Titles, metas, alts, keyword rankings — there’s a lot to learn when it comes to SEO, and most people don’t consider the power of blogging for optimization. However, a blog offers a prime opportunity to kill lots of proverbial SEO birds with one stone. Here are some of the top ways that blogging can help improve your status on search engines:
1. Improve keyword rankings with on-page optimization
This is definitely the most fundamental way to leverage blogging for SEO, since keywords are what people type in to search engines! You can create many more instances of keywords by weaving them into blogs, especially if you’re dedicated to keeping your blog updated. And, when it comes to long-tail keywords, which are more specific terms that people are searching for, a blog is the perfect space to sprinkle them into content organically. This is because long-tail keywords are usually four or more words, so it can be difficult to place them into shorter pieces of content throughout the site (like product descriptions). Learn more about keywords rankings via this blog we wrote on keyword research.
2. Keep site traffic engaged for longer amounts of time
Consider why this is important from the search engine’s perspective. Since a search engine’s sole existence is centered in providing helpful information, it wants to ensure that it the pages it ranks at the top of SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) are indeed helpful. One of the ways that search engines gauge this is by monitoring how users interact with pages, including looking at how long people spend browsing your content. With blogs, you can keep browsers engaged by providing helpful information and answering their questions with well-written content.
3. Include internal links for SEO optimization
Links are very important for SEO, and you can embed as many internal links as you’d like in your blogs. In fact, every time you place an internal link in a blog and build text up around what it means, it increases your authority, which is something that search engines really like. The more blogs you write, the more opportunities you have to link to them and keep visitors engaged for even longer!
4. Increase potential for backlinks
When you are regularly creating great content and establishing your brand authority, you create opportunities for other people to backlink to your site and give you credit for the information you’ve shared. This is another big perk in the eyes of search engines since they want to find the most credible sources to rank at the top of the SERPs.
5. Build a loyal audience
While this is more indirect than the aforementioned benefits of SEO blogging, it’s certainly a point worth considering. Say that your audience reads one of your blogs and shares it — this drives more traffic to your site, which is great for rankings (it also creates more potential for backlinks, as we mentioned above!). A loyal audience will also keep coming back to your blog, and repeat visitors are another ranking factor that search engines consider.
Now that you know all about the benefits of SEO blogging, are you ready to start writing? Check out this post, SEO Blogging 101, to learn how to start your own blog!