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A single blog post can generate so much organic traffic that it can completely change the outlook of your company. Not only can this traffic result in massive sales down the line, but it can also improve your online reputation.
Unfortunately, creating such a masterpiece usually involves lots of trial and error. The company also needs to invest enormous money in content creation and outreach. Because of that, only a small fraction of all websites will hit this mark.
Regardless of all the pros and cons, creating blog posts is still an integral part of the search engine optimization process. The practice provides numerous direct and indirect benefits, also helping other marketing tactics you might be using.
In this article, we’ll talk about the importance of a viable blog strategy and how it helps you go viral. After that, we’ll share some of the best practices that will allow you to dominate search engines while providing visitors with the best possible experience.
How do search engines assess articles?
Search engines value quality information above everything else. Their main focus is on providing web users with answers to their burning questions, helping them find certain locations, and executing online purchases. In the end, if a search engine repeatedly fails to satisfy their needs, users will simply switch to another platform.
But things are much more complicated than that. For example, Google uses more than 200 factors to asses web pages and present them within its search results. That being said, here are things that, directly and indirectly, affect your ability to rank:
- Content quality (unique, detailed information presented in an easy-to-consume manner)
- User experience (how people react to your article and website as a whole)
- External signals (backlinks from other sites, likes and shares on social media)
- Internal relations (blog content being a part of a larger cluster)
- Other optimization factors
Basically, there are lots of things you need to take into account when writing a new blog post. Your content should be relevant to the target query and somewhat similar to other posts, yet have unique formatting and information that can’t be found anywhere else.
Nowadays, search engines pay extra attention to how the community reacts to your posts. Besides links, which were traditionally a crucial ranking factor, they will also consider user engagement during visits. The search engines assess time spent on a page, bounce rate, number of pages per session, and other metrics.
How do blog posts go viral?
In terms of SEO, articles and, first and foremost, vehicles that spread your message across. High-quality content helps users find your site while browsing Google and other search engines, getting them acquainted with your offer.
Depending on your target keywords and their potential organic search traffic, a single blog post can yield tens of thousands of visits. Even better, such blog posts are usually shared via social media and other channels, giving you even more exposure. They result in enormous numbers of clicks, shares, and backlinks, scaling small sites overnight.
Unfortunately, to get to that point, you need to overcome many obstacles. Not only should you have a great online marketing strategy that involves link building and outreach practices, but you also require fantastic content that will make you stand out. In other words, virality is often paid, not necessarily built from creativity.
9 Blogging Benefits for SEO
Without further ado, here’s how a good blog SEO strategy can affect your brand!
1. Increases traffic
Even if your posts never go viral, that doesn’t mean you should avoid articles. Every post published on your site has a chance of ranking on top of SERPs, potentially granting you thousands of highly targeted visits. Blogging helps SEO and sales by allowing you to drive traffic to landing pages.
It’s worth noting that only the best-ranking articles in organic search results will be read. Users rarely scroll beyond page one, meaning that the vast majority of posts never reach their full potential.
Nevertheless, if you’re confident enough that you have quality, relevant content on your hands, you might want to push your articles a bit further. Use sharing and various link-building tactics to reach more readers externally and hope that some of them can scale your posts.
2. Hastens crawling
Posting all the time shows search engines that your website is reputable and professional. In fact, this is one of the best ways it distinguishes top-tier publications and new sites from the other platforms.
Google will take note of your behavior and increase the crawling frequency of your site. In turn, this will ensure that every new page is quickly indexed in Google search, which is especially important for time-sensitive content like news. Faster indexing will also play a part each time you introduce new product pages.
While having faster indexed pages might not be as important for smaller websites with a minor audience, it’s still an additional benefit.
3. Improves reputation
Like search engines, visitors will notice if you post all the time. Even if most of your articles aren’t head-turning, they will still consider your platform as a reputable source of information. Blogs that barely have a few articles look unfinished, dissuading many potential customers from buying the company’s products and services.
Of course, the real value comes from how well you approach certain blog topics. If you’re an expert on the matter, visitors will quickly notice it. We suggest you always give professional opinions and give readers something they can’t find anywhere else.
In fact, with a little bit of outreach, you might also boost your reputation among your peers, which will provide numerous branding perks in the future.
4. Affects EEAT
Constant posting might also have an impact on EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). Google uses the concept to determine if the articles’ authors are good enough to cover the topic by tracking all their online activity and professional background.
It is one of the numerous factors the company uses and can only be boosted through publishing content and being featured on top-tier sites. Among other things, the search engine will track bio descriptions for consistency. So, having numerous posts signed by the same writer might have a positive impact on your rankings.
It’s even better if you use the same professional data on other platforms, most notably social media, so that the search engine algorithms can analyze your other activities.
5. Generates brand awareness
Many website owners think that, just because they have a platform, they also have an online presence. This can’t be further from the truth, as the majority of sites in the world are nothing more than glorified business cards. Only when people start reading your posts and sharing them online does your brand gain form.
Through proactive content marketing, you can start building relationships with other influencers in your field. Almost any content strategy involves some sort of outreach, which will eventually put your name on other sites and help the previously mentioned EEAT. In turn, you’ll get more real-world opportunities and invites for seminary, events, and other professional meetings.
6. Boosts sales
If we consider everything that was previously mentioned, it becomes obvious that blogs are fantastic for sales. By boosting your brand awareness and visibility, you’ll first generate more leads for your site. After that, an increased reputation will help you close these users and even turn them into repeat visitors.
