Insights

A good blog is a consistent blog

You’ll struggle to get the blogging community to agree on this one, but one aspect of blogging is beyond doubt – blogging needs to be done consistently.

Is there a right way to blog?

You’ll struggle to get the blogging community to agree on this one, but one aspect of blogging is beyond doubt – blogging needs to be done consistently. It doesn’t matter if it’s every day, week or month, but try to create a blogging habit you can stick with. Here’s why:

Online audiences are fickle

Getting and keeping attention in the online space is difficult and there are more and more shiny new things to look at. If your latest blog post doesn’t arrive in the inbox or appear in your reader’s social media feed, there are plenty of other things for your audience to read, watch, listen and subscribe to.

Fresh is Best

Google wants fresh content and will reward you with higher search rankings. The more new ORIGINAL content on your website, the better your site will perform in search engines. Each blog post you write creates another page that Google will index.

“Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published between 0 – 4 monthly posts.”
Hubspot, 2015

While blogging for SEO purposes is great, you also need to meet your reader’s expectations. In the old media world, you’re not going to buy a three-month-old newspaper, the same concept applies online. Your readers want something fresh and interesting from you.

Consistent blogging builds your industry cred

The best bloggers are writing consistently about a topic they know and love that is relevant to their core business. Eventually, they become known as ‘authorities’ on these subjects. Seeing your name or your product/business consistently associated with industry news, discussions and events builds credibility and exposure – both key attributes of all good brands.

“B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost 3X more traffic than those blogging 0 – 1 times per month.”
Hubspot, 2015

A good blog creates long tail keywords

This is another positive SEO attribute of blogging – creating long tail keywords. The more words on your blog, the more long keywords you’re generating, which bring you closer to your potential customers who are searching for something very specific.  The more descriptive your blog posts, the better your customers will find you.

For example, if your website sells kitchen knives, there is a lot of competition to appear in an organic search for the keyword ‘knives’ or even, ‘kitchen knives’ – a small or boutique supplier will find it very difficult to rank for that keyword.

But, if the website is selling high carbon ‘blue’ steel Kobayashi knives and the blog has a range of different posts about high carbon steel, blue steel, Japanese knives, knife sharpening and Kobayashi, Google will rank this website highly in a search for  ‘blue steel Kobayashi knife’.

Building good content takes time and practice

Getting good at something takes practice. And because the search engines and your readers like quality blog posts about relevant subjects, a good blog post needs to be well written, authoritative and easy to read. And, don’t think you can trick Google by dumping 36 blog posts on your website at once. Again – consistency counts. Write one blog at a time, regularly and your readers – as well as the search engines – will love you for it.

We’re writing blogs all the time at iFactory for a wide range of clients that are recognised as leaders in their field. If you need any help with content marketing, including blogging, please get in touch.

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