Hi there, its Praneeth here.
I have been blogging since couple of months now, in fact you reading this blog should also start a blog.
Recently, I have been thinking why blogs are important for SEO and business?
Why not start any other thing and why blogs are important, why just having a website does not work.
In this blog, I will dig deep into why blogs are important for SEO and business
You will learn why blogs are important for SEO and business.
Without further a do, lets get started.
Here is a 30,000 foot view of the blog.
Why blogs are important for SEO?
It all boils down to building trust.
Trust with whom and why?
You will learn everything about it in detail in this detailed guide.
Here is a quick overview of why blogs are important for seo/reasons:
- To build credibility from google to your website through blogs.
- A good source of traffic both huge and targeted to your website.
- Your website stays fresh and updated.
- Backlinks help you build relationships and get additional traffic to your website.
- Build an online brand and authority in the industry.
- Increase engagement on your website.
- Using keywords strategically you can tap into an unknown audience.
Lets dig deep and learn every factor in detail with facts and proofs.
Lets dive right in.
To build credibility from google to your website through blogs.
Google search results are not search resutls actually, they are contests.
Contests of/for what?
Clicks and dwell time.
Clicks are clicking a result on page and dwell time is time user spend’s on a page of that result
Why clicks and dwell time?
More clicks more dwell time, more engagement and more benefit.
Blogs participate in these contests.
If you write a few blogs on a specific keyword with low difficulty, meanwhile google fluctuates ranking of new sites, and as you constantly publish blogs, google ranks your site on the first page to see if your keyword is a good fit for search intent.
Even if you have less backlinks.
But your blogs get more clicks and good dwell time than other sites ranking above and below, you will get higher rankings boost.
Why higher rankings?
Google looks at the audience’s action of clicking more on your result in the results page and spending more time on that result as a perfect result for that keyword/query and starts trusting your content and your website as a whole.
Even with fewer backlinks.
It is all because of Google’s algorithm update called rank brain.
Rank brain is a google’s update in its algorithm which is affecting rankings and SEO of all the people dependent on google for traffic.
Rank brain is a machine learning algorithm which google used in its algorithm.
Without getting into details of rank brain, here are four important factors of rank brain.
- The organic click-through rate.
- Dwell time.
- Bounce rate.
- Pogo sticking.
Lets define each if you are unaware of these terms.
- The organic click-through rate is ratio of how many people actually see your result in google/ how many people click on your site.
- Dwell time is how much time a user is spending time on a website after clicking on search results.
- Bounce rate is the rate of people or users who are clicking the back button from the website they visited google.
- Pogo sticking is if the user is not satisfied with all website results on the results page and bouncing back from all sites.
If you manage getting more clicks and more dwell time, you will have rankings boost even if you have least amount of backlinks.
PROOF:
Here is a proof that its working.
The keyword is pros and cons of seo.
Have a look at referring domains and backlinks to that post according to MOZ.
If it was all about backlinks, the lower result with 58 backlinks should have ranked higher than the other one, but it isn’t.
Here is an another keyword on what is digital marketing and this is serp analysis of google USA in MOZ keyword tool.
Dont worry, there is another keyword.
This time, blogging mistakes is the keyword, google USA, SERP analysis in MOZ keyword tool.
Checkout refering domains of all these things.
For your kind information, referring domains is a metric used in MOZ, keyword tool, where they calculate how many unique domains are pointing to a specific web page, if 2 or more links are pointing to a specific page, then it is counted under a referring domain.
Here is a good illustration of how Rank brain works.
What’s the lesson?
Initially if you just have a website.
Google does not trust you, hence you will not have organic traffic to your website and online growth of your website.
But if you blog.
Blogs gives you a chance to build trust with google for your website.
That chance is crucial.
If you build that trust with google on your blog keeping in mind of getting more clicks and dwell time.
Google starts trusting your content and your website as whole because you are providing good content for users and audience are satisfied with it.
What after building trust?
