Experts agree that the first blog was created in 1994 by a college student as a place to publish his writing. In the nearly 30 years that blogging has been around, its function evolved from a casual online journal to a powerful tool for engagement.
Why do 91% of B2B companies and 85% of B2C companies use blogs as a form of content marketing? Because of the power of blogs to boost a company’s search engine optimization (SEO).
This post will walk you through why blogging positively affects SEO. It will also answer the question “How often should you blog?” Read on for answers!
Blogging for SEO
Simply having a blog does not boost SEO. It’s what’s on the blog that matters. Search engines look for:
- Websites that are current
- Webpages that hold people’s focus
- Relevant keywords
- Webs of internal and external links
A blog provides opportunities to meet those search engine criteria in natural and authentic ways. When you publish a blog article, you’re showing the search engine algorithm that there’s fresh information on your page. Well-crafted posts can hold a searcher’s attention as she or he searches for answers on your page.
Because blogs have more content than, say, a landing page, it’s easier to sprinkle keywords throughout without overstuffing them. Finally, blogs give you the chance to harness both external and internal links.
While there are some opportunities on your website’s main pages to link, each blog post provides more linking potential. The more valuable the information you provide in your post, the more likely other people are to link back to it.
How Often Should You Blog?
To begin to answer this question, first, realize that it’s rare to have a site that blogs too much. If you are just starting out and don’t have tons of resources to throw at blogging, shoot for one post a week. As your business grows and you can devote more time and money to blogging, two to three posts a week is a great sweet spot.
Daily blogs don’t harm your SEO, in fact, they can double your website traffic. Large sites with teams of content creators can support two, three, or more posts a day. However, there are some factors to consider:
- Quality vs. quantity
- Blogger burnout
- Keyword cannibalization
According to Google, the quality of your content matters more than the quantity of your content. If posting more often means your quality starts to slip, dial back on your posts and refocus on producing rich content.
Likewise, blogger burnout can slowly degrade the quality of your posts. If you or your writers are running out of relevant topics or the bandwidth to produce top-notch work, slow the production of your posts.
Keyword cannibalization occurs when you have two or more posts that compete for the same audience in terms of keyword traffic. This can also confuse the search engine and compel it to skip over your page entirely.
Write a Blog Post Today
As you set about writing a blog post, now you know how often you should blog!
If you need help managing your blog, Enfuse can help you. We are a full-service digital marketing and web development company.
Contact us today to get your next project started.