Is Anybody Out There Still Reading Blogs?
Millennials make up the largest population group in the United States, at 72 million. These people, myself included, grew up on blogs, and we still read them. We still love them. We still have our old Tumblr accounts, lost in a dusty corner of the internet, along with our Myspace profiles and AIM usernames. So while it may seem that most people now consume content in the form of 15-second Tik Tok videos, there is still a certain nostalgia for long-form content strongly resonating among the largest consumer group today .
Recent studies show that 77% of all web users still read blogs. And it's not only your website visitors that find your blogs useful to learn more about your company, your products/services, and other tangential engaging information - the algorithms also take into consideration how value-driven your content is. In other words, blogging is very important for your SEO.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is “a set of practices designed to improve the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic search results “(Moz.com). Your blogs provide valuable content not only to your readers but also to the search engines. The content that you publish is crawled and indexed by Google and other search engines in order to understand what your website is about and drive relevant traffic to you. The more high-quality content you produce, the more chances you have of ranking higher in the SERPs (search engine results pages).
Additionally, high-quality content is more likely to be shared by other websites or bloggers, giving you valuable “link juice”. The more sites that link to your content, the more trusted you appear in the eyes of Google. And Google likes sending traffic to quality, highly trusted websites.
So it’s not just about your readers - there are so many valuable reasons why blogging is still a “thing”. The problem is, you may not consider yourself a good writer. Or, you’ve got way too many things going on trying to run your business to even think about taking the time to craft a compelling blog post. But to disregard blogging as a valuable aspect of your online presence could have serious consequences for your bottom line. From missing out on ranking and traffic opportunities, to de-valuing your brand’s authority in the eyes of new visitors, not having a blog strategy can make your business appear unapproachable, inactive, and outdated.
Looking beyond all the algorithms and keywords, is understanding why blogging began in the first place: as a means to share information and tell our stories. Back in the day, so many writers had personal blogs that provided engaging content and entertainment, valuable lessons and education, and new ways of thinking about the world. It wasn’t long before businesses and brands hopped on the blog trend as a way to meet their customers on a more personal, approachable level.
In a world full of bite-sized loud noise, of clips and photos that seem ephemeral, of dance trends that give second-hand embarrassment, blogs are a grounding medium which still resonate with millions of web users. Think of Twitter and Tik Tok as the yappy chihuahua that gives you a headache after a while. A well-written, entertaining, informative blog post is like the comforting Labradoodle that makes you feel whole and peaceful inside.
