Every company, big or small, nowadays has a blog, but do blogs help SEO? Some companies have extensively redeemed the content of their blog to gain SEO benefits, which can be an important component in growing business success.
Whether you’ve already got a business blog or you’re debating starting one, you’ve probably asked yourself if you’re making the right decision.
How Often Should You Blog?
Experts agree that posting more often is a good decision when it comes to getting the most out of your business blog. Your goal should be to create a resource that provides regular updates to your customers so they have a reason to return. However, as with any resource, it is important to be mindful of the quality and variety of your content. The best way to build an attractive blog is to provide a variety of original, exciting content. Don’t fall into the blogging trap about unimportant or irrelevant topics just to fill a space in the marketing calendar.
Blogging less frequently will give you a slower readership rate, but it may be suitable for your company. Consider how much energy and time you want to give to your blog. A few blogs a month may be a better option for you than blogging every month, even though the latter is likely to increase your readership at a much faster pace. Specifically, studies show that the impact of blog posts most successfully increases when you post four or more blogs per month, a rapid increase in website traffic, and more often after that, you post. Whatever you decide, remember to prioritize quality content, consistent posting, and your blog should be successful.
How Does Blogging Help Your SEO Ranking?
Search engine optimization is all about showing search engines that your site is the best answer to the questions asked by your customers. But how does a blog help?
Frequent updates: If you are managing your blog correctly, then it should be a part of your website, which most often gets new content. It works more than getting back to your customers – although their iterative journeys are an essential component to strengthen your SEO. It also alerts the search engines to the fact that your website is a concern. Google analysis suggests that frequent updates directly correspond to higher rankings.
As mentioned earlier, a wider readership and frequent visits to your blog increase your overall SEO. Because search engines analyze things like how often a post is shared as part of an algorithm to determine your SEO. It is precious for you to speak in front of an audience.
Keyword Usage: While blogs are often built around a keyword or phrase, good blogs incorporate these terms in a way that sounds like natural speech. This is a good strategy because it phrases people along with their Internet searches. If your blog includes a phrase that matches a search term that someone uses, this is a significant boost to your SEO.
Why is blogging helpful in SEO?
Regular blogging keeps your site running: Often, if we visit a site and find that it has not been updated in some time, we move on. A site that is not running until today lacks authority because any information presented may no longer be accurate. Blogging also gives the impression that the owner is not interested in maintaining it and may even surprise visitors if they have gone out of business. By blogging regularly, you keep your site running, showing your audience that you are active and engaged in providing quality, relevant information to them.
Visitors will stay longer: Google is always looking for ways to improve the user experience. If a user searches for some query, visits your site, and then visits the search engine result page (SERP) almost immediately, Google will find out and assume that your page is not as relevant as they thought. If someone is visiting your site just because their search suggested your blog post, they are likely to spend time reading if they came to a page with any text or information.
Internal link: SEO often concerns itself with links, and what is an easier way to get links than to create your own internal links? Chances are, you can already find ways to link internally, but through blogging, those opportunities will begin to increase as you will find yourself able to link to related topics. As you do this, you can use your anchor text to inform Google what the linked page is about, creating a solid connection to your target keyword.
You can target more keywords: It allows you to target more keywords, including ones that will not look natural on your landing pages. You may already have several customized landing pages, but blogging will allow you to continually add new search terms and long-tailed keywords that are more targeted, easier to rank for, and which will draw in new users.
Opportunities for natural link-building: Maintaining a blog full of high-quality content allows you to increase your site’s authority. Other bloggers may see your content and links, something unlikely to happen to your product or service pages. Statistically, companies that blog will receive 97% more links on their website.
Brand Mention: This is an often-overlooked off-page SEO technique. Blogging can help you put your brand in front of a larger audience, which, in turn, can lead to social media engagement, as well as mentioning your brand in places you could not reach without blogging.
Here are five essential steps that can help your company get the benefits of SEO blogging:
Create a catchy title tag for your blog.
Don’t just name your website’s blog “blog.” There are 1000s of blogs, and the first step you can take in creating your blog section out of the rest is through unique branding. Naming your blog is a customization opportunity, so when you name your blog, ask yourself a few questions:
- What is your blog’s overreaching theme?
- What would be a catchy description in your industry?
- Can you include important SEO keywords in the blog title/name?
- Specifically, who are you trying to reach?
Reach your target audience with every targeted blog post.
The ideal way to increase the popularity of your blog is to keep your target audience in mind when creating every blog post. It’s especially true if you practice an account-based marketing approach to consumer targeting. Creating content to be relevant and reward a segment of your target audience will increase your authority in the industry. Each post should have some target keywords that relate to the specific needs of your customers.
Creating content that is new and specific to your target audience will keep them coming to your site again and again.
Another essential aspect to keep in mind when targeting keywords on specific blog posts is to focus on a maximum of 1-2 keywords/phrases. Throwing too many keywords/phrases in your post can affect your SEO, as search engines see it as keyword stuffing, by honoring your blog posts’ reader count and integrity to the required keywords and using them in a natural way.
Implement a smart URL structure.
Although URL structure may not directly affect ranking, an efficient structure can improve CTR and make your links in SERPs more attractive.
When creating URLs for your individual blog posts, marketers often resort to including every word in the blog post title, making the URL too long and difficult to read. The key point here is to create a blog URL which is both descriptive of what is on the page and concise.
Another consideration for URL structure is – Reporting efficiency. Often companies do not include “/ blog /” in their URL structure. This can make it challenging to track page progress within Google Analytics. By including “/ blog /” in your URL, you improve the ease of reporting for your site.
Continue optimizing your blog posts.
One of the best ways to continue generating steady traffic to your blog is by optimizing your existing blog posts regularly. Reviewing your recent blog posts and identifying on-page optimization for SEO will be the key to your success. Here are some SEO tips to optimize your blog pages:
- Add an internal linking structure to other pages within your site.
- Add customized images or start customizing existing images.
- Link one blog post to another related blog post, such as this post on SEO Blogger Writing.
- Review all your blog title tags and meta descriptions. Make sure everyone includes the target keywords and Google’s title tags/meta descriptions come in length.
- Optimizing your site’s existing blog posts will save your company time and resources.
Identify where your blog is lacking.
Take a closer look with your team or meet your team to identify high-priority keywords/phrases for which you want to rank your site. Does your website/blog lack content to rank for industry-driven keywords? If yes, Zytal can help. Considering the SEO tips given here when creating new content will boost the organic growth of your site! If you want more information about how zytal can help your blog posts to boost organic traffic, call us to grab a FREE consultation call from our SEO industry experts.