SEO or Search Engine Optimizer or Search Engine Optimization, is a process through which one can affect the unpaid search results of an online search engine such as Google or Yahoo. Such unpaid results are often called to as “natural” or “earned” results. SEO can target a variety of results with the intent of internet marketing. These include image search, video search, academic search and many more. There are various ways in which SEO makes sure that a particular site or webpage ends up in the search results of a search engine. Changes can be made in the texts, coding, adding or removing keywords or even redesigning the entire website. Usually, the entries that make it to the first page of a search engine’s results are bound to receive far more visitors than the entries below them. The nature of this virtual competition has made SEO quite popular. As stated earlier, SEO can work through several methods, yet one of its most popular components is blogging.

What is Blogging?  

Blogging is the act of writing a blog. The word ‘blog’ is a truncation of the term ‘weblog’, which basically means a collection of writings on the web (usually by a single person or a group of like-minded people) dealing with various subjects, ranging from pop music to politics. It is very much like a person writing in a diary, only that they allow everyone to know their thoughts. As can be understood, blogging started out as a very informal practice which had little or no importance attached to it. But soon, with the launch of popular blog tools such as Open Diary, LiveJournal and Blogger.com in the late 1990’s, blogging turned into an online phenomenon. Thousands upon thousands created their own blogs and began to speak their minds regarding subjects they considered important. The desire among people to create their own blogs stems from reasons such as:

• Ease of Publishing: You don’t have to run door to door, in fear of rejection.
• Virtually No Cost: Most blogs can be created for free, with money charged only for additional benefits or functions. It helps in increasing traffic for the website.
• No Censorship: Although several bloggers have gotten into trouble for the things they have written and no one can actually stop you from speaking your mind.
• Can Write About Anything: There are no restrictions when it comes to the subjects you can choose. If you have something you are passionate about, be sure that you can blog about it.

Blogging became even more popular when, in January 2005, Fortune magazine published a list of eight bloggers whom (according to the magazine) businessmen should follow. The list included bloggers Peter Rojas, Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble and Jason Calacanis. Even governments have begun to blog, with Israel becoming the first national government to have an official blog.

Blogging has become so influential that in 2009, several newspaper houses in America had to file for bankruptcy because they could not stand up to the competition meted out by bloggers. Between the years 2009 and 2012, an Orwell Prize for blogging was also awarded.

Blogging and SEO

With blogging becoming the ‘next big thing’ on the internet, it is hardly surprising that SEO favours it above other options when it comes to Internet marketing. Blogs are always interesting to read because of their casual nature and frank opinions. If a news site and a blogger have both published an article regarding the same subject, odds are that the bloggers will get more hits than the news site. Such outright popularity makes it an excellent choice for marketing. Blogs can easily and conveniently place keywords and phrases in their contents and thus, make it to the top of a search engine’s list of results. Not only that, but a blog’s popularity will naturally make it the top choice in the mind of a visitor. Blogs can be also be used to write an immersive description of a product or a service.

We have all seen our fair share of advertisements on the television, televisions, newspapers and magazines. Little by little, we have even come to distrust the promises made to us by the concerned companies. But a blog is different. It is usually not the work of a corporation or a conglomerate, but a person or a group of people unrelated to the service or products being discussed. Their views can be taken as responses from consumers and hence, are far more believable. Blogs can also provide detailed descriptions, reviews, experiences and thus hold the attention of the visitor. It is safe to say that there are very few alternatives on the internet that display this kind of usefulness when it comes to attracting potential consumers and holding their attention.

Conclusion

It has to be understood that the work of a SEO is not a simple one, it required lots of efforts and guidelines. Search engines are extremely smart online entities that cannot simply be fooled into providing desirable results. To find its results, a search engine initiates a process called ‘crawling’. This entails sending out ‘crawlers’ in order to identify and ‘index’ relevant sites. To make sure that a website is featured amongst the topmost results that the search engine has found, some steps have to be followed. A website can be cross-linked with other sites to increase its visibility; contents should frequently repeat the keywords and the concerned content must be updated with strict regularity. What makes blogging so desirable to SEO are because of the following reasons:

• Can Be Cross-Linked with Many Blogs: A single person can have more than one blog. By using multiple blogs and cross-linking them to the desired website, one can easily increase the prominence of the concerned site.
• Can Easily Repeat Keywords: Blogs contain entries written on a variety of subjects. Since they don’t have any specified form or format, a blog can be used to repeat keywords as many times as one wants.
• Regularly Updated: Serious bloggers will always keep updating their blogs so as not to disappoint their readers. Their regular updates make sure that they will remain at the top a search engine’s list of results.

Finally, it also needs to be stated that a blog is a far cheaper alternative to other forms of internet marketing. SEO can use blogs for marketing any form of products and services with the assurance that the visibility that they desire can surely be achieved.