The ultimate dream of a marketer: a high ranking in the organic search results in Google without paying for it. It is the ultimate dream, as a high ranking in the Google search results is directly linked with more interaction and blogging can make that happen for you! There are many other advantages besides a higher ranking in the organic search results.
The first one is that you can provide your target group with a lot of information. Instead of only trying to sell your products to (potential) customers, you can also provide information about the products itself. As you provide additional and unique information about the specifics products, potential customers will most likely be interested in following your blog. They don’t have the feeling you are trying to palm them with your products.
Secondly, it makes your brand and webshop more reliable. By sharing your thoughts and opinions of new developments within your branch you can profile yourself as a specialist or a thought leader.
As mentioned before, blogging is not only useful to create more engagement, but if you blog on a regularly base Google will see that there is a lot of user generated content, which will make your webshop more relevant. I often see people on Facebook sharing blogs to 300/400 friends at a time. With social shares you are not only showing Google that your site is relevant, but you are also increasing brand awareness.
Despite these advantages, there are a couple of things that you have to take into account before you start blogging. The first one is the amount of time that you’ll need. Writing interesting and relevant blogs is not something you do in 10 minutes as you can easily spend a couple of hours on writing it. You also have to realise that your blog is directly linked to the brand its image. Posting your opinion on specific (sensitive) subjects could harm your brand reputation.
All in all, I really think that blogging is one of the most important things for having a high ranking in the search results. It is especially worthy if others are linking to your blog or if your blog is posted on an external and relevant blog. In this way Google will think your site is relevant and this will increase you page authority and a higher ranking, of course.
References
SEO for Idiots: The 10 Basics of Blogging Search Engine Optimization
http://moz.com/blog/how-to-include-influencers-in-your-content-strategy
