Rebekah Moan

Welcome to part two of “Why You Should Have a Blog.” (If you missed part one, check it out.)

As I’ve mentioned, having a blog is essential for your ranking on search engines and search engines are often how people find things these day. Let’s talk some more about how blogging helps with that process.

1.) Blogging lets you link internally

One way to help search engine optimization (SEO) is to use links. Links point to related content and search engines want to establish “knowledge hubs” they can use to verify the importance of a page or website. That means linking to relevant content helps search engines understand your niche and increase trust in your website, according to Webfx.com. Having a blog allows you to link internally (which is what I did in the first paragraph). Sometimes you can link to main pages, but when a blog starts rolling it’s likely you’ll have loads of opportunities to link.

chain links

2.) A blog gives other sites reason to link to YOU

Internal links help with SEO but the real gold is external links. For search engines to recognize how awesome your website is, other respected sites have to link back to yours. Having a blog helps in that process.

Blogging creates valuable information (if you’re doing it well). “Any time another website decides it’s valuable to their readers to point them to useful information on a different site, there’s a far higher likelihood that your website will provide information that’s worth linking to if you’ve got a bunch of great blog posts,” according to HostGator.com.

You don’t have to take my word for it — HubSpot reports companies with a blog earn up to 97% more inbound links. It makes sense other websites will link to the helpful post you wrote about best at-home remedies to treat a cold than to your homepage.

holding hands

3.) Blogging creates a connection with your clients

When you create a stellar post, your clients or customers are more likely to share it, which drives traffic to your website, and they’ll come back to see if you’ve written more stellar content. When you receive tons of traffic and repeat visitors, search engines like that, to put it simply. It means your website is trustworthy and also worthy of ranking higher.

But more importantly, it allows you to connect with your clients or customers, which is ultimately what you want anyway. Writing is not everyone’s forte but it is mine! If you need help with your blog, give me a shout. I’m happy to help.

So you started your own business. Great! Now what? How will people find you? Will it be a magic, mind-melding thing where they’ll just know and stumble upon you? Maybe! Or will it be a Google, internet, SEO thing? And what does that mean anyway? So many questions . . . Let’s break it down.

You might already know this, and if you do, skip this section. SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s a fancy way of talking about your visibility on search engines like Google or Yahoo or Bing. (Is Bing still a search engine? I literally just googled that.)

However, having a blog in and of itself doesn’t do much if it’s poor quality and/or updated sporadically. They say that content is king, but so is consistency. How does blogging help with all this? Keep reading.

1.) Blogging keeps your site dynamic

Blogging, especially if the blog is recent, signals to the powers that be (in this case search engines) that your business is alive and kicking. If you haven’t updated your website in several years, the internet starts to wonder if you’re still in business.

“Google doesn’t want to deliver its searchers outdated information,” according to HostGator.com. “Websites that are regularly updated signal to them that the website is alive and offering fresh content. It also gives the search engine algorithms more reason to index your website more often, keeping it more on their radar over time.”

Updating the homepage every week? A pain in the rear. But a blog? Totally manageable. Or maybe it’s not, in which case, I can help you. I’m a professional writer with more than 13 years of experience. Writing is my jam and I’m more than happy to take the blogging portion off your hands.

2.) Blogging keeps people reading

We have to talk a little bit more about how search engines work in order to understand why blogging is important.

Search engines want to provide people the information they’re looking for. For instance, if you google “freelance writer in Oakland, CA” you expect the first result to be what you’re looking for. However, if after briefly perusing the site you discover it’s a website that sells lances, and you hop back over to Google, that signifies the first search result maybe wasn’t so great. But if you click on the first result and stay on the website for a bit, then Google breathes a sigh of relief and says, “OK, yes, that is the most helpful search result.”

Google hasn’t said point blank “dwell time matters in terms of ranking,” but they’ve made other statements that make it clear dwell time is something they pay attention to.

So blogging means people will dwell longer on your website.

3.) Blogging helps with long-tail keywords

I’ll be real here — I would love it if someone googled “freelance writer” and my name came up as the top entry, but let’s be honest, that’s probably not going to happen. What’s a gal to do? The answer: long-tail keywords.

My best bet is using longer, more specific keywords that are relevant to my business, such as “empathic freelance writer in Oakland, CA, who has a journalism background.” Just kidding, that’s too long but I think you get the gist.

Half of all searches are for terms that are four words or longer but they can be hard to fit in the homepage. This is exactly where blogging comes in. I’ve typed “freelance writer in Oakland, CA” a few times now already because that’s doable in a blog.

Sure, I won’t get as much traffic as “freelance writer” but the traffic I will get will likely come from local people in my target audience.

So there you have it — three reasons why you should have a blog.

Stay tuned for more reasons. (Yes! There are more!) And again, if you don’t want to maintain a blog I’ll gladly take on that task for you. Let’s chat!