So, how important can a few hundred words a month on a blog be for my company? Well, depending on your goals, the actual result and benefit will be different. But there is absolutely some value if you blog already – excellent! Pat yourself on the back and skip ahead to number five. Or, keep reading and discover why your actions are more beneficial than you may have realized.
By blogging regularly (1-2 times a month), you send important signals to Google or your target audience. The first and probably the most apparent positive thing about writing many different blogs is that you’ll be growing the collection of content on your website. This gives you a much better chance of being relevant (Google’s primary search result criteria) to a wider variety of search queries and search intents. If you write a blog about ‘outdoor living’ or ‘sustainable homes,’ your content can attract people interested in that subject, and so on.
I like to think you’re stranded on an island with unlimited fish trap nets. How many of those traps are you going to set? With each additional trap, your chances of catching dinner increase. It’s the same way with blogs – with each one you write, you increase the chances of getting a potential buyer’s attention and your overall digital footprint.
Recency is another critical signal you’ll send to Google by blogging regularly, which measures how old/new your website’s content is and how often it changes. Google tends to supply a searcher with a list of the most relevant and most recent/up-to-date results.
Take, for example, a search for “Vikings.” In 2010, a search for “Vikings” likely turned up a Wikipedia article about the history of the Viking people. In 2019, if you search for “Vikings,” you’ll probably get an article about the History Channel’s hit show Vikings.
Recency is also essential because of how the Google web crawler/spider works. Essentially, Google sends out a virtual robot “spider” that crawls around the World Wide Web, “indexing” or making a copy of nearly everything it finds. Those copies are what you see listed when you search for something on Google. When the Google robot continually returns to your website and sees nothing new, it makes a note to wait longer until its next trip back. If it finds something new – like a blog post and keeps seeing new blog posts every time it comes- it will signal that your content is always new and up to date, hence being worth frequent ‘crawling.’
This is a big reason why SEO shouldn’t be treated like a diet – because it’s a lifestyle change. Your competitor can surpass you as soon as you lapse in keeping up with it (in this case, blog writing). If you live in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay, the image of one crab pulling another one down in a crab basket so he cannot escape is an image you recognize. Search results are very much like that. When you think you are at the top, a competitor ‘crab’ pulls you back down a notch.
You may wonder, “I’m a homebuilder; what would I blog about?” Blog about trends and things that are current. Blog about energy-efficient building techniques or building sustainable homes. Blog about staining concrete or material use. Blog about something trending nationwide (hint: use Google Trends) and cleverly relate the trending topic to your company. Take a look at what your competitors or national builders are blogging about. Put yourself in the homebuyer’s shoes – what would be helpful or interesting for them to read? If it’s trending nationally or regionally, try to jump on the bandwagon and strike while the iron is hot.