Why and How You Should be Blogging
Samantha Robinson • April 23, 2018
In recent years, Google and other search engines have continued to put a greater emphasis on blogging and the role it plays in search engine optimization (SEO). At Reader Digital Agency, we often tell our clients that above all else, “Content is king.” But you don’t have to be Hemingway to write a great blog. While the word “blogging” can seem a bit exclusive and intimidating to a person who has never done it before, it doesn’t have to be that scary. As long as you include a few key ingredients, you’ll be on your way to improving your website’s SEO and keyword rankings in no time!
Blogging Frequency
Here at Reader Digital Agency, we recommend writing a blog (or relevant website page) at least once every month. This ensures that when Google sends out “spiders” to crawl your website to evaluate rankings, those bots are finding new content. For more competitive industries, like legal and health and beauty, blogging up to four times a month may be necessary to gain a competitive edge over similar businesses.
“Keep it Simple, Sweetheart.”
A big reason why websites lack interesting, new content is because of the preconceived notions that blogging takes a lot of time, or that you have to write a novel when it comes to length. Neither is true. The most effective blogs are concise, to the point, and touch upon topics that are related to your industry or business. “Top 10” lists, bullet points, and interviews/commentaries are perfectly acceptable, and are easy for the reader and Google to comprehend. A standard blog post should contain 300-500 words, but even that is a flexible amount. A blog/page should have a title, clearly bolded sections, and a clean layout that is easily readable on desktop and mobile. If you’re working on a content management system (CMS) like WordPress or Squarespace, selecting one main category for your blog, as well as up to five keyword tags, will help your blog or piece of content become more searchable. Highlighting important words within your blog and hyperlinking to another page or blog on your website is called internal linking, and it can help boost the SEO value of your blog as well.
Enhancements Get You Noticed
In our increasingly visual digital age, enhancing your blog with images or video can increase its chances of reaching more eyes on the Internet. An infographic that displays important data contained in a blog, or a short slideshow video, allows your blog to come up in image/video and keyword searches. Optimized media can also increase a user’s time on site, thus improving their chances of converting into a lead.
Turn Blog Views into Leads
A well-written, optimized and enhanced blog may start ranking for certain keywords in a few weeks, thus driving more traffic to that page. It’s important you get the most from those visits to your site. If your business goal is getting more calls or email inquiries, make sure you have a form, a clickable phone number, and a call-to-action clearly represented on the page. Embed an email signup on the page to entice people to enter their email address to receive future updates from your business. Perhaps you’d like to drive more traffic to your social media channels as well. If so, you’ll want to prominently display icons and links to Facebook, Instagram, and other channels in the navigation bar at the top of your site or within the blog for one-click easy sharing.
Let Us Help You Maximize the Impact of Your Blog
While the basics of blogging are pretty straightforward, there are always new tips and tricks to try when it comes to digital marketing. At Reader Digital Agency, we offer a free audit report can that can reveal areas for potential improvement on your blog, or provide recommendations for getting one started. Contact us to learn more about our SEO and blogging services today.
