If you’re working with a SEO company or consultant, there’s a good chance they’ve already been going on (and on and on and on) at you about a blog and the potential benefits for your campaign.But really, just what are those benefits and they substantial enough to warrant the time, effort and resources that would have to go into regularly updating a blog?
Long Tail Traffic
A blog is immense for long tail traffic. While it’s easy to get wrapped up in how you’re performing for a short list of short tail keywords, the fact is that there is LOADS of long tail traffic out there in every single niche for the taking. And one of the best ways to capitalise on that is through the frequent addition of fresh, unique and original content to your site.
Working example: We started updating the Tecmark.co.uk blog more frequently in November 2010. In October 2010, just over 200 different keywords referred traffic to the Tecmark website. By January 2011, this was over 400 and by April 2011 this number reached 700! In June, almost 1000 different keywords referred traffic to the Tecmark website.
Google’s Panda
The concept of unique content is nothing new. But what Google’a Panda update (rolled out in the USA in Feb 2011 and in the UK in April 2011) did was to reward not only unique content, but also original and high quality content. A blog is a great means of expressing unique ideas, putting out an original take on something and generally just building your website up in content terms. This will, without a shadow of a doubt, strengthen your domain which will in turn boost short tail rankings.
Link Bait
A blog is the perfect platform for posting link bait – content specifically geared towards inciting people to link to it. A link bait can take the form of anything – research, something witty, a list of resources or something free! Take your pick.
Again as a working example, we produced some mobile internet usage research specific to the UK, which resulted in dozens of links and even more mentions, including some links from media sources where we would have been unable to acquire one other than naturally.
So there are three ways in which a blog has the potential to boost your SEO campaign. It really is an effective means of adding content to your site and bringing in both traffic and links.
About the Author: This post was written and contributed by Stacey Cavanagh, the Digital Marketing Manager for Tecmark: SEO London
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