Blogs as a tool for search engine optimisation

Blogs have gained increased prominence as a search engine optimisation (SEO) tool. However, not much of the mainstream media recognises this fact. Blogs are effective for SEO as the search engines like Google are more inclined towards constantly updated and specific key-word pages such as blogs. For instance, Payton (2009) lists search engine optimisation as one of the advantages of corporate blogging.

Kent (2008) says that blogs have become important SEO tools, that search engines visit frequently to index them, increasing their rankings. Kent gives the example of Google that even owns one of the top blogging-tools companies, Blogger.com which provides a way to integrate pages into the company website . However, he adds that for this to happen, it is extremely important to update the blog contents regularly.

Many organisations that set up blogs do not update the contents, destroying the very best feature of a blog in the digital world. Furthermore, not maintaining the blog to clean it of all inappropriate messages posted by search engine marketers like blog spam (which link the reader back to the search engine marketer’s page) will also destroy the quality and effectiveness of the blog.

It is easy to improve the search engine rank of a website through a blog. It id also easy to fill the contents with rich keywords and hyperlinks that redirect the reader to the rest of the site.

However, the negative aspect of blogs as an SEO tool is spam blogs, given Woodhouse (2005). He says that it is of no use if the blog has no other blog linked to it that can help the reader filter through them. it always helps to let the readers of a particular blog to go to other blogs and comment on them or simply talk about the other blogs. This is an important element in keeping the blog alive. It is sheer waste of potential to form a blog but not maintain it; and companies must use blogs for purposes other than an easy tool for publishing company news through internet (Woodhouse, 2005).

References

• Payton, S (2009): “Internet Marketing for Entrepreneurs: Using Web 2.0 Strategies for Success”. pp 36.
• Kent, P (2008): “Search Engine Optimization For Dummies”. Published by Wiley.
• Woodhouse, P. (2005) Is the Stonyfield bloghurt experience turning sour. Blogthenticity, 5 March. Available from: http://blogthenticity.com/2005/03/05/is-the-stonyfield-bloghurt-experience-turning-sour> Last accessed on 28 August 2011.