One of the important reasons to have a business blog is for the SEO benefits it will impart on your main business site. Some people make this their only goal in business blogging and make their reader’s experience an afterthought. By blogging this way you are actually handicapping yourself and hindering the progress you could be making.
I have seen many business blogs, and I’m sure you have too, that are not built for visitors at all. I have seen blogs where their general posting formula is a few paragraphs of overly keyword rich text with a couple of outbound links to their main site sprinkled in there for good measure. Generally the content of these blogs are of little value to people; they are made for search engines only.
Why do people visit blogs, and what makes them come back time and time again? Having great content and engaging with your readers are the key factors that make people return to your blog. When you think about it that way you come to realize that your blog isn’t “yours”; it really belongs to your readers.
Successful blogs all have this in common: Repeat visitors
In order for your blog to be successful, you have to have an established reader base that continues to visit your site. If you don’t have that then your blog is destined to be little more than a blurb in the search engines here and there. And if you want to have a permanent reader base then you must operate your blog with your readers in mind.
When you blog for your readers you are giving them what they want. You’re not just filling post after post with keyword orientated drivel designed to make Google happy, you are whipping out material that your customers can actually use. It’s quite OK to have keyword targeted content on your site and I would definitely encourage that, but keep in mind who you are writing for.
Writing for Google can get your blog ranked high and can also boost your main site, but you can only go so far if this is your blogging method. This type of style can often be awkward and useless for your readers and keep them from coming back. When you write with your readers in mind you can accomplish everything you would as if you were writing solely for the search engines and more. That is because happy readers will aid you with your SEO goals.
Happy visitors become your SEO & marketing firm
Visitors that like what they see on your blog often do things that will help you achieve better rankings in the search engines. They bookmark your sites. They link to you from their own websites. They encourage their friends to visit your sites. They email your posts to other people. If you blog for your readers and not for the search engines it’s almost like your visitors have turned into a marketing and SEO movement!
If you want the maximum SEO return from your blog, then don’t solely write for the search engines. Search engines may index your site, but they don’t “read” it. Your visitors are the ones who will read your posts and your visitors are going to be the deciding factor in how successful your blog is going to be. Use blogging methods that focus more on what your readers want and you will also get more of the SEO benefits you desire.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s a shame how many companies don’t realize this entire concept until it is often too late.
Once your blog has gained a reputation of being purely for search engine manipulation, it makes attracting readers difficult even if the style has changed. In some instances, they appear like nothing more than a scraper site.
Engage the reader, and everyone wins.
Angie Haggstrom’s last blog post..What Is The True Definition Of ‘Quality Content’?
@Angie
I used to work for an online company that took the “writing for Google” to the extreme. When I stopped working for them there were about 25 blogs the company had in place and not one of them was designed for readers. Every single blog was about building backlinks to the main site.
I hated having to deal with any of those blogs because they are in essence nothing more than spam and ads.
It is far better to use fewer blogs that actually contribute something and engage the reader than to have a hundred of the before mentioned blogs.
Great article, Rob. You just nailed it by putting the human flavor into the real sense of SEO, by considering the readers.
willowdan’s last blog post..Internet Promotions Centers Initially Defined