Blogs, SEO and Becoming a Trusted Advisor
Google prioritizes websites that provide valuable content and answers questions that consumers are seeking. Simply said, Google has a thirsty appetite for:
- High-Quality Content - Google's search engine algorithm is looking for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness to provide the best search results for their users.
- Great Page Experience - Google cherishes a great user experience and focuses on security (HTTPS), page loading speed, and mobile friendly.
- Juicy Links - Much like academic papers, Google loves citations and links (both internal and external).
Keeping what is important to Google for SEO, you can quickly see how blogging is something that Google loves and supports for search engine placement. Granted, you need to have expertise, authority and trust worthiness along with a willingness to provide your information for free.
Here are the core reasons why blogs matter for SEO:
1. Blogs increase your brand awareness - Blogs that leverage your expertise and authority while being sticky and sustainable increase your website traffic and visibility.
2. Blogs covering niche topics (subsegments) are great magnets for search engines and your target audience - Blogs covering pain points of your target audience (consumers and search engines) are great magnets for website traffic and higher placements within search engines. Examples of accounting subsegment blogs are farms, cannabis, ROBS arrangements (401k rollovers), self storage, real estate, and craft breweries.
3. Blogs create backlinks - While websites are the formal front door to your accounting practice, blogs are the less formal back door covering educational topics, which is ideal for link-building.
4. Blogs encourage browsing and reading (not selling) - The topics covered within blogs are longer (higher word count) than core pages on your website. In other words, the topics are more educational in nature (e.g., how to's). While we enjoy shopping and learning, most of us hate sales situations (e.g., how much do you charge for a tax return?).
To illustrate my point, Dope CFO covers the cannabis accounting industry and even created a franchise program for accountants who want to capitalize on the growth in cannabis accounting and tax.
In conclusion, blogging builds brand authority, awareness, website traffic, and creates a following around your business.
