The term “SEO” can mean many things. For years, experts have debated over the influence of keywords, meta tags, linking, not linking, and heavily debate the 200+ potential factors search engines use to rank our websites. With the uprising of the social media age, everything has turned to content. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that your website has a blog!

And no, we don’t mean Tumblr. We’re referring to an actual location on your root domain/URL where you provide quality content about you, your brand, your mission, your product, and your expertise. Google’s algorithm has come a long way since their archaic ways of pulling your website based on a few minute factors that were easily manipulated and spammed. Back then, the system was broken and was often mistreated. Now, websites have to work way harder to gain organic search traffic, which is why YOU need a blog! Keeping content on your website updated regularly and publishing blogs on a regular basis is a proven way to increase your organic search engine traffic.

Getting started with your blog may seem intimidating and raise several questions: how many words, what topics, and who should write it? Don’t fret! Channel into your common knowledge, expertise, and resources, keep it simple (not too much fluff), and the writing will feel natural. The word count doesn’t matter. The topics on your blog should be based on the topics that you want to get traffic from and the types of people you want to attract to it. Who should write it? Anybody who is a good writer! The only thing to take caution of is publishing garbage content and useless information for the sake of updating a blog. Make sure the blogs are useful to your audience and will actually make a difference.

The number one excuse I hear most from friends and clients on blog writing is “I don’t have the time to write blogs.” If you know the topic or service that you’re writing about, then the words should flow just like a conversation.

Where can I see if my blog is making a difference in organic search engine results? The answer is in Google Analytics. (If you’re thinking, “What’s Google Analytics?” then read HERE!) Once you are logged in, navigate to the “Acquisition” tab on the left. Look under “Keywords” then choose “Organic”. You should see a number on the bottom, which will show how many keywords produced organic traffic this month. Compare that to previous months, and you will see the SEO power of a blog!