Yes, blogging is still critical to your website’s SEO
Yes, blogging is still critical to your website’s SEO
By Stephanie Oley
Does blogging boost your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO), even in this day and age? Especially given the rise of other approaches used to boost website traffic, such as video content, pay-per-click, or acing Google’s algorithms.
The short answer is yes. Good blogs can provide valuable answers to your customers’ big questions, and build authority in your area of expertise. Regular blogging also sends signals to the search engines that your website is ready to be re-indexed. This in turn creates a positive signal that the content is current, and is being updated on a regular basis.
Here at CCE, we offer courses in various aspects of digital marketing. However, according to digital marketing facilitator Clive Hawkins, even if your business is running aggressive paid lead-generation activities such as Google Ads, you’ll get even better results if your website has great content – which brings us back to blogs.
A recent industry report has estimated that websites with blogs attract 55 per cent more traffic than websites that don’t. And unlike some marketing tactics, blogging reaps dividends across all industries and sectors.
Whether you’re a creative (writing the content), a digital marketer (planning and optimising the content) or a business owner (doing everything), read on to understand how to optimise your on-page blog SEO.
Create the right architecture
Firstly, know that behind every great piece of search-optimised content is a well-structured website and SEO backend environment. You’ll also need to set up your Google Analytics dashboard and learn how to interpret its statistics correctly. By regularly checking your data, you’ll understand which content is best converting leads and where there is room for improvement.
Write quality pieces
It’s no secret that timely, well-written content wins the rankings race each time. This takes effort. The world’s most authoritative pieces (by the likes of Deloitte, LinkedIn and so on) can take months to produce, involving in-depth research and multiple writers. Even a good 700-word blog post will easily take a professional writer one full day to produce. Respect the legwork involved, and invest in that.
Make sure also to write about your business’ own observations, insights and explanations, not what others have written online. At the same time, keep an eye on what competitors write – especially those who rank well in the search results. What content are they missing? What have they covered only briefly? What might they have gotten wrong?
Avoid combining too many topics into one blog post. Apart from overwhelming readers, you’ll confuse the search engines as they will struggle to correctly index the page. You’re better off splitting one long piece into several short, related ones – each ranked for its own unique search term. If you’re a content writer, try a course in SEO Writing for the Web to learn more about these and other tactics.
Tread carefully with automated content-writing
There's plenty of buzz about ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI)-driven resources. We're finding that these tools generate good, up-to-date background information, definitions and other general information. But if you use their results verbatim, you'll sound exactly like your competitor. Not good for SEO.
If you're using AI, make sure to infuse a lot of personality and unique insights. Always remember that if there's AI for creating it, there'll soon be AI for detecting it.
Optimise the article
Content never sleeps. You may have a useful evergreen piece (web-speak for ‘introductory’), but it will date within a year or two. Or faster, depending on your sector. Sources you mentioned may change, new statistics may emerge, and industry terms could evolve. Periodically update any general content, to add fresh relevance and give the search engines some new content to index.
Regularly update internal hyperlinks, too, as your content library grows. Internal hyperlinks show search engines the broader picture of your content, and how audiences engage with it. When a page is connected to other well-ranking content, search engines will start to consider it as a possible result for other user searches.
Make ongoing improvements
Your Google Analytics dashboard will deliver further insights, such as the main times, locations and interest areas your site visitors clicked on.
These are more valuable than you might think. Users often access websites at very specific times to access certain information. Think of a bride-to-be planning her wedding on any busy weeknight, versus a vineyard manager seeking a business loan ahead of the January harvest. If you plan to make content available for that reader's next visit, you’ll increase your chances of converting a lead.
Knowing your audience’s location is also valuable. If you notice an increase in visitors accessing from regions outside of yours, you might start including that region’s name in future content – further boosting your SEO performance.
Never sit still
Some business owners get frustrated at the ceaseless changes in search-engine land, bemoaning their site’s reduced traffic any time the search algorithms change.
But the reality is that online user behaviour itself evolves constantly. Search engines simply reward the content that delivers the most up-to-date, relevant user experience. Stay on top of the trends, and you’ll notice the uptick in traffic to your website.