There was once a time when blogging was a thing only for closet nerds, but it’s now all the rage and even businesses are starting to incorporate blogs into their websites as an important part of their online strategy. However, there are also businesses that haven’t made the leap yet because they’re not exactly sure where to start, or if blogging is even worth the effort. The truth is that blogging does help and it’s a huge boost for search engine optimization (SEO) and driving web traffic.
Blogging: An Integral Part of Online Strategy
Blogging has become a new star in marketing strategies, especially for local businesses looking to get ahead of the competition. While many businesses have tried to optimize their websites and get high rankings on a local level, vast majorities still aren’t blogging, meaning they aren’t moving up in the search engine rankings nearly as much as they would like. Adding a blog is like pulling out a secret weapon because it can add constant new SEO material with targeted keywords that keep the business relevant and highly ranked. Blogs do this in two key ways by first adding naturally occurring, keyword-rich pages and secondly, increasing the potential for incoming links from high-quality websites, according to Jim Lodico’s post on the Social Media Examiner.
How Blogging Fits in with SEO
SEO and blogging go together like peanut butter and jelly. The addition of new and fresh material, rich with keywords, keeps the website relevant in the ‘mind’ of a search engine. Furthermore, blogs are an excellent way to incorporate more images and video that are also optimized for SEO. Images are a major driving force behind Internet searches so adding more to a website can be a huge plus in traffic. Writing for Business2Community, Jennifer Barry says that blogs can also be linked to social media accounts and with the power of sharing this is enough to create 55 percent more traffic for businesses that decide to start blogging compared to those that don’t.
Tips for Starting a Blog
The benefits are obvious, but exactly where does one start blogging? When starting to blog, it’s important to be consistent so don’t go and write 20 articles and publish them all at once. Having a schedule and goal each month is a good way to go; start with at least 2 posts a month and build from there. Write about something the company is familiar with, it’s an expert in the business so put that out there for people to see. Keep the client in mind; the writing must be geared towards someone or something. Once it’s started, the blog will not maintain itself, so keep material coming or the process is useless.
What to Write
When composing a blog post it’s important to keep keywords in mind and consider what customers might be typing into the search engine to arrive at a business’s website, as Tyler Tanigawa of Point It Digital Marketing suggests. Start with key-rich word topics, as they will provide plenty of opportunity to add those keywords within the post. From there create a blog title post that has the keywords and use them consistently within the copy, making sure it’s in a natural way. Don’t just load the article, use search engine filters. Finally, make sure to share the posts via social media, as this is one of the best ways to get people to start reading.
