Do blogs increase SEO?
Do blog posts (content marketing) help to improve SEO?
Introduction
When you’re setting up a new company in the rather beautiful city of Bristol, well, you might be spending a huge amount of time writing blog posts to enhance your SEO.
You might be thinking, ” Is it worth the effort?”
As you sit there wired off coffee, writing up thousands of words on your MacBook, you might be thinking- is this the most effective way of driving new customers to my website?
What we would say is: this depends. So have a good read of the section below, and we will enlighten you on the many benefits of writing blog posts for your business.
What are the main benefits of adding good-quality blog posts?
- Google rewards websites which have new and updated information added, such as blog posts added on a regular basis.
- Allows you to target keywords
- You can make your website more relevant for different product categories or services that you offer.
- You do have the potential to attract new backlinks as well
- Boost the DA domain authority
Do blog posts actually help improve SEO?
The short answer is yes.
Although in 2026, conversations have turned to AI and how robots will take over the world, a well-written blog post still has its benefits for improving a business’s visibility.
In fact, it’s an essential component of digital marketing, and no business’s SEO, GEO, or AI optimisation will be effective without good-quality content marketing being written.
It’s the cement which holds the bricks together!
Meaning, without your humble blog post, you can’t often get links. If you can’t get links, then you won’t have much authority as a business; if you don’t have authority, then often you won’t rank high on Google, or the LLMs such as Perplexity.
So, when your hands are hurting from writing so many words, and you’re thinking, ” Shall I just give up?
Well, don’t, because what you are reading here is a blog post, so that shows that it works as a marketing method to promote your business!
However, you do have to be like a dripping tap; you do have to keep at it, you have to keep the quality high.
Fresh and indexable content marketing
Googlebot has the extremely large task of crawling and indexing the web.
Just imagine how that process works for a second, how many millions of pieces of content marketing are written and published every single day.
Some work will be, well, rubbish, and won’t be indexed. This will appear in your Google Search Console account as “crawled but not indexed”. This could be a whole multitude of different reasons; this can be because the work is content-thin, because it’s spam, or because it’s low quality.
However, if you really publish top-quality work, that is, you stay up until midnight working, perfecting that blog post on your MacBook Pro, while sipping copious amounts of coffee, well, that effort might pay off.
If the work satisfies the following criteria:
– Google EEAT score is through the roof
– The work is helpful to the consumer
– Well written
– Long form just means high word count
– Worthy of attracting backlinks
– Top quality and well-written
SEO Keywords and being focused on what customers you want to attract to your business
Let us dispense our best and most valuable advice, because this is where so many businesses go completely wrong when writing blog posts.
You might be a business in Bristol, let’s say that you run a solicitors practice, and you’re the best lawyer since pin-stripe suits were invented.
However, the content marketing must cut the mustard. In a nutshell, you need to improve an aspect of Google’s algorithm called Google EEAT.
This means that the work needs to help address questions that your clients and customers frequently ask the business.
Be the best, show off your expertise
You will have noticed that we mentioned Google EEAT
And before you start writing endless blog posts, keep that in mind, that you should have a good read of various SEO agency websites’ advice on how to integrate Google EEAT into your own written work.
The reason for that is simple, because Google’s algorithms have been constructed to reward businesses which simply offer clear and straightforward advice.
Google also instantly knows if you are an expert in terms of the topic you’re discussing. Whether you’re a builder or an employment lawyer, it’s clear to Google if the copywriter or the author at the business has researched the topic in-depth or if its just “content thin” which means lacking detail.
User engagement metrics such as dwell times and bounce rates
It’s super important to consider this. You may think that sometimes, when you’re writing content marketing, you’re just trying to rank higher on Google. That you’re writing the text just for a robot to read, and then to decide where you should rank on Google’s SERPS.
However, this is not the case because Google, including Google RankBrain, basically monitors how engaged a reader is. Is the average reader of that blog post staying there for a long period of time?
Or are you boring them into a rather sleepy slumber, so much so that they don’t like the advice, and they are leaving in less than 30 seconds?
