You know how important it is to have a blog on your website. And if you don’t, it is. I’ll explain why in a minute, but first…examples!
If your blog isn’t on your website—if it’s on a different URL and just linked over—you’re doing it wrong. Let me show you what I’m talking about…
Let’s say your website is www.yourwebsite.com but your blog is actually on www.blog.yourwebsite.com
We often see this for eCommerce sites (Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, etc.) and then the client wants to put the blog on a WordPress platform because it’s more user friendly. And, it is. But, it’s not helpful for your SEO. The simple reason why is because Google (as well as other search engines) read this as two separate websites that will receive two separate rankings. You’re basically doubling your efforts when you don’t need to. So, instead of trying to get two websites to rank and linking your blog to your main website, put your blog on your main website. “But it doesn’t look great,” you might be thinking. Two things: 1) Sacrifice (some) looks for rankings. 2) Utilize your developer to recode your blog to make it look as beautiful as you want.
The reason I include those two things is because I probably know what you’re thinking after reading #2. “My developer? What developer? I’m trying to do this on my own!” Well, while I applaud many entrepreneurs for trying to do it all, at some point you’re going to get to the fork-in-the-road of having to hire internally or to hire a trusted agency to handle this for you. If you’re not there yet, don’t worry. Refer back to #1.
Why is having a blog important?
I promised to explain this, so here goes. A blog is important to have on your website because every time you post a new article, you are letting the search engines know that your site is still active, relevant, and alive. Search Engines like Google love new content, it feeds them. Moreover, they love quality content. So while it’s important to provide new content on a regular basis, it’s also as vital to make sure that content is of high quality.
What is high quality content?
Long gone are the days of keyword stuffing and short articles (unless a product description). Google’s algorithm has evolved as such to detect not just new content, but quality content. If your content is found to be spammy, stuffed with keywords, and breaking any of the other many violations in Google’s policies, your site has the potential to be flagged and ultimately your rankings destroyed. Sidenote: If that ever happens, you will never be able to get back what you lost. You can regain some traffic and rankings, but never fully. So, it’s vital to make sure you’re getting off on the right foot from the start, and not trying to fix something after it has already been irreparably broken.
Wrap it up, Sally!
That’s really it! If you’re putting forth the effort to have a blog and maintain that blog, then make sure your efforts are not in vain by making sure your blog is on your actual website! If it were me, I would also make sure my blog is optimized for SEO. That goes a lot farther than just focusing on keywords and linking content. I’m talking new practices (not old, damaging ones). Is your schema up? Is it up to date? Don’t know what schema is? Reach out to me. We don’t just sell SEO, we do SEO.