Why Blog? – Reason #2: Google Karma Points

Last week, we began our “Why Blog?” Series with Reason #1 – Content is King. Today, we look at how blogging helps in the quest to be blessed by Google.

Call it what you will: Karma, juju, brownie points or just “appeasing the Google gods.” The bottom line is that we all want our businesses to be found easily on Google.

Two Sides of Search Engine Visibility

One way to gain visibility in Google is to pay for ads using a pay-per-click system (PPC). The other way is to optimize your site so it appears in Google’s unpaid search results—also known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Both PPC and SEO will deliver traffic. Paid ads bring instant traffic and cost money. Search Engine Optimization builds traffic gradually and costs time.

In a nutshell, the biggest benefits of SEO are:

• Trust – online consumers typically pay closer attention to Google’s organic (unpaid) search results. Some claim it’s simply a matter of trust. You can “buy my eyes” with ads or “earn my attention” with relevant information.
• Longevity – building traffic over time through optimized content gains you traffic that lives long after you’ve pushed the “publish” button. With paid search results, your visibility is only as good as your budget each day.

The Lowdown on Optimization

So, how can you achieve Search Engine Optimization that wins you points in Google’s eyes? There are at least a thousand books and websites dedicated to that topic. However, they all generally say the same thing.

• Publish content. Lots of it.
• Include keywords that your customers are using in their Google searches. Use these keywords in your headlines, body copy, links and meta tags.
• Make sure your content is relevant to your site, business and visitor.

Enter the Incredible Edible Blog

It’s no coincidence that well-built and maintained blogs are loved by Google. Blogs empower you to:

1. Create content in an instant. As mentioned in part 1 of this series, blogging allows for an instant flow of content. You’re only as limited as your creativity and commitment. Forget technology getting in your way. Once the blog’s “shell” is in place, you can be a content machine and begin building Google Karma points! The more regularly you build relevant content, the more committed you appear to Google…and your visitors!
2. Flaunt your keywords. Using a blog’s built-in content manager, you can include keywords easily in each page’s title and body copy area. But blogging also makes it easy to categorize and tag content with keywords. Most blogging platforms make this process simple with dedicated areas on the blog entry pages.
3. Keep it clean. Google favors sites with minimal code, quick-loading pages and clear navigation. By nature of how they’re built, blogs basically “roll out the red carpet” for Google. In fact, it’s not unusual for bloggers to receive Google Alerts within hours of publishing—stating that Google has indexed yet another page on their site/blog.

Deana Goldasich

Deana Goldasich, CEO and founder of Well Planned Web, plans and implements Content Marketing to help clients nurture leads, market their expertise and create an impactful presence online.

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