Running a blog for your business can require a significant amount of time and effort. Does a business blog help with SEO? Is it really worth the time and effort?
The short answer is YES! Check out these 2021 SEO statistics!
Blogging for your business forces you to regularly create new content. Search engines love fresh, new content! With every new article, is a new headline, new tags, new descriptions, etc. These are all settings you can leverage to spike your optimization.
Each article is another opportunity to inject your SEO keywords and rank higher. Essentially, to get found faster and more often. Who’s business doesn’t need that?
Let’s dig into some specifics of how and why a blog helps with your SEO.
Leveraging Links
External Links
Including links to other reputable sources gives your article a small part of their authority and adopts a portion of their credibility. This is true both for the reader and the search engine bots.
Help your reader make those connections and point them to supplemental or relevant resources. Look for companies or articles that include your target keywords. Or a blog who’s content is zeroed in on the same audience you’re trying to reach.
When you associate your piece with theirs, you’re telling the search engines “this is similar content”. This improves your ranking on the search engines! The recommended number of external links is no more than two.
Internal Links
Don’t send them away from your website too fast! If you have related content within your own site, point the reader in that direction too. The more content you have to offer, the longer a visitor is likely to stay.
This builds your credibility as “the expert” on your topic and shows the search engine bots that you are a viable source for this type of content.
Leverage Your Keywords With On-Page SEO
According to Hubspot, “today’s SEO best practices are all about relevancy and intent.”
vvWriting content that’s infused with proper keyword research is one of the most important ways a blog helps with your SEO. Keywords are the phrases, words, and questions that are being entered into the search engines. How people can find the information or results they’re looking for.
Content that is flush with the appropriate keywords based on the search topic will rank higher than an article that has them only in the title. Leveraging the keywords in a natural, organic way proves to the search bots that your content is legitimate and genuine.
Here are a few ways to infuse your keywords in your blog to help with SEO:
- SEO Keywords in your Title Tag
- Keywords in the section headers as well as the body of your content
- Use a few (1-2) long-tail keywords that match what your target reader is looking for
- Optimize the meta description for each article, take up as much space as organically possible
- Include keyword relevant alt text for every image
Craft Targeted Content: The Best Way A Blog Helps With Your SEO
Part of what makes your content findable is by knowing who you’re talking to. Narrowing the focus of your blog content to fit what your ideal audience is looking for will also spike your SEO rankings.
Develop three to five content topics that you will consistently write about. Whatever content appeals to your target audience. This will act as a guide when creating new content and make it much simpler to plan ahead.
Create an identity for your target audience – who they are, what they want, what they’re interested in, their fears, their desires. Everything you can compile about your audience should inform how you write for them. Speak to them in a way they will respond to.
Your audience should recognize themselves in the heart or intent of your content. Crafting genuine, targeted content brings your audience back for more. It creates loyal fans who return to your site, share your content with others, and do it all again with each new piece!
Now you have a repeatable cycle, leveraging your audience to spread the word for you. This only happens when you write genuine, targeted content that appeals to your ideal audience!
Guest Posts and Collaborations
Collaborating with guests and industry partners is one of the more exciting ways a blog can help with your SEO. Collaboration pieces often generate more buzz and site traffic as you’re now reaching their audience in addition to yours.
Leverage your networking skills (or develop some!) in order to make connections with your partners in the marketplace. Offer to write for them and allow them to write for you. This opens the door for nearly endless opportunities for cross promotion and marketing.
Social media promotions, podcasts, email newsletters, etc. are all ways you can promote this new and exciting collaboration! To get the best results from a guest post, choose your guest or host wisely! Stick to industry partners that appeal to the same or a similar target audience. It won’t do you any good to write for an audience that has no interest in your message or brand.
These are only a few of the ways leveraging your blog helps your SEO! If your business doesn’t have a blog, you may be leaving money on the table.
If you’re not sure you’re ready to DIY and still get the results you need, look into hiring the pros and make sure you can hit your website traffic goals!