Having a blog is the latest trend in SEO. It seems that everywhere you look there are online shops with blogs filled to bursting with content carefully written to target the phrases identified in their keyword research plan. The theory is that blogs are the easiest way to update any website with fresh content and build up a good body of text that will help build relevance in the eyes of Google spiders.
It works. There is no doubt that having a regularly updated blog is good SEO, particularly if it’s backed up by solid keyword research.
But here’s the catch. Google, Bing, and the other search engines aim to identify the best and most relevant website matching a particular query. That is the best website from the searcher’s point of view, not the one that pours the most effort into search engine optimisation.
The people who write Google’s ranking algorithms aren’t slow on the uptake. Sooner or later they’ll realise that not every online retailer really needs a blog and that many of them exist for search engine optimisation only. It remains to be seen just how rankings will change in response.
For now, blogging is a very effective tool for building SEO. It works, so we’re not going to tell you not to do it, but we do advise keeping it in perspective. Pay attention as much attention to other site content, to social media, and to link building as you do to blogging. The only SEO guaranteed to work in the long term is creating a great site.