How EXACTLY Does Blogging Help with SEO? [6 Ways]

No clue as to how blogging helps with SEO? Oh my, you’re in for a treat!

As a 90s child who has known the pain of having to rewind VHS tapes and learned to get creative with abbreviations to fit everything into a single text, I’ve seen many things evolve when it comes to everyday technology and digital communication.

Still, one of the changes that intrigue me the most is how blogging went from being a cheesy MySpace hobby to a crafty marketing & SEO strategy that helps businesses reach and retain more customers.

I mean, seriously… that’s freakin’ impressive! 

Now that we’ve taken the time to appreciate how it has come, let’s step out of memory lane before we end up reembracing our old emo phase, and le't’s look at how blogging helps with SEO on your business website.

What is SEO in blogging?

SEO (search engine optimisation) goes hand in hand with blogging because you need too optimise your blog posts for the right keywords and use the best SEO practices if you want to rank higher than your competitors.

In fact, every single blog post should target a main long-tail keyword (consisting of three words or more).

That’s why ‘SEO blogging’ is another way of referring to the practice of blogging to help with SEO on your business website.

6 ways in which a blogging helps SEO on your business website

Here’s the best thing about SEO blogging: it doesn’t bring you just one SEO benefit, but it helps both your blog posts and your entire website rank higher in quite a few different ways.

1. SEO blogging provides fresh content 

If you were looking for a book on digital marketing, would you pick book A that was published in 2001 or book B, written a month ago?

Well, I’m gonna have to go all Dora-the-Explorer and assume that you’ve actually said book B.

In most cases, that’s the same for Google and search engines: if they see that a website hasn’t been updated in years, they’re going to think that it’s probably not relevant and favour the one that gets updated every month instead.

Blogging regularly is a great way to add organic content to your website, showing search engines that your website is fresh and up to date: perfect to be shown to its users.

2. It creates more indexed pages

Back to the book analogy: if someone told you that they want to learn all about cooking with avocados, would you recommend a tiny 20-page booklet or a larger volume with plenty of different sections that cover all aspects of cooking with avocados?

Google prefers websites with lots of content, too. Updating your blog regularly will automatically result in tons of new pages, because… every blog post is also a new page.

In fact, websites with blogs have a whopping average of 434% more indexed pages than websites without them!

3. You can target (and rank) for more long-tail keywords

Let’s say that your business consists of selling zero-waste items.

You’re probably already targeting different keywords across your main pages (‘reusable bottles’, ‘reusable coffee cups’, etc.), but those are mainly for prospects who’re ready to buy.

Most of your dream customers aren’t, and they actually discover new businesses via long-tail keywords. While they’re a bit more difficult to include on your main pages, they’re PERFECT for blog posts.

If you only rely on a few core pages while your main competitor blogs about relevant topics such as ‘How to reduce your plastic footprint in 10 easy steps’, guess which website is more likely to show up to new potential customers? Ouch.

Blogging about relevant topics in your industry and answering your audience’s questions is not only a fantastic way to showcase your expertise and build trust: it helps you rank for relevant long-tail keywords and attract a larger portion of your target market in the first place. 

That’s one of the juiciest ways in which blogging helps with SEO as well as lead generation!

4. Blog posts are perfect to add internal links...

Internal links are important because they help Google’s algorithm understand what your website is actually about, guiding its crawlers through its correct structure.

A blog is ideal to include these internal links naturally withinyour articles.

If you sell camping gear and you’re writing a blog post about ‘How to put up a tent even if you’ve never been camping before’, you’ll obviously want to include an internal link to your tents.

Or, if you talk about sustainability, link to your Ethos page where you mention the importance of an eco-friendly approach for your company. 

5. … and external in-bound links

If nine friends of yours recommended that new Chinese restaurant in town, you’re probably going to want to check it out, right?

Likewise, if Google sees that other websites are linking back to yours, it’s going to assume that it’s because you have top-notch content on there, and it’s going to make it rank it higher.

While it’s hard to get people to link back to your About page, it’s much more likely that someone who’s writing an article on the health benefits of coffee will want to link to your blog post on ‘How mushroom coffee can boost your concentration’.

In fact, companies with a blog on their website receive up to 97% more inbound links than those without it.

Let that sink in. 

6. It’s easy to share on social media

While social shares aren’t a direct ranking factor, they allow you to amplify some of the other ways in which blogging helps with SEO.

After all, the more people see and share your blog post on socials, the more visits your website can receive.

This will allow your brand to be discovered by people who don’t follow you on social media just yet and who haven’t even heard about you before.

And, needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway ‘cause I’m a rebel), it might eventually mean more backlinks, too.

So, how does blogging help SEO?

Blogging helps SEO by allowing you to target more keywords than you normally would through your main pages, as well as reinforcing other ranking factors such as fresh content, more backlinks, and a higher number of indexed pages.

Also, just for the record: the mind-blowing perks that we’ve covered are only related to how blogging helps with SEO specifically. If we want to talk about the benefits of blogging on your website in general, then we’ve only scratched the surface.

Need a hand with SEO blogging for your badass female-founded business?

If you’re ready to make the most of all the benefits of this marketing and SEO strategy but:

• the mere thought of having to come up with so much fresh content triggers your blank page syndrome

• you haven’t got time to do it consistently

• you don’t know how to optimise your blog posts for SEO in a way that actually helps you rank higher

  I can do all the hard work for you!

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