You will learn the next thing.
A good source of traffic both huge and targeted to your website.
The fact is that,
- 63000 search queries are done every second on Google every second.
- 6 billion searches take place on bing every month.
It is huge.
Look at the searches on google per second to bing’s searches a month.
Now.
Blogs help you build trust with google for your website.
The rankings still differ and there are around 200 plus ranking factors that determine ranking of your site on google.
Some of the important ranking factors are,
- Backlinks in competitive queries.
- Page loading speed.
- Site quality content.
- User experience.
- Internal linking.
Here is a detailed guide on 200 ranking factors of google.
Why am i talking all these now instead of traffic.
Well, i am coming to that.
You write blogs on targeting keywords people search on google and if you do your seo properly with better ctr and dwell time on your site.
You can get around 33% of all the organic traffic to your blog if you rank in first position of google.
If you think it is bad, what just 30%?
Hold on.
No it is not bad, it is just tip of iceberg.
You will rank on several other similar terms if you embed similar keywords of the primary target keyword of your blog in your blog post and get a chunk of traffic to your website every single month.
The traffic is not ice cold one, rather it is people who are exactly looking for the answer for the keyword you are targetting.
You know it is of good quality traffic.
Quality in terms of targeted and highly specific.
The better quality traffic which depends on volume of keyword you have, more conversions and sales you can produce which depend on CPC value.
Your website stays fresh and updated.
Yes.
Blogging for seo helps your website always fresh and updated frequently.
Google loves fresh, new and updated content and websites as whole.
Among 200 ranking factors used google uses to rank pages on search results, freshness of page is one of the important factor.
Look.
Who likes to read blog on SEO best practices as a keyword which is published in 2015, if you are in 2020.
Old content/out dated content is one of the major reasons for down rankings because it increases bounce rate which opposes dwell time and hence rankings are lost.
Remember, Rank brain comes into action here and it will down rank you.
Blogging on your website helps your website as whole to stay updated with regular uploading and updating of posts and pages of website.
Backlinks help you build relationships and get additional traffic to your website.
Most of the time Backlinks play a huge role in website’s ranks in google, if you are a new blogger it is very important for your site.
Blogging helps you build backlinks.
These backlinks donot just help you with boost in rankings.
Here are list of things backlinks help you and your site.
- Redirecting traffic from other websites to yours.
- Building relationships with other bloggers in the industry.
- Building authority in your industry.
- Building trust from Google fast.
- Increasing chances of beating your competition.
To Google, Back links are votes to the content.
The more the votes are to a post, google thinks that, may be that result is great, why not rank it, if lot of people are linking to it.
Even though you are not actively building links to your website, if your page ranks on first page of google because of Rankbrain.
You can get backlinks from other websites because you are ranking in top positions of google.
Other than that, you can create backlinks from other popular platforms like
- Quora.
- Pinterest.
- Youtube.
- Linkedin.
- Medium
- Google sites.
The list goes on and on.
Creating Backlinks strategically will direct traffic from these websites which is in millions to your blog.
This reduces the dependence on seo and google for traffic.
Nonetheless, they cannot match the potential of organic traffic you would get straight from google.
Build an online brand and authority in the industry.
By optimizing blogs with search engines correctly you can build an online brand and authority in your industry with time.
Online brands like
- Optimonster.
- Neilpatel.
- Etsy.
These started as blogging but now are online brands and have great authority in their industries.
Blogs are important for seo and building an online brand is one of the best advantage of blogging.
You can get good amount of traffic every month which we talked about in getting traffic part.
When you gain trust from google to your website and gain credibility from google.
Your blogs and your website as a whole will start ranking and as you build some good amount of authority in the industry, you would have to spend less time building links and in most cases beat your competition faster.
As you publish quality content which adds incredible value to your audience and linking out to authorities in the industry not only gives them traffic but leaves you being trustable and authoritative in your industry.
Social proof which is a psychological factor of looking for what people are doing and talking is the reason behind it you being known as trustble.