The trickiest part here is sending users to other pages where you can convert them. Keep in mind that most blog readers are just there to learn more about a topic, not necessarily become your clients. However, as long as you have a solid internal linking strategy, you can maximize each website visit.
A good way to assess how a blog post affects your sales is via newsletter subscriptions and other conversions. With them, you can put users into your funnels and send them to your sales team.
7. Helps multiplatform marketing
When creating content, you also need to think about how these blog posts will transfer to other platforms. Most entrepreneurs love sharing their articles on social media, but you can also publish them on online forums and platforms that accept UGC (in a slightly altered form).
While focusing on several channels might be tricky, especially if you’re a young brand, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Nowadays, you have all sorts of tools that would allow you to edit and convert posts, thus making it more suitable for other platforms and just about any target audience.
Of course, the same tactic can work in reverse. You can use posts you’ve published on other sites and social media and rework them for your own site.
8. Teaches your audience
During keyword research, you’ll notice that the most lucrative keywords (those with high traffic potential and low difficulty) are usually the ones that revolve around general, informative topics. While these articles have low conversion rates, they can still help in a different way.
Most notably, informative posts can teach visitors about a specific product or service category. They can remove any doubts about product safety or viability, which could eventually turn them into paying customers. Even if they don’t make a purchase on their site, they will be more open to the idea of possessing such a product.
These articles can also educate users on how to properly utilize the product, thus increasing satisfaction and adoption rates. Alternatively, they can drive people to other pages on your site where they can acquire such information.
9. Shows you what users need
Each time you create content, you give users an opportunity to voice their opinions about your brand, product, or product category. They do so via blog comments, but they might also interact via social media when you share an article on one of these platforms.
User feedback is crucial for improving your offer and better serving your target audience. Even if some of the reviews were negative, you should accept them as an opportunity to improve yourself, which will enhance your brand in the long run.
How to get the most out of your blog section?
Incorporating a blog section into your website is much easier than you might think. The process can be somewhat streamlined and doesn’t require that much time for implementation. In this section, we’ll explain how to add a blog section to your site without messing anything up, and we’ll mention a few other solid practices.
Find an ideal CMS
CMS, or content management system, is the platform from which you’ll publish all your pages. The most popular one is WordPress, but you might also try out other solutions. Many of them come with website builders, making them a fantastic solution if you want to create a site by yourself. On the flip side, platforms like Shopify are ideal for online stores.
Add plugins
Staying on the topic of CMS, you need to introduce SEO tools and other plugins to your platform of choice. With these nifty apps, you can easily optimize every article before posting it, ensuring the highest visibility for your fresh content. Similarly, you can also use SEO analysis plugins that will give you a brief breakdown of recent performance.
Think of placement
The first thing you need to think about is placement. We often see blog sections hidden within disappearing menus, which is the last thing you want. Instead, make sure that everyone can see and easily access this category.
You also need to think about the URL. Ideally, your blog section should come as a subdirectory in the following format: www.domain.com/blog. That way, you won’t have to worry about messing anything up.
Create the landing page
Landing pages are vital for your website as they dictate how a person will feel while browsing the site. Intuitive design and beautiful patterns will set the tone for the entire visit, often improving conversions and time spent on the platform. As you can expect, a good landing page is every bit as important as the blog section.
When designing it, make sure that the last article is featured in a prominent spot. Close to it, you can showcase other prominent blog posts. You can also add different sections below that will break down different areas you’d like to cover. Adding a search bar is another major improvement, especially if you have lots of pieces.
Introduce pagination
Adding pagination is crucial for just about any blog, as you’ll add numerous pieces over the years. You can introduce and modify the feature by using all sorts of tools like WP-PageNavi or WP-Paginate (check if a plugin supports your CMS. Alternatively, you can change behavior through coding within CSS and PHP.
Use interlinking
Another great strategy is using interlinking for various pages. That way, anyone can easily reach the best content on the site and read about numerous exciting topics. The tactic is especially important if your content strategy hinges on several high-performing pieces.
It might not also be a bad idea to use links on some of the more important pages, like Contact or About Us. On the other hand, you shouldn’t link to blog sections from product pages and the homepage as you don’t want to draw attention from conversions.
Connect to social media
Besides previously mentioned CMS plugins and several other tools, you’ll also need a plugin that connects your blogs with audiences on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. You should also introduce apps that allow instant sharing of different pieces, a strategy that can play an important role in your posts going viral.
Create posting schedule
Adding a blog section will significantly increase the amount of work you need to do during a week. With all these new duties, things can easily get hectic, which is why you need to create a posting schedule. Most blog owners create a list of articles that need to be created in the following period and share it with their teams on platforms like Trello.
Keep in mind that the planning phase should be well-executed for maximum results. The entire process starts with keyword research, allowing you to target the most relevant phrases. Make sure to avoid the same keywords as well as phrases that are hard to rank.
When creating a schedule, it’s also good to provide optimization guidelines showing writers what they need to cover in the article. Nowadays, many companies use tools like SurferSEO, which generates a breakdown of the most relevant keywords that have to be added to a piece.
Conclusion
Many companies are reluctant to add a blog section because they’re worried about all the extra work. It doesn’t help that you’ll need another team of writers and SEO experts to help you out.
Nevertheless, the potential benefits of having a blog outweigh any drawbacks. With it, you can significantly increase your organic visibility, build awareness and reputation, and set the basis for all other marketing activities.