CAN REGULAR BLOGGING MAKE AN IMPACT ON YOUR WEBSITE TRAFFIC?
People turn to the Internet for countless reasons, but one of the most common reasons is to find answers for any question they may have. At times the questions are easily answered on a results page snippet, but in many other occasions, their question requires a longer, more detailed answer. To meet this need and fill the demand for specialized information, the best Fort Collins SEO companies will recommend adding a blog to your website, but they will also insist on committing to consistent, routine posts.
Consistently producing fresh content for your blog will drive traffic to your website and provide a competitive edge with top ranking websites. To get results, however, you will need more than just a tab on your homepage that says “Blog;” you need a page that is regularly updated with new, well-written, and optimized blog posts. With a well-maintained blog, you can attract new clients, improve search engine rankings, and capitalize from an increase in site traffic and, hopefully, conversions.
Why Is a Blog Important?
Blogging is one of the most effective ways to entice and engage with both current and potential customers. In 1996, Bill Gates made some bold predictions for the Internet in his essay “Content Is King.” At a time when only 1% of the world was online, Gates envisioned the Internet as a “marketplace of content” – a place where people could turn to for ideas, experiences, and products and a place with far-reaching possibilities for any company willing to supply readers with information or entertainment.
However, in order for companies to capitalize on the potential of the Internet, Gates insisted that readers “must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information that they can explore at will.” Fast-forward more than 20 years and the same remains true, yet with a much greater potential. Content is a rewarding necessity for digital success that simultaneously provides readers with the information needed to successfully meet their need.
In essence, a blog creates the opportunity for a company of any size or nature to do just what Gates recommended. It is a means through which valuable content can be published to meet a current demand, yet remain available for future needs. It is an individual, personalized marketplace of content where you have the freedom to display the targeted information that will entice customers to buy what you’re selling.
How Can Blogging Help Your Business?
There are many ways a blog can help your business, but at the root of its success is the service and value provided to readers. Through blogging, your business can offer people the answer to their questions. It also creates a platform through which you are able to explore the concerns or interests of your target audience and expand on those matters using your own voice. Blogging allows you to showcase your own expertise and open doors through which your business can become the answer your audience is seeking.
What Makes for a Successful Blog?
A blog should be curated to actively target the needs of your audience, providing content that is not only informative, but also relevant and beneficial. Providing this valuable service to your customers can improve your reputation and establish you as a trusted resource. As your online presence strengthens, your authority also increases, opening possibilities for higher ranking and higher traffic. But what must you do to cultivate reputation and authority? Two of the most important factors for the success of a blog are consistency and quality.
1. Consistency
In order for a blog to successfully drive traffic to your site, you must commit to regularly publish valuable content. Consistency and quality is key. In fact, a top-ranking factor for Google is how frequently you post fresh content. Crawlers for search engines are designed to search for new content and if they can’t find something fresh, algorithms will categorize your site as one of lower quality.
Consistent blogging is by far one of the most important factors for driving traffic to your site. Answering the question of how often companies should blog may vary in opinion, but blogging frequently will inevitably increase visibility by producing more leads and in turn bring in more people to your site.
Consistency also provides you with the opportunity to answer more questions, offer more ideas, promote more services or products, and engage more with the readers looking for what you can deliver. Regular blogging allows you to explore a wide range of topics that will directly and indirectly benefit your brand, while contributing to the benefit of your readers.
2. Quality
Consistency is what brings readers to your site, but quality is what will get them to stay. Mass production of content is not the goal, but rather continual production of high-value, high-quality content.
Just as algorithms take volume into account, they are also built to encourage value. Consistent blogging of low-quality content will hurt your site rather than help it. You must commit to producing original content that is highly focused on meeting the need of the reader. Information should be unique, well written, properly researched, and tailored for the reader.
Producing quality blogs also requires certain aspects of optimization that will benefit your business as the information benefits the reader. Optimizing your blog posts can be done through a number of strategies. Start by creating longer content, if possible, with your topics. Longer content creates more opportunities for naturally incorporating applicable keyword variations without stuffing. You should also be strategically integrating links to key pages on your website within the content. This redirects readers from finding an answer on your site to finding a solution from your business.
High-quality content is an essential characteristic of top-ranking websites. Bill Gates said it best: readers must be rewarded. As your blog moves forward with this outlook, you will find that your business will be rewarded as well.
SEO in Fort Collins
Red Rocket Web Specialists offers Fort Collins SEO services that value the impact available from consistent, high-quality blogging. To learn more about the value behind blogging for your website, contact us today.