Does blogging still help SEO?
Yes, but probably not for the reason you’ve been told.
There’s a persistent bit of SEO advice that says you should keep publishing blogs because Google likes ‘fresh content’ but nowadays that is a little too simplistic. Google’s own guidance is clear that adding lots of new content purely to make your website appear fresh isn’t a ranking ‘strategy’. What matters is whether the content is genuinely useful to the people you’re trying to reach, and that’s where blogging can become a valuable part of your website.
Every useful article gives your website another job to do
A website design studio might have service pages covering website design, e-commerce and user experience, for example. These can only answer so many questions without getting longwinded. But potential clients could also be searching for things like:
When should I redesign my website?
Is Squarespace good for SEO?
What is a website wireframe?
How long does a website build take?
Should I use Shopify or Squarespace?
These questions don’t necessarily need another service page, but a useful blog article could give you somewhere to answer them properly, creating content around the subject your audience is genuinely interested in and in turn, showcasing the expertise your business actually has.
Gradually over time that gives search engines more relevant pages through which they can understand your website and potentially connect it with relevant searches.
Good blogs strengthen the rest of your website
Blogging shouldn’t sit in a forgotten corner of your site, it is one of your site’s biggest advantages and it is the opportunity to build useful connections between related content.
If we write about website wireframes, for example, we can naturally link to our User Experience service. An article about packaging materials could lead to Packaging & Print Design, while a guide to knowing when to rebrand can connect readers with our branding services.
That gives someone who arrived looking for an answer a logical next step if they want more help, and it also helps search engines understand how the pages and subjects across your website relate, or are linked, to one another. Google specifically recommends using relevant internal links to help both visitors and Google find and understand other pages on a website.
Write about what you actually know
This is where we think businesses have a real advantage. Your blog doesn’t need to be a list of keyword stuffed subjects found in your research, actually some of the strongest ideas are already sitting in the questions your clients repeatedly ask (FAQs), the advice you generally give or answers you provide, and the things you’ve learned through actually doing the work.
For us, that means writing about branding, websites, packaging, UX and e-commerce because those are subjects we work with every day. We can explain why we wireframe a website before designing it or what actually happens during a brand workshop because we have direct experience of doing those things with clients.
Search research can then help us understand how people are asking those questions and which subjects are worth developing further.
You don’t need to publish every week
There’s no magic blogging frequency that suddenly makes a website rank. For some businesses, publishing two useful articles a month might be realistic. For others, one every six weeks might be plenty. We’d rather see a business publish one genuinely useful piece than four filler articles written simply to keep a content calendar full.
The better question is whether you have something worthwhile to add to the topic, some experience to share. If you do, then write it properly.
Think library, not content treadmill
Over time, a good blog becomes a useful library built around your business and its expertise.
Some articles might bring new visitors into your website through search. Others answer questions for prospective clients or support conversations you’re already having. They also give you useful content to repurpose and share through social media, email marketing or directly with someone who has asked exactly that question.
And that’s ultimately why we still recommend blogging. Not because Google demands a constant stream of new content, but because useful content gives people more ways to discover your expertise, understand what you know and decide whether you might be the right business to help them.
