Once upon a time, when the internet was new, writers from around the world took advantage of this new platform to get their writing out there. Bloggers were born, each of them with their own opinions about the way the world works.
If you were a frequent blogger back in the day (and we're talking in the order of 20 to 30 years ago now), you could amass a decent size following within a matter of months, just like any newspaper columnist could. They had the right angle, they were using the right distribution channels, and they hit the new technology medium at the right time. However, today, the internet is a completely different beast.
Gone are the days of having a fresh take that would capture the imagination right from the starting gate. Today, bloggers are competing against others with the same views (or opposing views), trying to be heard in the sea of noise. For bloggers just starting out today, your audience consists of you and you alone. For some bloggers, even their mothers won't read their blogs.
So, why do content marketers keep pushing this idea that writers need to have blogs? Well, it has to do with the impact that blogging can have on SEO rankings.
Let me explain.
SEO—the stuff of internet speak
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The idea is that you want to have a high enough SEO ranking such that when someone goes to Google or Bing (or whatever search engine they like using) and they search up your name, or something connected to you, that your pages come up among the top links of that search. But SEO algorithms are complicated beasts with many facets to them.
It will depend on keywords and phrasings of that search. The country of the search user plays a part. Social media is now impacting on the way the algorithms work. So too is Amazon.
The specifics of how an SEO algorithm works are constantly evolving. As internet technology changes, the search engines change to. But there are tricks that you can play to help improve your personal SEO ranking.
Blogging is only one tactic.
The real purpose of blogging
Regardless of your personal reasons behind why you start blogging, ultimately there is only one reason to continue blogging. It is all about encouraging traffic to visit whatever website your blog is hosted on.
Blogging is about getting noticed. It's about becoming discoverable. It's about advertising and marketing. And for a writer, it's about showing what you can do to prospective readers.
This is why writers need to want to blog. Why should anyone read the writing of a writer who doesn't want to write? And trust me, if you don't want to be writing that blog, it does show through.
Let's say that you want to blog, so you blog regularly. That new blog post is doing two different things that help to improve your SEO ranking.
Click-throughs
SEO rankings are directly connected to how many page hits a website gets and how frequently. The more people who visit your website, the more the webpage hits you get, and the higher your SEO ranking goes. Because of this relationship, your goal is to entice readers to go to your website for whatever reason.
Enter the blog.
You have a blog post that you have advertised on social media. The topic is of interest to a variety of viewers. So, they click the link and visit your website. The more Click-throughs you get, the higher your SEO ranking.
And if you're lucky, that reader decides to go snooping around your website, finding your other blog posts and maybe even your books. They click a few more links—and your SEO ranking goes up even more. And perhaps one of those links leads them to buying your book (assuming you have one to sell).
Exactly how the reader found your blog post will depend on the things that you do OFF your website. Social media. Newsletters. Memberships. Word of mouth. It's an exercise in marketing to generate marketing.
But regular new content on your website plays a secondary role on the SEO rankings that don't come from site traffic.
Re-indexing
Every time something changes on your website—be that a new image, a new page, or new blog post—your sitemap for your website will also change. And every time that sitemap changes, the search engines are forced to re-index your website.
This re-indexing means that sites like Google and Bing are able to search your website for relevant information faster. The more frequent that a search engine has to re-index your website, the higher your SEO ranking.
This is the real reason content marketers advocate for blogging. The constant supply of new content forces the re-indexing on a regular basis. But I need to make it clear that you don't need to be blogging to trigger the re-indexing.
An update to your site of any kind will have the same effect. Blogging just happens to provide a good excuse to update a website regularly.
SEO ranking is tied to multiple sites
Click-throughs and re-indexing are how you can improve the SEO ranking of your website and the pages on it. But true SEO ranking is tied in to multiple sites and EVERYTHING that you do on the internet.
As a writer, the ultimate goal for your SEO ranking is to obtain a Google Search Panel. These are those panels that come up in a web browser on a computer that contains links and other information about a person, a book, or a movie.
To become searchable in such a manner requires activity (Click-throughs and re-indexing) on multiple sites that are connected to your name. For this concept to work, you don't need to have a blog of your own. You just need to have your name connected to posts on other sites.
Publishing multiple books will eventually drive the SEO ranking up high enough to score the Google Search Panel. The publication of a single book can also work, if that book is widely available on multiple sites. Guest blogging for different blogs will also work. Profiles on various social media and membership listings, and your activities on social media itself all contribute to your visibility.
And the good news in all of this: you don't need to use fancy tools to make it all work. Just patience and time.
A decent SEO ranking doesn't happen overnight
The most important concept to understand about SEO rankings is that it's not something that will happen overnight. Just because you put the right keywords in your pages and social media posts doesn't mean that a person can run a Google or Bing search and your pages will show up right away.
Don't panic!
Just keep working on what you're doing, building more content for the internet. Put SEO out of your thoughts.
Blogging and other strategies like it are a long-term game. If you get fixated on that SEO ranking, the odds are your content won't be of value, and it won't draw the audience, only harming your future writing career.
Just take a step back and breathe.
And remember that if you don't want to be blogging—DON'T! There are other ways to build your SEO ranking, and publishing books is probably the best way for it to happen.