How do blogs affect seo?

[derrickkuhn]

Could you help me understand how blogs affect seo and how this works specifically when a blog is located within a site?

Thank you!

[JamesNorquay]

Blogs are great for SEO because you have a platform for search engines to provide fresh new content, the problem with static websites is that the content is always the same. This is where blogs always push new content.

Well the best bet is to have your blog located on www.website.com/blog  people make a mistake when they have the blog on a sub domain because you don't have the right flow of link juice.

[AdoptionHelp]

Blogs are a well understood format for delivering new content. There isn't anything inherently special about having a blog, you still need to do the basic on page SEO to optimize your posts, and you'll still want to do link building to generate authority.

In very general terms, blogs are recommended for SEO because it encourages site owners to publish fresh content often, and in a format that most web users know how to share with each other. Its up to you to create the killer content that gets the links.

[RyanKent]

Hi Derrick.

Both James and Ryan offer sound advice. I'll add just a bit.

Let's say you have an online store selling tennis supplies. Your store is a bunch of pages which can change a bit with the addition of a new product, but for the most part remain static. If you add a blog and offer a couple  quality articles per week, you have a chance to offer articles such as "Beginner's Guide To Tennis", "How to Choose a Tennis Racket", "How to Avoid Tennis Injuries" along with countless other topics.

You would be sharing your wisdom on a subject where you have expertise. When users seek this knowledge by typing in a search query such as "best tennis racket" they may find your "How to Choose a Tennis Racket" article where you mentioned "the best tennis racket for teenagers is the Wilson 1000". Your article would also contain a link to the Wilson 1000 where an interested reader could buy the item.

You would generate traffic for your site that you otherwise might not see. Also, users have an opportunity to ask you questions. Someone could ask "what is the best racket for a 30 yr old woman with a short reach?". You can then engage potential customers in a manner that your storefront site alone cannot do.

[EGOL]

Most people talk about blogs like they are the "Silver Bullets of SEO". However, their content is nearly worthless unless you can do one of two things: 1) write fantastic content that lots of other people want to link, like and tweet, or 2) content that is genuinely valuable to your visitors. If your content doesn't measure up then you will not get a good return on your time.

[derrickkuhn]

How important is a Date/Time stamp?  Does it make a difference if it is auto-generated by the CMS/Platform or by hand?

[EGOL]

Autogenerated or inserted by hand makes no difference.

I get LOTS of traffic because I cover some events and some people search for them with a date.

To be certain that Google can read your dates or any other text information, view your page in google's cache.