Top 5 Reasons Blogs Are Great For SEO: Everything You Should Know
Top 5 Reasons Blogs Are Great For SEO: Everything You Should Know
Over 25 years ago, Bill Gates uttered the phrase “content is king” and he was not wrong! Content is king when it comes to your blogs. Blogging helps boost your SEO (search engine optimization) quality and your website’s position on search engine results. However, just having a blog isn’t enough. According to HubSpot, 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engines. This is proof that you need to have a blog that is regularly updated, contains high quality topics and content, and appeals to your audience. When you do blogs and you do them right, they are great for SEO rankings. Here are the top 5 reasons why – and everything you should know.
1. Increases Organic Search
If you want to get consistent traffic to your blog and to your website, you need to make sure the content you’re writing is ranking on search engine results. According to BrightEdge, 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. That’s why it’s so important to rank on the top page of Google search results if you want to be seen by your audience. Each time you write a new blog on your website, you are creating a new URL for your website, which is a new opportunity for your website to rank. But you want to make it count. There are many ways you can use your blog to increase organic traffic, including:
- Knowing your target audience
- Identifying the right keywords
- Creating high-quality, fresh content
- Publishing regularly
- Boosting your content’s credibility with links
2. Builds Credibility and Trust
If you’re continuously writing well-thought-out and engaging blogs, you will be deemed credible over time. However, in order to be trusted by your audience, your content must always be reliable, credible, and useful. When you publish content that people can relate to and that people enjoy, they’re more likely to share it, drive more traffic to it, and come back to your website for more. This is how you can really improve your SEO. When you get a ton of repeat visitors, and lots of traffic, that shows Google that people like your website – and that you’re credible and trustworthy. Writing blogs is one really good way to make connections with your audience, too. While SEO is important, relationships are also important – and luckily, blogs help with both!
3. Opportunities For Backlinking
A quality blog gives other websites more reasons to link back to your website. In a way, backlinks represent a “vote of confidence” from one website to another. The more backlinks you have, the higher your website will rank on the results pages. It’s basically telling the search engine that others vouch for your content. However, you want to make sure to aim for high quality links vs. low quality. The low quality backlinks may not be as effective in boosting your rankings.
When done right, backlinking has many benefits for both your blogs and your SEO, including:
- Improves your organic ranking
- Raises brand awareness
- Boosts referral visits
- Increases web traffic
- Build trust and authority
4. Helps You Target Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are keywords, or phrases, that are specific and much longer than your normal keywords. While long-tail keywords get significantly less traffic usually, they have a higher conversion value since they are more specific. Blogs can help you target those long-tail keywords. Businesses often start out aiming for relevant keywords. For example, if you sell HVAC equipment, you likely want to show up on page one for a term like “furnace repair” or “air conditioners.” However, SEO is extremely competitive, making this tough unless you are a big, well-known corporation. When you write blogs, you can use them to your advantage and touch on specific things people might be searching for. For example, you can write a blog that touches on all the “signs you need a furnace repair” or things like “how to choose the right HVAC contractor.” While searches like this might not attract as much traffic as keywords like “furnace repair” or “air conditioners,” it does reach those in your target audience that are more likely to convert.
5. Keeps Your Site Fresh and Current
Have you ever stumbled upon a website that looks like something straight out of the 90’s? Like it hasn’t been updated in a few decades? A website that doesn’t look fresh and updated is likely to lose a lot of visitors. It just doesn’t appear as trustworthy or as credible as some of the newer ones. However, that’s a different story for a different day! When you’re actively posting new, updated blog articles, you’re keeping your website looking fresh and current. One big mistake people make is they write a blog, and never touch it again. You should continuously be updating older blogs, and uploading new ones to your website. Not to mention, Google absolutely loves frequent updates. If you’re frequently updating and adding blogs that grabs the attention of your viewers, you will also grab the attention of Google. This isn’t suggesting you should be posting every hour of every day, or unnecessarily updating blog articles. However, a site that is updated a few times each week is considered a frequently updated website.