The SEO Blog: Every Company’s Secret Marketing Tool
Every day, over a billion people use Google to find solutions to their problems. A good many of them might even be potential customers. Making sure that you are the first result they find is more important than ever.
That’s where an SEO blog can make all the difference.
What is an SEO Blog?
An SEO blog is simply a blog that’s intended to boost your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) — easy, right?
Compare it to podcasting. Ten years ago, when you listened to your first podcast, chances are it sounded no different than a few people sitting around a table talking about any number of things — sports, movies, travel, politics, etc.
Today, though, podcasts are optimized. They contain targeted ads and tailored content. They have Patreons and full-time producers. They make money.
And an SEO blog is similar. It is still content (ideally, good content), but it’s optimized to help bring more eyes towards your business, increase leads, and grow sales.
Why is an SEO Blog so Important?
Gone are the days when you could stuff your copy with keywords and force yourself onto the first page of search engine result pages (SERPs). Like any business, Google wants to provide quality service to its customers, and that means that when the customer clicks on a search result, they need to find it helpful.
There are many factors that go into proving your content is worthy of ranking highly on a search engine: keywords, page speed, backlinks, user experience, site history, content quality, and more.
If you can hit all the right notes, an SEO blog can become one of your company’s most-trusted resources.
Here’s why:
1. Increases Organic Traffic
According to one study, having a blog increases your chances of ranking higher in search results by 434%.
That’s a lot.
And it’s not difficult to understand why. A blog allows you to get your voice out there in more ways than one. By targeting keywords, questions, and topics that your customer base is already searching for, you can place yourself directly in front of them — again and again and again.
The more keywords you’re ranking highly with, the more opportunities you have to drive organic traffic to your site.
2. Builds Brand Authority
Maintaining a successful business comes down to trust. Your customers want to know that you care, that you are knowledgeable, and that you are the best. A blog allows you to prove that to them.
The long-term goal of an SEO blog is to get your brand trending at the top of as many searches in your industry’s niche as possible. By becoming an expert in the field, your brand will come first to mind every time your customers have a problem they need to solve.
3. Finds Cost-Effective Leads
Content marketing has become an increasingly important part of generating leads. In fact, according to a study done by HubSpot, 60% of marketers now find that inbound practices like blogging and SEO provide the highest quality of leads.
Another poll done by Search Engine Journal found that 49% of marketers believe that organic search provides the highest ROI for their website.
And what’s important to remember is that it builds on itself. The post you publish today can continue to bring in traffic for years to come. And every time someone new comes to your site, there is an opportunity to hook them with a lead magnet, grab their email, and make them a part of your community.
4. Improves Your Overall SEO
While an SEO blog post can help you rank higher for specific keywords, the traffic from those impressions will help your site rank higher overall.
The more people who are coming to your site, the more the search engine algorithms will trust that you’re providing quality content. And the more pages you have indexed, the more authority your site will hold.
All this will eventually help your site earn backlinks (links back to your site from other sites), which might just be the most important factor to search engine rankings.
5. Stand Out in Your Community
Local searches are crucial for most small businesses. According to Google, 76% of people who search for something nearby on their phone end up visiting a business within a day, and 28% eventually make a purchase.
When you need to not only drive traffic to your website but to your store, it’s more important than ever that your potential customers find you quickly. And it takes more than simply having a website. SEO blog posts targeted around local keywords can go a long way towards making sure you are the first business your customer finds.
Keys to an SEO Blog
Now that you understand why an SEO blog is important, let’s discus a few quick pointers on how to write one effectively.
1. Quality Content
No matter how much “optimizing” you do, the truth of the matter is that no one is going to want to read your blog if it isn’t good. And if no one wants to read your blog, search engines won’t have any interest in sharing them.
2. Keyword Research
Not all keywords are created the same. Simple, short-tailed keywords may have a lot of searches, but competition is fierce. Instead, target long-tail keywords that actually make up most Google searches.
3. Linking
Link building is an important part of any SEO strategy. Earning backlinks from other websites can be a big boost to your ranking, but so can linking within your site. The more a visitor is incentivized to explore the different pages of your blog, the longer they’ll remain on your website.
4. Regular Updates
Don’t be afraid to do a few touch ups. According to OptinMonster, 34% of bloggers have found that updating their content has yielded strong results.
5. Headings, Keywords, Meta Data
The technical aspects of SEO are important too. Structure your pages with heading tags (H1s, H2s, H3s) and include keywords within them. Not only will this organize your page, but it will help Google’s algorithm understand your content. Meta descriptions, alt tags, and proper URLs are a must as well.
Want Some Help with Your Blog?
If you’re interested in taking the leap and hiring a copywriter to grow your business, I’d love to talk! Reach out for a free consultation today. And if you have a website already, I’ll be happy to do a preliminary site audit to help facilitate our conversation.
Talk soon!
