The decision to start a blog doesn’t have to be complicated. But a blog CAN improve your site’s SEO (search engine optimization).
Blogging has a longer history than I thought it did. I first heard the term “blog” when I was at a luncheon for a networking group I belonged to in the mid-2000s. The speaker said that journalism had changed a lot in recent years and that “mommy bloggers” were becoming very popular with companies that wanted to promote their products.
But it turns out that the first blog actually appeared in 1994 – a decade before I first heard that term! Three years later, the term “weblog” was first used, but two years after THAT (in 1999), that term was shortened to “blog.”
The ‘Boom’ Years for Blogging
Over the next decade (the 2000s), blogging really began to take off. According to Digital Limelight Media (a company that specializes in marketing for the medical industry), 32 million Americans were reading blogs by January 2005. Media companies and corporations started teaming up with bloggers and now, 20 years later, almost every major news source and corporation has at least one blog.
(BlackBerry is an example of one company that leans heavily on its blogs to educate customers. Eleven years ago, I spent 7 months copyediting content for a couple of BlackBerry’s blogs. At the time, security was becoming a major focus of the company as they shifted away from cell phones, so they were publishing a LOT of content on that topic.)
Current estimates show that an average of 6 million blogs are published daily worldwide, proving that blogs are not a passing fad. As with other forms of media, though, blogs have changed a little.
What Blogs Look Like Today
One big change that’s taken place is the average length of blog posts. Back in the 2000s and 2010s, posts weren’t supposed to be longer than 500 or 600 words. Now, however, bloggers are encouraged to write more in-depth content. These days, blog posts sometimes run as long as 900-1,400 words.
Many blogs also now include videos and podcasts … along with traditional static images. Comments on blogs have also changed. In fact, many bloggers don’t even use them anymore, choosing instead to embed their social media channels inside their blogs. SEO (search engine optimization), however, hasn’t gone away.
Years ago, a business coach suggested I look at WPBeginner for information on how to work with WordPress – which, for years, has been the most popular platform for blogs. They offer several free tools to help with SEO, including a Website SEO Analyzer and an SEO Keyword Generator.
Do You Really NEED a Blog?
The answer, of course, is no – you may NOT need a blog. But if you’re looking for a way to draw more people to your website (and keep them there longer), a blog is one of the best ways to do that. And because blogs are typically updated with new content fairly often, your website’s SEO will be improved.
A blog also gives you another source of content that you can share with existing and potential clients. For example, portions of your blog can be turned into social media posts or included in an email newsletter.
But if teaching others about new trends in your industry or educating them about services or products you offer is an important part of your business, a blog is something you definitely SHOULD consider starting.
According to HubSpot, the main reason people read blogs is to learn something new (62%). Another high percentage of people are reading blogs to be entertained (51%), and 42% are reading blogs to keep up with trends in their own industry.
Incorporating any or all of these in a blog of your own is likely to gain you a lot of followers!
3 Examples of Successful Blogs
Imagination Soup is the name of a blog I discovered over 10 years ago. Melissa Taylor shares, at least once a week, information on all genres of children’s books. She describes herself as a “mom, writer, & former elementary teacher & literacy trainer. I love sharing good children’s books & fun learning resources.”
Her blog educates and helps keep teachers and librarians up to speed on new and existing trends in their industry. She also aims to entertain youngsters by providing the adults in their lives with ideas on toys and gifts.
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Tea, Tonic & Toxin is the name of a website I wrote several blog posts for back in 2022. The main purpose of the site is obviously entertainment, in the form of a podcast and a mystery book club.
The description on the home page says: “We’re reading the best mysteries ever written and interviewing some of the world’s best contemporary mystery and thriller writers.”
The post “Why the Victorian Detective Story Is So Popular” is the first one I wrote for Carolyn Daughters – owner of the site. Before I started writing those posts, I had NO IDEA so many people were passionate about this genre!
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The Peter Sommer Travels Blog is published by the owner of a travel company based in Wales, specializing in trips to Turkey and Greece, along with other countries around the Mediterranean and in the United Kingdom.
One of his most popular ones, which we sometimes featured on the Tours page of International Travel News, was the “Gastronomic Gulet Cruise in Turkey.”
This blog’s main focus is teaching readers something new.
If you’re interested in either starting a blog of your own, need help creating new content for an existing blog, or would like some ideas on repurposing some of your previous blog posts into different forms of content, I’d be glad to help!
You can schedule a free 30-minute consultation with me HERE.