If a competitor is therefore offering better advice, retaining the reader’s interest for longer, through offering helpful information but doing is a really engaging way, then that work will rank higher, here’s why:
– Google RankBrain will notice higher dwell times
– Lower bounce rates
– Perhaps a read time far in excess of your direct competitors, showing that you are retaining the shopper’s interest for longer
Attracting inbound backlinks
Okay, so you offer really quality advice, it could be how to hang wallpaper or change an oil filter on a car.
Well, you’ve helped someone, or another business can recognise that you’ve offered top-quality advice from your Bristol-based business.
Therefore, get this right; this is where the links can flood in like a big wave.
Therefore, you need to write content marketing that’s super helpful and gives top-quality advice.
Imagine for a second you’re writing content marketing, a long-form blog post, which includes step-by-step instructions and an embedded YouTube video.
The page gives instructions on how to change the oil filter on your BMW M3.
Now you might get links from performance oil filter manufacturers, you might get links from motorsport forums, for example.
How do you get the most SEO benefit out of the blog posts?
Answer your customers’ frequently asked questions
Let’s say that you run a rather lovely shop in the Cotswolds.
Now, you are likely to have customers wander in who ask the same questions to you.
Whether you run a solicitor’s practice or sell rather expensive wellies, you’re likely to be asked the same questions.
Therefore is what your business’s content marketing should capitalise on.
The reason being if you answer that frequently asked question through a rather well-written blog post, then this can help to attract visitors to your website.
For example, they come to your website via a blog post that has been written about “what are the most energy efficient windows that we can buy?
Now, if you answer that question better than any other business in the South West of England, well, people are likely to go onto your main pages. There likely to book a time and date where they can gain a quote.
So, basically, the whole point of content marketing is to switch someone coming to your website to have a question answered, then you have the rather fantastic opportunity of selling them a product.
Therefore, as mentioned throughout your article, you can advise which products you recommend.
Topical authority and jumping on new trends
Let’s say that you manufacture posh paint, high-end paint used in luxury properties.
Now, there will be current trends, posh houses all want their wooden doors splashed with a nice colour, say yellow.
Therefore, if you write a blog post, and you are first to market, in terms of answering the query “what are the best colours for wooden doors on a period property in 2026”.
Well then, the content marketing team can showcase colours that are more popular at the moment.
Therefore, writing blog posts is a way of showing that your business understands current questions that are being asked about your products or your services.
A lot of SEO agencies call this “content marketing freshness”- in a nutshell, Google has, for a long time, rewarded businesses that have kept their content marketing up to date and added new blog posts regularly.
However, don’t get out of control with your blog posts, and don’t post too much, as this can look spammy and potentially cause over-optimisation issues.
Be original, don’t be a sheep.
The problem today is that a lot of marketing agencies all copy each other.
If someone writes a piece of content marketing that is good, ranking high in Google, well, this is likely to be copied or rewritten so that basically it is worded the same.
This means a lot of content marketing doesn’t show any original thinking.
Google has made it crystal clear with its Google EEAT advice that it wants you to show expertise and experience in terms of the business’s written work.
Therefore, if you can show that you understand that product or service better than anyone else, well, that work will rank higher on Google.
Google doesn’t want 10 organic links all offering the same information. The same as the LLMs, they don’t want to cite information on say
Perplexity or ChatGPT that is generic information, that is cited on millions of websites.
Nope.
They want to cite the thought leaders, the people or businesses which stand out as being the experts in that industry.
That are passionate about what they are discussing.
Why would you rank a page that offers 1,000 words of marketing waffle over a page which is perhaps written by a well-known lawyer, who knows their stuff, and is known in the Google Knowledge Graph as being an expert at what they do?
Share on social media, but this is not for links.
Okay, so let’s say that you’re sitting in a rather lovely apartment in Clifton, Bristol.
You are about to open a new cosmetic dentistry.
Before you go and hire one of the best agencies in the area, which of course, Digital Tailors, you’re having a bash at improving the search engine optimisation yourself.
