One of the most common questions I get from people is, “Will a blog help my SEO?”
The answer is Yes and No.
Around 10 years ago, agencies were slinging blog services as a way to help improve SEO rankings. I know, because I was working for the largest content agency in the country at the time. While I was there, I was writing 75-100 blogs per week. Guess how many of those posts were SEO gold…
How to Improve SEO Rankings with Blog Content
If you really want to use blogs to as part of your search engine optimization strategy, you must dial in on why you actually want to do it first.
Your number one focus for using a blog as an SEO strategy should be to add value (<< click that link to read more on Value and content) to your prospect or current customer.
Consistency is also key to a winning blog strategy. There are a couple of reasons why keeping a consistent blog schedule can help out with your SEO.
- You’re constantly producing fresh ideas on a topic related to your business.
- You’re building an archive of valuable content related to your business.
Think of consistency in blog writing as the consistency you need to grow your 401k or IRA. Keep contributing, and compound growth helps you accumulate wealth. Most people quit before they see the actual fruits of their labor though.
How to Get Started with This Blog Strategy
Once you have committed to adding value, here’s what I would suggest you do to get started:
- Start writing (and publishing)
- Thin content rarely adds value. Make sure there’s some substance to what you’re publishing.
- Format your content so that it’s easy to read.
- Link to other pages on your site that might be helpful or related to the topic you’re writing about.
- External links (other sites) can be helpful to use as citations of thoughts or ideas that back up what you’re writing about.
- Make sure your site is FAST.
- Stay consistent with your content production.
- Share your content in email and social media (you worked hard, now make sure people see it).
These are just a few of the basics. There are of course other ways to optimize your content to help improve rankings. However, I see more people that decide to do this on their own cause more damage to their web presence when they sweat about that stuff. Either hire someone to help, or don’t learn enough about it to be dangerous.
