What is a blog and why do we need it?
Is it worth investing your time, energy, knowledge, and sometimes even money in having a blog on your website or online store? From an SEO specialist's perspective, it's an idea that can be described simply as brilliant. What are the advantages of having a blog on your website, and what is a blog?
1. A blog's presence means systematically adding new content thematically related to the website's offerings, which can translate into better indexing by Google and, as a result, higher rankings. A website with more new content is perceived by Google's crawlers as more attractive, more up-to-date, and potentially more interesting to the reader. Therefore, they are willing to reward it with a higher search engine ranking—of course, if the blog's content is unique, accurate, and valuable.
2. We gain the ability to create internal linking using blog posts, which supports SEO . In blog posts (including those already published), it's worth adding links to products or categories that logically relate to the post's topic.
3. Well-written and comprehensive blog texts are indexed well, ensuring good visibility for the website – many people can find the website thanks to the blog text they found in a search engine.
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4. The keyword saturation on the website increases. Naturally, blog posts are often thematically related to products or services that customers are particularly interested in promoting. This is reflected in the use of certain terminology that also incorporates keywords.
5. A blog on a website or online store helps with long-tail SEO .
6. A blog can support the sales process and become part of the conversion funnel. This is a benefit unrelated to SEO, but worth noting.
7. A blog helps shape and strengthen the desired image of a company. Now that we know why it's worth investing your resources and having a blog on your website, it's time for a few tips on how to run a company blog that will effectively contribute to better search engine rankings.
Basic guidelines for running a blog
Subdomain or subpage?
A better solution from an SEO point of view is a blog that is part of the website, functioning as a subpage available at, for example, www.nazwa-firmy.pl/blog.
Length of texts published on the blog
The length of the text should be tailored to the topic, so that it appears complete and comprehensive. It's also worth considering how it might be received by a potential reader – whether it will provide the information they need, while also being understandable and simply enjoyable to read. The length of the post is also important. We encourage you to vary this and adapt it to the nature of the blog post. After all, there can be concise, highly informative posts that don't require much elaboration, as well as their opposite – topics that require a lengthy post. As a working guide, we can assume a minimum length of 1000-1200 characters (including spaces); this, of course, wouldn't apply to a post about a company being closed on May 2nd, in the middle of a long weekend, or about a relocation.
Frequency of publishing texts
Fortunately, a blog supporting SEO doesn't require meticulous accuracy in publishing texts. There's no requirement to publish texts daily. Posts don't have to appear at perfectly regular intervals either. We suggest publishing 4-7 unique pieces per month, focusing on their depth and quality rather than frequency. Longer pieces, even if published less frequently, can bring more SEO benefits to a website than frequently published blog "rubbish."
Use of keywords in texts
When writing blog posts, it's worth using keywords specifically chosen for website positioning . Each post should contain 1-2 keywords specifically chosen for blog positioning. Avoid using a single word too often and using it in most of your posts to avoid accidentally achieving the opposite effect than intended. The frequency of a keyword in a dedicated post should be 1-3 times, depending on the length of the post and its potential use, so that the text is presented in a meaningful and linguistically appealing manner.
A keyword should be used uninflected and undivided. An exception can be made for the name of a town. Entering it in a rigid, uninflected form, such as "air conditioning cleaning Konin," can be jarring. In such a situation, "air conditioning cleaning" and "Konin" can appear separately in the text. While these inflected forms are possible in the text, they do not function as a keyword. Of course, not every entry needs to include keywords.
Division of text into parts
The preferred format for blog posts is a post divided into paragraphs, blocks, or sections. Using a frame or information box can be a good idea. Blog text shouldn't feel like an overwhelming monolith. Titles and subheadings are also a good idea for natural and logical text division. They should be designated, for example, as h1, h2, or h3 – depending on the length and planned division of the text. Whenever possible, enrich titles and subheadings with keywords. Of course, not every heading needs to contain them – use them judiciously. It's worth using bold text for phrases containing keywords or for keywords themselves (the amount of bold text should be moderate, creating a non-overwhelming impression). At the same time, there's no reason to use multiple fonts within a single post.
Adding graphics to an entry
Graphics or charts should be added to the text to visually divide sections and make it easier to read. Don't be afraid of illustrations! It's worth noting that graphics illustrating text can also be used to link to your post. A link embedded in a graphic can also be used, for example, to create internal linking within your website.
Adding links to your post – tips & tricks
Blog posts may contain links embedded in the text or graphics, leading, for example, to specific subpages or products relevant to the post's content. Introducing a link to a post must be done skillfully to effectively support SEO and avoid harming your website. If you're considering doing so, it's worth remembering a few SEO and health and safety rules:
- the link does not have to be in every entry,
- you should enter 1-2, maximum 3 links to one entry; their number depends on the length of the text (longer texts can include more links),
- if the blog has outgoing links that do not lead to our website or other websites belonging to the client (e.g. other blogs or an online store), these links should be marked as "nofollow" - this is very important if we do not want to weaken our website (and since we decided to positioning we definitely don't care about such an effect),
- links leading to subpages within a single website do not need to receive the "nofollow" attribute.
Note : The above recommendations regarding blog entries can also be safely used in the context of running a news section.
Want to know more? Download our free guide to blogging for business!
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- blog functions as a tool supporting positioning, marketing communication and building customer relationships,
- activities that help increase the effectiveness of the company blog and the visibility of the website.
