The blog had its heyday in the early 2010s, but was gradually replaced by social media. We take a closer look at the importance of relevant articles and the effect they can have on your visibility on the world’s largest network: the internet.
Around 2010 the blog had its heyday. Back then, everyone with a website had to have a blog, preferably with the latest posts at the top of the front page. It was supposed to create engagement among users and make them come back, again and again. Every single website was to be like a little online newspaper. A phenomenal idea with the best intentions – what could go wrong?
Blogging in those days usually started off briskly, with plenty of good posts. Then a little more time passed between each one, until the front page was left with posts several years old – and some poor web editor ended up with a guilty conscience over everything that should have been followed up.
Eventually the blog feed was replaced with simple feeds from Facebook, Instagram or Twitter/X – because posting there was so easy. Little did they know that they no longer owned or controlled their own posts, and it had no positive effect on search engine visibility either.
I work daily with some of Norway’s best-known brands. Behind the brands are companies that spend millions of kroner on marketing every year, and much of the budget ends up with Google and Facebook in the form of ads. On Google you can, in a sense, pay your way up the search results – but it costs.
If you run a small business with a more modest marketing budget, making yourself visible can feel almost unattainable.
Google Search Console
I run a side project called Itefy, a web-based app that makes it easy for businesses to manage equipment and assets. As a side project it does not have a large turnover, and burning lots of money on ads is not realistic.
I have long had a blog on the site, mostly to write about new functionality. Apart from serving as an information channel, the blog has not had much organic traffic from search engines, according to Google Search Console – a free tool that shows you statistics about your visibility on Google.
That said, one blog post stood out positively. Part of the reason was probably that I gave away a spreadsheet template for equipment registration for free. It hit a sweet spot: something many people searched for, with little else available. A perfect, but rare, combination.
This article also differed from the others in that it was largely timeless. While a product update becomes less relevant over time, this article stayed relevant for years to come.
Use a skilled copywriter
In the spring of 2024 I migrated Itefy.com over to Craft CMS.
One of the reasons was that I wanted the website to be as easy as possible to update. Not just for myself, but for other editors too. That opened up the possibility of hiring blog writers to produce new articles.
Craft CMS also made it easy to tailor access for one or more external contributors, so they can only make changes in the blog section, limited to writing new articles and editing their own. In the summer of 2024 I found a freelance blog writer, who on average posts 2 to 3 articles every week on the Itefy blog.
What is the result so far?
In 6 months we have seen a tenfold increase in how often Itefy appears in Google search results, from about 800 impressions per day to an average of 8,000 per day, on a steadily rising curve. Clicks are increasing at the same pace, and there is also a weekly rise in sign-ups on the website. Average click-through rate and average ranking lag somewhat behind – but that is as expected, since new content usually takes some time to «mature» with the search engines.
Create timeless relevance
Our blog articles are timeless, informative pieces that are relevant to our target audience.
It matters little how much traffic your website gets if the visitors have no interest in what you sell. It is therefore important to make sure the topics you write about are connected to, and of interest and relevance to, your potential customers.
Choose a good tool
At the same time, it is important to use the right tools. Craft CMS was a natural choice for me, because the platform not only makes it easy to maintain a blog, but also offers great flexibility to build and maintain a professional website without technological limitations. The tool is easy to use and adapt to any need.
Editor’s note: remember that a “blog” does not have to be called a blog. Our own Hallingcast blog is called SPENST, for Kantefølflak we used “Fjelltid”, and for one of our clients, Hallingdal Flistermindal, we named the blog “Flisespikkeriet”. Imagine sitting on a third-floor balcony with a megaphone, about to share something highly relevant with the people passing by below. Would they look up if it were just another “balcony”? See also the film from the presentation about our sister company Kantefølflak AS – 10 minutes and 25 seconds in, it covers the importance of the blog function on websites for organic traffic.
