Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a key strategy for businesses looking to increase traffic to their websites. However, among all the techniques to improve a website’s ranking in search results, one of the lesser-appreciated but equally important activities is blogging for SEO.
How and why is blogging essential for SEO? That’s precisely what we’re going to explore here.
How is blogging good for SEO?
Blogs on a website offer many benefits: they can be posted as social media content you can share and establish you as an authoritative leader in your field. But blogs can and should also be written as part of a specific, targeted search engine optimisation campaign.
Blog posts customised for SEO purposes and designed to incorporate particular keywords help link back to your main website pages and further boost your optimisation efforts.
Consistent and original fresh content added to the website helps signal to the algorithm behind search engines that your site remains current, relevant, and of quality to potential visitors.
The valuable content of your blogs, recognisably geared towards potential customers/clients in the ‘research phase’ of the sales funnel, will be more beneficial in answering particular questions or queries and can then be used to direct website visitors to the rest of your website, and converted into paying customers/clients.
What is an SEO-friendly blog post?
SEO-friendly blog posts target more specific keywords than your usual webpage. This is because an online article can include more content and, therefore, more potential to optimise for long-tail keywords.
Creating content around specific keywords will signal to the search engine algorithms and indicate to your target market that this blog is answering a question or helping solve a problem relevant to your products or services. Even for keywords with lower search volumes that you may not have focused on in creating content for your website, blogs can be used effectively to capitalise on the potential of these often higher-converting and targeted search terms.
Different ways blogging impacts SEO
Internal links
Blogs allow you to link to other relevant pages within your website to provide a comprehensive range of information to help your visitors and please Google.
A well-structured website and well-considered blog article will help create an effective sales funnel, allowing visitors at every stage of the funnel to navigate their way towards becoming paying customers.
It also helps search engines understand the hierarchy and, therefore, the importance of your website’s pages and content.
External backlinks
High-quality blog content can also attract backlinks from other websites in the same industry or related field. The more backlinks your content has from trusted websites, the more the algorithms will recognise its authority, relevance and accuracy.
Online visibility
As mentioned, blogs are not just good for creating social media buzz; they are also good methods to expand your digital reach and drive traffic to your website. The more social media engagement your content and your blogs generate, the more this will support your SEO efforts.
Measuring SEO friendly blog posts
A consistent blog production strategy can take time to make a visible impact on your website’s rankings. Of course, the more clicks you get on your respective blogs, the more they resonate with your target market. But that is not the only measure of an effective blog strategy.
Improved user engagement—such as comments and shares—and time spent on the blog page (i.e., did they read the whole thing?) are important metrics to consider.
Plus, you want the compelling nature of your blog posts to capture your users’ interest and attention and encourage them to spend time exploring the other pages of your website. So, user activity is another important SEO signal to keep your eye on.
Ultimately, you want to write content your ideal client will want to read first and foremost, then optimise for SEO second.
How do I write a blog for SEO?
Writing a blog for SEO is neither an art nor a science. While there are strong practices that you can follow, there is no recipe for guaranteed success. Here are some tips to help you get started.
1. Plan carefully
Spend some time considering your blog’s message and subject. Making the effort to think before you put ‘pen to paper’ will ensure higher-quality content.
2. Use structure
Devise a clear and logical structure for your post using paragraphs and headings. Bullet points are also a great method to highlight important information that readers can quickly scan to ensure the content is relevant to them. Not only does this make it more readable for your audience, but a clear structure is also favoured by search engines.
3. Transition words and keywords
Transition words help readers easily scan through your content and understand the logical flow of your structure and copy. This, combined with your use of keywords and relevant search terms, will make your blog’s relevance and appeal apparent.
4. Use SEO plugins
There are helpful SEO plugins and tools to guide your writing and ensure your content will be effective, relevant and appealing. Take full advantage of these!
How many blog posts do I need for SEO?
There is no set number of posts that should be committed to when you plan on blogging for SEO.
Consistency in posting, regularity in content publishing, and frequency in blogging are all important from an SEO perspective. Nevertheless, search engines (and readers) prioritise well-written, valuable and informative content. So sacrificing quality for quantity is not a good idea.
GO Creative – your partner in blogging for SEO
In conclusion, a greater quantity of higher-quality content can significantly impact your website ranking in search engine results. A targeted, consistent SEO blogging strategy can potentially create tangible value from providing readers with helpful content to complementing your sales funnel.
If you’d like to know more about how our team can help take the task of blogging for SEO off your hands so you can focus on running your business, book a meeting with our team today.
