As a SEO Specialist, I’m always sitting down, meeting with clients, and looking at the their websites. When doing this, I typically look at a client’s webpage, their design, look at their blog, and give them feedback. Guess what? Almost 90% of the time, no one is blogging! Unbelievable.
Not Blogging? Unbelievable!
What? We’re talking about local businesses here. Local businesses who want to show up in Google, have people find them in Google Searches, get more phone calls from search engines, and get increased walk-in traffic. And, they’re not blogging.
The Power of Blogging
Oftentimes, my client’s ask me about blogging. “Why is blogging even important?” “What should I blog about?” “How often should I blog?” “How long do I need to blog until it makes a difference?” These are the main Four questions that they seem to ask over and over. Let’s take a look at each one:
Why is blogging even important?
Back in 2012, Google changed their algorithm to make blogging about half of the SEO equation. From 2012 onward, Google began to favor websites that Blogged more frequency vs didn’t at all. Nowadays, Google seems to look at regular blogging as up to 80% of the entire SEO Equation!
What should I blog about?
Most people over complicate this. Essentially, Google “is fine with” you blogging about something that is relevant to your blog or business. For example, if you’re an an abstract artist, you could blog about art pieces that you’ve just created, your art process, and art that inspires you. If your blogging for an insurance company, then blog about current insurance trends, different services you offer, and summarize relevant news articles.
How Often Should I Blog?
The best practice here is to blog at least four times per month, continually. I often see sites that blog four or more per month going to the top of Google Searches. Let me tell you about The Tale of Two Two Photographers. Essentially, the story involves a Two Photographers. When we started working together, neither photographer was blogging and they weren’t at the top of Google. The photographer who blogged Four times per month started showing at the top of Google for more searches, got emails and calls from Google, and started closing 3K, 5K, and 10K per month in new photography jobs. The other photographer, who blogged very little, saw some improvement but stopped blogging altogether. Guess what? She never ended up showing up in searches or getting any business from Google searches. Which photographer would you rather be?
How long do I need to blog until it makes a difference?
This is a complicated question because it depends on how strong your site’s reputation is. I always explain that “websites are like trees” on the internet. Have you ever gone outside, found a tree, and watched it go? This is a ridiculous question because it’s nearly impossible to see a tree growing. Instead, if you plant a seed, you can see that it slowly grows over time from a sapling into a full sized tree. Websites are the same way in that they grow very slowly.
If you have a new website, you should know that it typically takes a website about Two or Three years before it starts really showing up in Google for valuable searches.
If you have an older website, you’re probably already seeing it showing up in searches.
So, how do you know how strong your website is? Go to Open Site Explorer and put your site in there and do a search.
- Very Strong Site: Page and/or Domain Authority is higher than 40.
- Strong Site: Page and/or Domain Authority is higher than 30.
- Growing Site: Page and/or Domain Authority is higher than 20.
- Budding Site: Page and/or Domain Authority is higher than 10.
- New Site: Page and/or Domain Authority between 0 to 10.
If you’ve got a Very Strong Site, you’ll publish a blog post and see it show up in search results within hours to days. You should be getting a lot of traffic from Google. You typically won’t have a blog as much as with weaker sites and you’ll still great results in searches.
If you’ve got a Strong Site, you’ll see your blog post show up within a week. You’re getting more traffic from Google but you’ll still need to blog 2 to 4 times per month continually until you see better results.
If you’ve got a Growing Site, you blog will be show in Google searches but not right away. You’ll need to blog Four or more times per month for a year until you start showing up in more searches.
New and Budding Sites need 1-2 years of continual blogging and linkbuilding to eventually start showing up in searches in Google.
As a SEO Specialist, I’m always sitting down, meeting with clients, and looking at the their websites. When doing this, I typically look at a client’s webpage, their design, look at their blog, and give them feedback. Guess what? Almost 90% of the time, no one is blogging! Unbelievable.
Are You Blogging?
So, now that now know about the power of blogging, let’s find out. How often are you really blogging?
If you aren’t blogging, start doing a blog post once per week. If you love to write, than start doing and keep doing it! You’ll start seeing results! If you can’t stand to write content, then hire a local writer or one from textbroker to write high quality content for your site.
If you are blogging, than you probably already know the value of coming up with great content that you publish on a regular basis on your site. Cheers to you! Keep up the work.
Always Be Blogging
At this point, be bold, fearless, and go forth with your blogging! Now you know the the absolute power of blogging! Be released into the blogosphere, be successful, make money from your online pursuits, and be blessed!