Why Are Blogs Important? And Why Do Search Engines Like Them

SEO advice is all over the place, and, depending on where you look, you may end up thinking that you need a keyword-stuffed, header-packed website to have any chance of pulling up high in search results. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth — we promise. Instead, the key to really boosting your site’s SEO is to continually publish content that updates your site and provides people with knowledge. Enter: blog content!

When it comes to leveling up your website’s reach in search engines, it’s all about doing one of two things: 1) consistently providing value, and 2) doing it well. It’s that simple. See, old-school SEO strategies required marketers and copywriters to take all of the soul and fun out of their websites — and we’ve learned in recent years that that’s actually really unnecessary. Instead, we recommend things like blog content to help increase the effectiveness of your SEO.

Here’s why (and how):

Why search engines loves blog content

Search engines reward websites that stay up to date and valuable to searchers, and the easiest way to continually update (and value pack) your website is by regularly publishing quality blog content. Wondering why? There are a few reasons! First, blog content is a great way to reach potential customers outside of the actual confines of your website. When people find your blogs via things like Pinterest and social media, they organically visit your website — which is great for your reach in itself.

Next, regular blog content also means that your site itself is regularly updating… which search engines prioritize. When you’re consistently publishing content, your site’s SEO will organically increase… and that’s more valuable than anything else you can pay for.

10 tips for high-quality, SEO-friendly blogs

The key to using blogs for SEO is to make sure that they’re high-quality and valuable — otherwise, there’s no point!

Here are some of our favorite tips for leveling up your SEO via blog content.

Use headers (H1, H2, H3) in your blogs to make them more readable for search engines and for your readers (who will likely visit them on mobile)!
Before writing your blog posts, spend some time Googling different keyword strings to make sure you’re including the keywords that will pull your blog up in search results.
Focus on the quality of your writing before the quality of your SEO — it always pays off.
Write with your reader in mind, always. What do *they* want to hear? What’s interesting for them? What will be the most impactful for them?
Link out to relevant websites, but also link to your own website’s other content to encourage your reader to click through.
Include calls to action at the bottom of every single blog, whether it’s to sign up for an email list, purchase a product or service, or download a freebie.
Share, share, share! Make sure you distribute your blog content across social media and to your email list.
Strategize your blog content by planning out editorial calendars that allow you to write purposeful content to point towards things like launches and email campaigns.
Use a plugin like Yoast or SurferSEO to guide your blog structure, but steer clear of packing your blogs with keywords or inserting in things that don’t make sense just for the purpose of SEO.
Consider creating 3-4 content pillars, or categories, for your blog content that you continually write about.