We talk a lot about the importance of a blog. As Google’s updates progress, the old adage “content is king” is becoming ever more true. It’s not enough to simply have content though, that content needs to be unique to your site and valuable to the reader. In the rush to keep up with the content volume being demanded by industry best practices, it’s too easy to forget the fundamental point of having a blog to begin with. I mean, of course if should help bolster your Business SEO Strategy, but the true point behind a blog is for people to read it!
Check out the comic I have with this post (all credit to XKCD.com). How many times have you seen something like this? Heck, how many times have you caught yourself saying something like this? It’s an easy hole to fall into, but one that should be avoided at all costs. If you’re writing a blog that you hope is read by humans and not just crawled by robots, then you need to (at least while you’re writing) not think of it as “content generation”, but as sharing. You’re sharing your knowledge with an audience who is interested in learning more. If you share openly and have a voice, then hopefully that audience will grow. All the gimmicks in the world can’t replace the act of weaving words into a shape that has inherent value to the reader.
Now listen, I’ll be the first to admit you don’t have to win the pulitzer with every post. Some topics allow for more humor and heart than others. When you’re writing about the newest Facebook advertising model update, you can only be so alluring, but don’t give up on it. Some days it comes easy, other days it sticks a little. Some posts you’ll be proud of, and others simply exist. The point is to never forget that you aren’t just blogging for marketing and SEO.
You’re blogging for humans.