factors. When you have a blog that you regularly update with high-quality posts about topics relevant to your audience, it can positively impact how your overall website performs in the search engines. There are six main reasons why:
1. Blogging Keeps Your Website Current
Most people won’t trust the information on a website that hasn’t been updated in years. If a site is outdated, it could mean that the company could have gone out of business, or the website could be providing information that has changed or is no longer relevant since its last update. Google doesn’t want to provide its searchers with outdated information. Websites that are regularly updated tell Google that the website is alive and offering fresh content. The fresh content also gives the search engine algorithms more reason to index your website, keeping it on their radar over time. A blog is a practical page on your website to add new content regularly.
2. Blogs Can Improve Time Spent on a Page
Google’s number one priority is providing people with the information they’re looking for, so they’ll come back to use Google again and again. When someone clicks on the first link that pops up after a search, then immediately leaves to go back to the search page because it was unhelpful, Google knows that the first result wasn’t as helpful as they originally thought. When someone clicks on a result and then stays for a while, that tells Google that the website is very helpful. Dwell time is something Google pays attention to and finds valuable.
Someone who comes to your website from a blog post they found in the search results has more reason to stick around for a while and read the whole thing rather than someone who lands on your page with less text or information. And it has been documented that longer blog posts tend to perform better than shorter ones – the average first-page result on Google is nearly 2,000 words long.
3. Blogging Helps Target SEO Optimized Long-Tail Keywords
SEO is really competitive. The best bet for most brands is to look for longer, more specific keywords that are being searched and are relevant to their business and rank for those. These are called long-tail keywords, and they are important for any SEO strategy because people tend to search for terms that are four words or longer. A blog is a great place to incorporate these longer words. When a person searches for a very specific keyword, and your blog includes it, you have a higher chance of being seen by that searcher and bringing traffic to your site. Broader terms tend to generate many results where your website can get lost or hidden by others.
4. A Blog Creates Opportunities for Internal Linking
So much of SEO is about linking, and internal links are the easiest ones to implement because you create them for yourself. Including internal links that point users from one page on the site to another is one of the simplest SEO moves you can make. Once you start publishing blog posts, there are ample internal linking opportunities. And then, when you create more pages on various but related topics, you add more opportunities to link those pages to each other naturally. The linking then tells Google what the page you are linking to is about, which strengthens its connection to your target keywords and shares it with the algorithm.
5. A Quality Blog Gives Other Sites the Opportunity to Link to You
One of the hardest parts of SEO is earning external links. Other sites have to link back to your site so Google can see your website as trustworthy and authoritative. When you write a blog, you fill your website with pages of valuable information. There’s a higher chance that your website can provide information worth linking to if you have a bunch of great blog posts. Those other websites that decide your blog is valuable to their readers can point them to you and your site. It makes sense that more websites will link to a really helpful blog post you wrote about how to find the best Father’s Day gift for a dad who likes everything than to your homepage.
6. A Blog Helps You Connect with Your Audience.
You always want people in your target audience to visit your website, connect with it, and become returning visitors. When your audience reads a post they love, they’re more likely to share it, drive more traffic to it, sign up to receive emails, and return to your website again to see more of your content. Lots of traffic and repeat visitors to your site tells Google that people like your website and raises your authority level in their algorithm. That’s great from an SEO perspective and important to the success of your website. A blog is a good way to make those connections and start a continued relationship with the people you want to reach.
When developing a website for your business, remember how blogging can help SEO and consider adding one to your site. A blog is a great way to drive traffic to your site and get you ranking higher on Google and other search engines. At Fotex Labs, we work with you to create content for blog posts that will help increase your ranking on search engines and get you seen by current and potential clients. For more information, call (858) 228-7697 or visit our website.
