Blogging has been around since the mid-90s. It originally started as a “weblog”, a way to catalog what one views on the internet. Today it has exploded to include opinions, essays, reports… any information that could possibly be of use to someone else. And every blog gets read by someone. So why are blogs so important for SEO?
New content.
Search engines love fresh content, especially if it’s keyword rich. Google’s web crawlers are also able to ascertain readability: if a piece is too polysyllabic and has too many words in a sentence, it could be penalized. Not sure how your content could rank? Check out this free tool for the Flesch Reading Ease Test. A good score to aim for 50-65.
Links and sharing.
When a company blogs, they put content out there that they think their target audience will be interested in. It is assumed that if the target audience is interested in the post, they’ll share it. This could be an independent blogger linking to your post, or a link that you put to your own site on a guest blog post somewhere else.
Trust building.
Companies who blog regularly receive 55% more traffic than those who do not. Why is this? Because your customers come to expect quality, relevant content from your blog. With this expectation, they go back again and again, expecting more. The more views your content gets, the better the chance of conversion.
Blogging is a way to keep fresh content on your site without having to do a complete site update. When used in conjunction with your social media accounts, blogging can be a very effective vehicle for driving traffic to your site.