- Learn more about Social proof.
Increase engagement on your website.
Blogs will increase engagement on your website.
There is no doubt about it.
If you have website with no content and no value, no body along with google gives a damn about your site.
If you have a blog, publishing blog posts of good length and quality.
There will be some sort of engagement on your blog for sure and it reduces bounce rate of your website.
There are many ways of building more and better user experience and engagement on your website which will directly influence your website’s rankings in google [remember dwell time].
- Better site navigation.
- Fast site loading speed.
- Publish long and quality content.
- Publish Infographics, quality images, and videos embedded in your blog posts.
- Content design, the structure should be top-notch.
- Internal link to relevant posts in the blog.
- Publish content above the fold.
These things really help you in having better user engagement on your site and ditch bounce rate of your website.
The more the user is engaging/staying on your site, the better it is for your site and Google.
Using keywords strategically you can tap into an unknown audience.
Look,
According to study, 15% of all searches on google have never been searched on google before.
Generally speaking, every keyword is an oppurtunity to interact with new type of audience and create a community.
Here is a video from backlinko on how to find keywords that no one is searching for and create awesome keywords .
If you perform keyword research properly and figure out things people commonly search for other than keywords you know like on forums and popular sites like
- Quora.
- Reddit.
- Udemy.
- Amazon.
- Youtube.
- Wikipedia.
- Facebook groups.
If you hangout these places and figure out what exactly people are searching for related to that specific topic, that helps you give awesome keywords of low competition and a possibility of very specific audience type which is not targeted and not under any one’s scanner.
The goal is to find phrases people are searching for other than google, most of the people rely on keyword tools to get ideas which almost all bloggers are targeting, you know it is competitive anyhow.
If you create a blog on keyword ideas that are not targeted by the majority bloggers, you can have up a hand and grab the opportunity to build an audience.
Not just that you can find keywords from google and filter them out through the competition and figure out keywords that best match with search intent and create an incredible piece of content than what is already existing out there.
This strategy will work definitely if people are showing their engagement on your site, because of Rankbrain.
There you go these are 7 best reasons why blogs are important for SEO.
Now its time to learn why blogs are important for business,
Without further ado, lets dive in.
Why blogs are important for business?
Here is a quick overview of why blogs are important for business.
- It increases the credibility of your business.
- You can take advantage of email marketing and advantage over your competitors.
- You can stay visible and give your company a voice to talk and connect with your audience.
- Expand your business with more leads, sales, in different locations.
- Marketing gets easier because traffic is always targeted.
With facts and content waiting for you to be read.
Lets dive right in,
It increases the credibility of your business.
Look.
There are facts.
- Around 70% of consumers on internet prefer knowing about companies through blogs than ads.
- Similarly, 60% of buyers buy products only after reading blogs or consuming content on internet about it.
If you have a blog, it gives you a professional look and vibe to your business.
It actually sends a signal to mind of your audience that
- Your business is professional.
- Your business is genuine.
- Your business is trustable, reliable.
Hence blogs are important part for credibility of your business.
It also gives you an advantage over your competitors, if they have just a social media page and you have a blog along with social media presence, the chances of you/your business being trusted increase.
You can take advantage of email marketing and win over your competitors.
Email marketing is the best form of marketing you can do in digital marketing.
Unlike social media marketing, email marketing is a killer.
Here are few facts about email marketing.
- The return to investment is huge, every dollar you spend on email marketing, you can expect a return of 42 dollars.
- 73% of marketers have said that email marketing is their important part of their strategy.
- 91% of people check their emails daily.
It is all because, email marketing is extremely targeted.
You are not advertising your product in middle of crowd.
You donot know anything about your audience, like
- Their taste.
- Their interests.
- Their needs and wants.
Through email marketing, you can market any product in front of the right people who are in need of it, which increases the odds of getting sales and success in general.
That is the reason, you have higher return to investment in email marketing compared to other forms of marketing strategies.
