Blogging is More Relevant for SEO in 2023 (and how to get started)

In the age of striving to drive more traffic to your website, blogging has emerged as an essential tool for improving your website’s search engine ranking. According to a study published by Google, 59% of search users turn to Google to research a purchase they plan to make in-store OR online. And that’s where blogging comes in. By creating high-quality, informative content, you can not only attract readers but also improve your website’s search engine ranking. More than that, it’s important to stand out with 2 out of 5 Americans planning to start their own business this year alone – in 2023! In this blog, we will explore the value of blogging for SEO in 2023 and how you can get started to use this powerful tool to boost your online visibility, stand out and drive more sales.

What do SEO and Blogging Have in Common?

To keep it simple, search engine optimization is the process (art and science) of improving one’s search engine ranking. It’s not just enough to publish a website, throw some keywords on there that you wish to rank for and call it a day…that would be cool, maybe? One of the many you can separate your business in its industry is by writing. Does anyone care and will they read it? Yes and yes. By blogging you have the opportunity to establish yourself as an industry expert, show off your experience, expertise and add value to potential consumers. All of those things, Google loves as they fall within Google’s Quality Rater Guidelines.

Want to see a real-life example?

I am working with a local financial planner who wants to improve his business’ SEO. He publishes a monthly newsletter to his clients and prospective clients that provides them with valuable insight on products, trends, market analysis, etc. But this is a newsletter not a blog, right? Not so fast! This newsletter is in a blog format with plenty of content. It is published monthly to his website and is optimized for SEO targeting certain keywords according to the topic(s). The concerns or questions that his prospective customers have and will search Google for, are also concerns or questions that they might want to discuss further with a Certified Financial Planner™. He is showing his expertise, experience, authority and trustworthiness all throughout these newsletter editions.

59% of search users turn to Google to research a purchase they plan to make in-store OR online.

Where Do I Start?

So you want to get started but don’t know how? First things first, you need a dedicated “area” for your blogging on your website. You then need to organize your structure into categories and sub-categories. This will help you generate ideas so you can continue blogging and avoid writer’s block. Examples of blog categories might include “Health and Fitness,” “Technology,” “Travel,” or “Food and Drink.” Subcategories, on the other hand, are more specific topics within a broader category. They provide more granular information and help readers find content that is even more targeted to their interests. For example, within the “Food and Drink” category, you might have subcategories such as “Recipes,” “Restaurant Reviews,” or “Beverages.”

Next, generate a topic for your blog that you will actually write that aligns with your category and sub-categories. If you need some help here are 7 tools you can leverage to help you generate topics.

Still struggling with a topic? Think about common questions you receive as a business owner or common industry questions you can easily answer! If you help solve a problem you will surely showoff your expertise and authority in your industry.

Now that you have your categories, sub-categories, and topic for the first blog planned, begin shaping a keyword around this topic. Sticking with “Recipes” as the subcategory, a topic you might choose to write about is a How-To Recipe – “How to make vegan meatballs”. The keyword here could be “Vegan Recipes” or “Vegan Meatballs”.

Up next I will address some “tricks” you can quickly leverage when blogging.

Are There SEO Tricks I Should Know About?

SEO Tricks?! I’m glad you asked… Here are two that you could apply on day 1!

Internal Linking: this is another critical element of SEO. Internal linking is the practice of including links in your blog to other pages on your website. This is great in two ways: 1) It discourages prospective customers from leaving your website and 2) It increase traffic to other parts of your website and improves the time the user is on your website. All of those factors can boost your SEO!

Social Media Promotion: So you’ve published a blog and feel good about it? It is possible that eventually it will be found via Google search organically. But more practically, you should promote it. You spent all the time, research and effort writing it, now promote it on social media. Provide user’s with a tease (one-liner) or tap into a common question/pain point along with a link to the blog to get users to click it!

So far I’ve talked about planning, executing and optimizing your blog. Now let’s dive into how you maintain it.

How Do I Sustain This?

Like with any exercise it’s important to evaluate where you are and where to want to go once in a while. Here are three ways to achieve this:

Establish a Cadence: First and foremost, you need to establish a frequency you intend to publish and make it meaningful. Blogging too frequently or not frequent enough can have negative consequences. I always suggest aiming for biweekly or monthly at first. The time in between should be used to promote your previously written blog and plan for the next.

Google Analytics: Evaluate website traffic to all of your blog articles. Google Analytics is a free tool that allows you see website traffic per page, by device by date range. With this data, you can see which topics are ranking higher and which need some help. This leads me to my next point.

Content Updates: Simply put, if you have topics that aren’t driving traffic or are simply out of date, it’s time to update them! It’s acceptable to go back on occasion and update your content. This will help you remain relevant and credible, especially as information in your previous blog might become out of date.

What Are You Waiting For?

The strategy of blogging to improve SEO is very much relevant and critical in 2023. I hope this blog will help you get started with starting your own blog – with the overall goal of driving more traffic to your website and more money to your business.

If you are looking for creative ways to stand out in your industry, blogging could be one of them! If you need some help getting started please reach out to us below or visit what we offer in terms of SEO services.

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