Better SEO: Why Blogging Is More Important Than Ever
At one time, search engine optimization was something that marketers let the webmasters handle. Not anymore. Get an expert’s advice on how to boost your search engine rankings using SEO and blogging.
At one time, search engine optimization was something that we marketers let the webmasters handle. All that link-building and keyword page development didn’t seem to impact the creative side.
But with the release of Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, frequent, fresh, high-quality content is now critical for increasing your website’s ranking in search engine results. The goal of these updates was to display more relevant and higher quality websites on the first page of search results. In its effort to reduce spam, Google has made the creation of new, engaging content on a regular schedule a critical SEO strategy.
Many commercial websites tend to be very static. There’s not much need to update product or contact information more than a couple of times a month. This paucity of new content is very bad for SEO, though. Search engines are looking for active websites on a particular topic. If you’re a landscaper, for example, a static listing of your services will penalize your website in the rankings.
This is why blogging is more important than ever. Not only does it add new, fresh content consistently to your website, which will improve your freshness score, but it also gives you something to talk about and share within your social communities. This, in turn, will generate more inbound links to your website, raising your credibility rating, another factor that boosts search engine rankings.
Thus, if the landscaper begins writing a series of blog posts about lawn tips or tree care once a week, there’s a good chance he’ll see his site climb in the rankings.
But freshness alone isn’t enough. The content you create should be focused, informative, and relevant to the topic searched. It needs to help people solve problems or answer questions. Content that provides expertise consistently on a single theme carries more weight than just specs on a product.
Marketing today isn’t about the advertisement, the product, or the service, it’s about the problem that the customer needs to solve. In their quest to provide highly relevant content to search queries, search engines know this and have recalculated the algorithm to favor this type of content.
If you aren’t blogging, it’s time to start. Here are a few tips for better blogging and SEO.
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Keep it focused: When you write about a specific topic and use relevant keywords, you increase your odds of being ranked higher.
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Keep it fresh: More content helps you become recognized by the search engines as an expert on this topic. It also gives you more opportunity to promote to your social networks. This, in turn, generates more and more genuine links to your website, boosting your credibility.
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Keep it relevant and useful: High-quality content rules today. The best blog copy will answer the questions that people have, and it will also be interesting. That’s why creative writers and producers are now so valuable. Content that helps solve a problem and is interesting leads to more engagement, particularly of people sharing your content.
Diane S. Thieke is the president and founder of Simply Talk Media, a digital media marketing consultancy. With more than 25 years in digital media and technology, she helps clients build stronger relationships with their customers and communities, using both social and traditional channels. Follow her on Twitter at @thiekeds or visit her blog at www.simplytalkmedia.com/blog.
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About the Author
Diane S. Thieke is the president and founder of Simply Talk Media, a digital media marketing consultancy. With more than 25 years in digital media and technology, she helps clients build stronger relationships with their customers and communities, using both social and traditional channels.