Another interesting thing is that, you need less investment to get proven results in email marketing.
You can collect emails of your audience, when they visit your blog, creating a free Ebook or a course or any PDF file which adds additional value in their life through your service and asking them if they want to get access to the product, just fill any form including their email address so that they can access it in their inbox straight.
This is how all email listing strategy works.
You can stay visible and give your business a voice to talk and connect with your audience.
Blogs help your business to stay visible.
When you get trust from google, google will rank your social media profiles as well related to you which leverages your visibility on internet.
Your business will have a voice and a medium to communicate with your audience through blogs.
Remember,
- Around 70% of consumers prefer knowing about companies through blogs than ads, because ads are biased.
Blogging helps business alot.
When you publish useful and helpful content on your blogs and when people visit your blog, if they like it, they would share it and that increases engagement and traffic on your blog and you know the better the user is engaging on a result the higher rankings get due to Rank brain algorithm.
Not just that, blogging is a way of communicating with your audience online, sharing your thoughts, perspectives, ideas, opinions, facts, online with your clients and audience.
Expand your business with more leads, sales in different locations.
Lets look at the facts first,
According to optimonster,
- Businesses with blogs get twice to get 97% of more traffic and links from other websites than a business that those don’t.
- B2B marketers which blog get 67% of more leads and sales that those who don’t.
- 53% of marketers have said blogging is their top content marketing priority.
- Marketers who have actually given blogging as a priority have seen getting 13x times more positive return of investment to their efforts.
- 57% of marketers have said that they have gained customers through blogging.
- Around 60% of consumers have bought products after reading blogs on the internet.
These 6 facts are more than enough to say that blogging actually helps get more leads and sales.
Even though if your business is performing well and getting a good amount of sales and leads, blogging will expand your business instead of confining it to one place.
Blogs are informational websites, websites that are placed on the internet and these blogs will rank on search engines like Google and Bing which billions of people around the world use.
- Around 92% of search engine market share is owned by Google, by stats counter.
- Over 1.7 billion people use Google every single day.
- An average internet user searches 3-4 times on Google every day.
Blogging will help your business expand alot to different countries, places and people through the search engines.
Marketing gets easy because traffic on blogs is already targeted.
This is pretty well known thing.
Here is the deal.
If you want to sell a subscription to any keyword research tool related to blogging, would you prefer advertising it on televisions or on social media or on blogs which talk about keyword tools in specific.
Ofcourse, you would choose blog taking about keyword tools already.
Because the traffic is targeted and highly specific.
Even if you do not do email marketing, the chances of getting a sale is huge.
That is what i mentioned earlier.
Every keyword is an Oppurtunity to create audience and community on your blog.
Here is an example:
If their is a keyword called, best keyword research tools for SEO, by the way it is pretty competitive keyword, don’t target that.
The intent of the keyword is to know what are the best keyword research tools for SEO, that is what it is.
In case if you target that keyword, write a blog on it, you can capitalize on that keyword because their is a commercial intent as well.
If the user is looking for best keyword research tools, the audience gets highly targeted to that blog and they might prefer buying any keywords to checkout.
This is the another big advantage of having blogs for business.
If you have a business on keyword research tools like Ahrefs do.
You can talk about your tool in the blog and persuade the reader to buy your keyword tool through your blog highlighting the pros of your keyword tool.
You don’t need to invest a lot of time and money in marketing and advertising your business products if you own a blog and have a target audience already there, interested in your product.
Ending remarks.
There you go, i have answered all the queries related to why blogs are important for seo and business.
Do let me know in the comments section, what do you think about the blog.
Read our other blogs
- Read, 31 blogging mistakes to avoid.
- Read, blog vs vlog, the debate is over the ultimate guide.
- Read, future of blogging.
- Read, 13 reasons to start a blog.
Share the blog with your family and friends if you found it even 1% helpful.
Sharing is caring.
I will catch you in the next time, till then, peace out.