So how important can a few hundred words a month on a blog actually 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 find out why what you’re already doing is more beneficial than you may have realized.
By blogging regularly (1-2 times a month), you’re sending a few important signals to Google or your target audience. The first, and probably the most obvious positive thing about writing a lot of 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 and so forth.
I like to think about it as though you’re stranded on an island with an unlimited amount of 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 not only increase the chances of getting a potential buyer’s attention, but you increase your overall digital footprint.
Another important signal that you’ll send to Google by blogging regularly is recency, which is essentially a measure of how old/new your website’s content is and how often it changes. Google has a tendency to not only supply a searcher with a list of the most relevant results, but also of the most recent/up-to-date results. Learn more at www.seoforhomebuilders.com.
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’re more likely to get an article about the History Channel’s hit show Vikings.
Recency is also important because of the way that 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, then it will send a 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. As soon as you lapse on keeping up with it (in this case, blog writing), your competitor can surpass you. 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. Just when you think you are to the top, a competitor ‘crab’ pulls you back down a notch.
You may be wondering, “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 that’s trending nationwide (hint: use Google Trends) and relate the trending topic to your company in a clever way. Take a look at what your competitors or national builders are blogging about. Put yourself in the shoes of the homebuyer – what would be useful or interesting for them to read? If its trending nationally or regionally, try to jump on the bandwagon and strike while the iron is hot.