Blogging comes and goes as a fashionable marketing tactic, but its potential for search engine optimization remains constant. Few activities generate the consistent, relevant content of successful blogging. And yet, blogging isn’t a slam-dunk strategy for every ecommerce business.
These seven reasons will help you decide whether blogging could help your ecommerce SEO.
7 Ways to Evaluate Blogging
You sell something people are interested in. Consumers need to care enough about your blog to share it or link to it. That’s the primary way that your blog would improve your organic search performance. Those links would increase your site’s authority signals, which search engines use to determine the order of organic listings on the search results.
If you don’t sell something that people want to read about, it’s harder to increase the authority signals that your site sends. For example, if you sell screws and bolts, it might be difficult to grab readers’ attention with a blog post, regardless of how well it’s written.
You’re an expert in your field. Do you know enough about your industry to help shoppers and colleagues? It’s not about notoriety. You don’t need to be a household name. But you do need expertise that lends credibility to your words. You might be able to fake it for a while, but long-term success requires true knowledge.
You don’t need to be a household name. But you do need expertise…
You’re passionate about your products. Communicating a passion for your business and its products and services is essential. This is especially true of manufacturers who sell their products online. Like knowledge, passion is hard to fake. It shines through with your words and opinions.
You sell something people have questions about. Answering questions is a key reason to blog. When shoppers have questions, provide knowledgeable responses in blog posts. When industry participants are faced with a puzzle, contribute an honest opinion.
The best part of answering a question is that it requires little research. You already know the answer, typically. Just write it down.
And answering questions does not have to be in the form of a blog. A dedicated Q&A section is essentially the same thing. Whether you publish answers in a blog or a Q&A resource is largely a matter of semantics and design. Either way, answering questions in an easy-to-find location makes sense for immediate sales, as well as for SEO.
You can think of 12 topics. Your daily routine could generate recurring blog ideas. My experience is that 12 topics will get you through the first several months of blogging, especially if you’ve answered affirmatively to any of the four reasons above.
If you’re having trouble getting started, read my article on sources of content inspiration.
You can drive readers to your blog. Earning links to your blog takes readers. To jumpstart traffic, you’ll likely require a marketing strategy, such as promoting it in an email newsletter and on your social channels, among other methods. Only when readers link to your content will your organic search channel start to flow.
You will post consistently. An effective blog takes consistent content. That content is typically written, although audio podcasts and video blogs (or vlogs) also have potential if they’re optimized for organic search.
Identify someone with the time and skills to create and manage the written or spoken posts. It could be the owner, an employee, or a freelancer — provided that person has expertise and passion.
Consistency, again, is key. You won’t know if blogging helps your SEO for six months or more of regular posts. Don’t give up too early.