Did you know blogs improve your SEO? Writing quality content is a key aspect of every SEO strategy. Google likes to see that your website is active and consistently putting out valuable content that people might be searching for. In this article, I’m going to share metrics from Rutkin Marketing to show the value of blogs and how they impact SEO. If you don’t currently have a blog, I strongly recommend that you start one as soon as you can.
How Often to Post
To see the best benefits of SEO from your blog, you should post 2-4 times per week. That gives you better chances of showing up on search engines, especially if you optimize each individual post for SEO (we’ll get to that in a minute). If that sounds like too much for you, one blog per month is the minimum that you should aim for. The key is to stay consistent with your posting so you show Google and other search engines that you’re a reliable source to send their users to.
Optimizing Blogs for SEO
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to simply post a blog. You also need to optimize each post for SEO. There are many ways to optimize, and several website hosting platforms help you optimize correctly. If you’re on HubSpot, there is an optimize tab at the top of the page when you’re adding a blog. It gives you a checklist of things you should do to optimize your blog to have the best chance of ranking on Google. It includes things like:
- Meta description
- Images with alt text
- Content length
- Title length and uniqueness
- Mobile-friendliness
For more information on how to get your blog to rank on Google, check out this HubSpot article.
How to Promote Your Blog
Once you’ve written a few posts, the next question to ask yourself is: Where do you promote them so you get more traffic to your website? Social media and your email list are great places to start. On social media, use a short snippet from the blog to catch people’s attention, then link to the blog post for people to continue reading. You can do this on any platform so I recommend promoting it on all the platforms your audience is on. Another strategy is to post your blogs as LinkedIn articles as well. LinkedIn articles are shared with your connections and followers via their news feeds and sometimes notifications, depending on their settings. It's another way to get your blog in front of more people.
You can also send your new blog to your email list. Send them a quick email letting them know that you published a new blog and why you think they would be interested in reading it. Make it enticing so they click the link (that will improve your email click rate) and then read the article (that will get you traffic to your website). Sending your email list a link to your blog is a win-win!
How Blogs Impact SEO Rankings
When I started consistently posting one monthly blog in August 2021, I noticed my website traffic increase, especially on the days I posted. This isn’t a coincidence. HubSpot says, “Blogging regularly, and simply being active in your industry are valuable ways to build your reputation.” When you’re actively providing valuable content, search engines will notice and start to refer people back to your website more often.
I typically see three to five times (3-5x) more traffic the week I post a blog, rather than the weeks I don’t post new content. I’m only posting one blog per month right now, but my statistics show that the more I post, the more traffic I get. In October 2021, I posted two blogs to test and my traffic increased by 600%. The reach is incredible!
Here are the blog results:
- People spend more time on my blog pages than on other pages on my website. The content is valuable to them so they stay on the page longer to read the whole article.
- My best-performing blog has an average time of four minutes on the page.
- My best-performing page overall has an average time of two minutes on the page.
- My retention rate doubles on my blog posts.
This indicates that people who are reading my blogs are finding them valuable and reading them to completion. This means I should continue to write more blogs because my audience is interested in these topics. The best way to make improvements is to check your metrics at least once a month to ensure that the topics you’re writing about are resonating with your audience. See which posts get the most traffic and clicks. That will give you insights into the topics your audience is most interested in reading more about, then you can write more articles around that topic.
Blogs are a proven way to improve your SEO, and I recommend that all businesses have a blogging strategy as part of their inbound marketing. As you saw with my firm’s metrics above, I had a huge increase in traffic after consistently posting to my blog. The bottom line: Blogging works! I’ve also seen it work with my clients so the effectiveness of the strategy doesn’t depend on the industry.
Key Takeaways
- Post your blogs consistently. Start with once a month, and ramp up to weekly and eventually 2-4 times a week from there.
- Optimize each blog post with key terms and meta data.
- Promote your blog to your audience via email.
- Share your blog via your social media channels.
- Publish your content directly in LinkedIn articles, just like you do on your blogging platform.
- Review metrics at least once a month to see which posts get the most traffic and clicks.
- Write more articles on the topics your audience is most interested in reading.
How to Get Started With Blogging?
Rutkin Marketing is a HubSpot solutions partner and specializes in helping businesses finetune their messaging, hone in on their marketing strategy, drive more quality leads for sales, and grow their revenue.
The professional team at Rutkin Marketing can help you identify a strong selling strategy along with an execution plan and KPIs to measure your success in the platform you choose to use.