And why not? Everyone loves to save a few quid.
But here’s the thing, beginners when they are trying to improve their company’s search engine optimisation, they mistake social media links with backlinks.
Normally, the backlinks that come from social media are no-follow.
Meaning they don’t pass any link equity.
Therefore, the social media posts, what they can be used for is “content marketing amplification”, which sounds complicated, but it’s really not.
It’s about getting a loyal following on social media; perhaps that is for diamond-encrusted dog water trays.
Now, people all over the world may follow you because they are dog lovers.
Now, what you can do is promote your products, but at the same time, highlight when you have written a rather good article offering good advice.
That link is no-follow, so it’s not going boast your SEO.
However, what it can do is generate a conversation, and people with their own blogs may mention your website.
Therefore, you could build links.
For example, a celebrity may love your diamond-encrusted dog bowls; they may snap a picture and put it on Instagram of their dog having a refreshing drink.
Then bloggers, celebrity bloggers, fashion bloggers, they may cite your work, or mention you in a blog post such as “10 most expensive gifts you can buy your pet dog”.
The technical SEO will also need to be improved
Page Speed
Noticed how impatient people are out on the roads today?
It’s annoying.
Well, people are equally as impatient when it comes to buying goods off e-commerce websites, or say a business in Bristol that offers a service.
They want a fast website, super sonic.
Therefore, if you have an e-commerce business in particular, and it’s slow, well, this disadvantages all of the SEO completely.
It’s like going into a boxing match with one hand behind your back.
It’s not good, so invest in fast website hosting. Use tools such as Google Speed Insight to work out how you can make your website faster.
The top marketing agencies, they calculate factors such as core web vitals, which means basically ways of speeding up the page.
Remove or sort out duplicate content, don’t use AI
Earlier, we were discussing Google EEAT.
Basically, in a nutshell, why its good idea in all of the written work across your website, to show that you are an expert in terms of the products and services you sell.
Now, if you have duplication, let’s say that you have been busy copying and pasting product descriptions directly from your manufacturer.
Now, if you haven’t a clue about SEO, you might think that’s a good time-saving move.
However its not, it’s causing duplication issues.
Whether the duplication issues are internal duplication or external duplication, both of these will affect your SEO.
The pages need to be original, and they need to be packed full of helpful information.
Now, if you have copied and pasted the manufacturer’s product descriptions, Google will know that. The page will therefore always rank
lower than the manufacturer, but not just that, it shows that the business is not writing original content.
Because the content is not original, it will have a low Google EEAT score.
Setting up structured data and schema
Schema markup or structured data is simply information that Googlebot and the LLM’s can better understand.
For instance, let’s say you have a rather lovely business on Habourside, Bristol, now if you mark-up the NAP, which is the name, address and phone number of your business, using structured language, well this just makes that information clearer.
Because clearer, and Google understand its better, this can help to improve your local SEO.
Therefore, it’s always a good idea to use structured language and to use a schema where you can.
Now talk to your SEO consultant about how schema could help your business.
User experience and U.X
Considering that the user experience is so important.
You could be writing the best quality content marketing,
You could actually be dispensing the best advice on planet earth!
However, if the writing style is boring to read, the page doesn’t keep the reader’s interest, well then all of that effort will have been for nothing.
So, you do have to consider how your business can improve the user experience.
Let us give you a few pointers on how to improve the U.X for your website:
– Use titles (H1-H6) to split up the text
– Use internal links
– Embed a YouTube video
– Write using an FAQ style of writing
– Write longer form content marketing, because if you keep the readers’ interest, the dwell time will be higher
– Make the page fast
– Use visual diagrams and graphs to break up the text
Why not get in touch with one of the best SEO agencies in the whole of Bristol
We are SEO experts.
But more than that, we do something that many agencies simply do not do: we get to know your business, its services and products.
We get to understand you, your company and this is what allows us to write and implement some of the very best SEO work in the whole of Bristol.
So, if you would like to work with us, why not drop us a line or have a quick chat with us?
