Good search engine rankings are a website owner’s best friend. When your website ranks well for your target keywords, you have a better chance of attracting new readers. High rankings also make it easier to attract advertisers and make money with your website. The following are just some of the ways in which blogging can help you improve your search engine rankings.
Content Publication
The search engine companies do not publicize exactly how they determine a site’s search engine ranking, but they do give website owners tips for improving their rankings. Some search engines use frequency of new content as one of the factors used to determine a site’s ranking. When you have a static website, the content stays the same for long periods of time. If you have a blog on your site, you will be publishing new content regularly. This increased frequency makes it possible to improve your ranking.
Backlink Opportunities
Unless your website covers a unique or controversial topic, it is difficult to attract natural backlinks. Backlinks are one of the factors the search engine companies use to determine a site’s ranking. When another website owner links to your site, the search engine companies see it as a “vote” for your content. The more “votes” you have, the better your ranking. When you have a blog, you have many opportunities to attract natural backlinks. Writing in-depth posts that contain thought-provoking content is one of the best ways to attract natural backlinks to a website.
More Keywords
Keywords are the words and phrases people use to search for information online. When someone wants to find information about a topic, they opens a search engine window and type a query into the search bar. Smart website owners integrate keywords into their content to make it easier for people to find their sites. Blogging is beneficial for SEO because each blog post is an opportunity to target a new keyword. Someone who runs a party supply website might use “cheap party supplies” as a main keyword. When writing blog posts, the website owner may decide to target keywords like “princess party supplies,” “first birthday party supplies” and “dinosaur party supplies.” Targeting additional keywords improves the chances of attracting new traffic from the search engines.
Commenting
Opening your blog to commenters may actually help improve your search engine ranking. Comments add to the conversation, helping you attract more people to your site. Comments also act as new content for your blog. You do not have to pay anything for this content, giving you a great return on your investment. Some commenters may even use longtail keywords, helping you improve your ranking without spending a penny.
Viral Marketing
When something “goes viral,” it means that it has become very popular in a short amount of time. Think about a YouTube video that gets a million views in a week or an article that has thousands of comments. People like the content so much that they share it with their friends, and those friends share it with their friends. If you write controversial or thought-provoking content, there is a good chance it could go viral. This will bring additional traffic to your site and increase the number of comments you receive. All of these things can help you improve your search engine ranking.
Interlinking Opportunities
Interlinking is when a website owner links from one page of her site to another. This practice helps improve search engine rankings, but it is difficult to do if a site only has unrelated product pages. A blog gives a website owner many opportunities for interlinking one related post to another. Someone who owns a website about marketing might write a post on inexpensive marketing tips and link it to a post on free marketing tips. This makes it easier for readers to find content and also gives the search engines additional links to follow when crawling a website.
Any website owner who wants improved search engine opportunities should consider blogging. Not only can blogging help with SEO, it can also help attract new readers to a website. This SEO tactic is one of the most effective and least expensive available, so it should be a part of every website owner’s marketing plan.