Why does the Cheerios brand have a blog? What could a cereal possibly have to say to its audience? You might be surprised.
Topics on the General Mills-owned webpage range from discussions of genetically modified foods to new promotions and healthy eating tips for children. However, it stands to reason that the majority of people who eat Cheerios probably know nothing about this blog. This begs the question - should this business be blogging?
And if huge brands like Cheerios don't necessarily need to blog, then why should my company blog? We are not nearly as big.
In order to come to the right answer (and there is one), perhaps the question should be asked in a different way.
Why does Cheerios take the time to cultivate a blog that the majority of its patrons probably do not read? What benefit does it bring to the company?
The answer lies in understanding a few of the hidden (and quite important) secrets of digital marketing.
The secret is actually not that difficult to understand on its surface. Your site needs to optimize itself to the major search engines, especially Google. Why? Google controls the majority of web traffic on the Internet. The three major search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing, control well over 90% of this traffic. When people want to find a solution to a problem, the search engines is where they go.
Your website's relationship with the search engines is essential to your business. Without it, all of your hard work basically goes unseen. Ideally, you want your site on the front page of Google, where it will receive around 60% of the total clicks for the keyword or phrase that is associated with the search.
Understanding these keywords is the next step.
Keywords are at the heart of how search engines organize results. If you are looking for "cat food" on Bing, you want Bing to return a website that sells cat food at the end of the search. It is the responsibility of the website to properly represent itself with keywords so that the search engines will know to categorize it as a cat food website.
It is now impossible to fool the search engines in terms of categorization. Ten years ago, this might have been possible. Plenty of companies spammed keywords of famous celebrities on their pages, which had nothing to do with those celebrities. The cat food site of ten years ago might have showed up under a search for "Jennifer Lopez." This will not happen today - the major search engines will simply blacklist that site.
Now that everyone has to be honest about the sites they run, the race to the top of Google is all about putting relevant keywords on the site pages. This is where your site comes in.
Your blog is one of the best ways to add keywords to your site.
Keep in mind that you cannot simply spam a keyword to your site, even a relevant one, and expect to get a good search engine ranking. You must add keywords gradually, and you must add synonyms and related terms as well. What is one of the best ways to add words gradually along with synonyms and related terms? Simply write about your industry in a blog.
This is why Cheerios blogs, and this is why your business should be blogging.
As you write about relevant topics in your industry, you will naturally add keywords that will attract the major search engines. Consistent blogging adds more keywords to your pages. Because you will be writing in a natural way, you will naturally put synonyms and related terms in the content. This will make Google, Yahoo and Bing very happy.
Over time, the search engines will learn to trust your website. Your rank in search results should rise, and with it, your overall online visibility.
There are other ways to add keywords to a site and get noticed by Google. However, blogging is perhaps the most efficient. As long as you are committed to the practice, you can get the content, even if you yourself are not a great writer. The important thing is to commit to the blog and stay consistent!