Is Blogging Still Relevant In 2024?

Blogging and SEO have been joined at the hip for as long as most marketers can remember. 

Why is the relationship so synergistic?

There are lots of reasons why, but let’s start with the fact that blogs are an incredible way to make use of the SEO keywords you uncover. 

Keyword research involves uncovering the search terms your target audience looks for the most, but just finding popular keywords isn’t enough. 

You need to find ways to use these keywords in your website’s content to rank for them on search engines like Google, and a blog post is the perfect candidate. 

Basing a blog post on an SEO keyword lets you:

1. Appeal to your target audience by covering topics they’re searching for 
2. Get noticed by search engine algorithms whenever you use the keywords in your content 

Do your on-page and off-page SEO right (backlinks, metadata, etc.), and you’ll start ranking in the #1 organic spot for your keywords. 

From there, if your blogs are designed to convert via calls to action (CTAs) that link to product and service pages, you’ll increase your sales. 

It’s a business model that’s worked wonders for many years now, and 2024 is no exception, despite what some may say. 

The dominance of social media platforms like X and TikTok and generative AI tools have led some to declare that blogging is dead, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. 

According to a recent study by Orbit Media, 82% of bloggers claim their blog drives at least some results. Moreover, 50% of bloggers receive a majority of their traffic from social media, proving that social platforms can help blogging instead of hinder it. 

These stats prove that blogging is still alive and well in 2024, so stay tuned to learn how you can use blogging to benefit your business. 

Do People Still Read Blog Posts?

At this point, it becomes trendy every couple of years to declare that blogging is an antiquated content format. 

Currently, with everyone glued to TikTok and YouTube, it may seem like blogs truly are a thing of the past at first glance. 

After all, why read a blog post when you can just watch a quick video?

Well, the main reason blogs aren’t obsolete is the continued prevalence of Google Search and other search engines. 

Search engines are still the #1 way to find information online, whether someone is looking to buy a product, answer a question, or learn more about a topic. 

In fact, there are now 8.5 billion searches (99,000 occur each second) on Google in a single day, with 94% of users landing on organic search results. 

What comprises a majority of the organic search results?

You guessed it, blog posts. 

Out of all the types of content and web pages Google ranks in the top 10, blog posts are the most prevalent (excluding homepages). 

The proof?

According to a study by BrightEdge, out of 23,785 pages analyzed in the top 10, 3,254 of them were blogs. 

Blog posts appeared in:

1. The top 3 results 511 times 
2. The top 10 results 1,014 times 

Overall, blog posts appeared more often than any other type of content or webpage, accounting for 19% of results in the top 10. 

There are blogs that answer questions, review products, teach new skills, and so much more. 

For example, say you want to find the best Italian restaurant in your neighborhood. You do a quick Google search and land on a blog post listing the top 10 Italian restaurants in your town. Just like that, you sought out and consumed a blog post – even though you probably don’t consider yourself an avid blog post reader. 

Most people assume they don’t read blogs because they’re picturing travel blogs and opinion pieces. 

In actuality, it’s highly likely that you regularly consume blogs. Any time you’ve searched for information online and clicked on a result, it was most likely a blog post. 

As long as people continue to use search engines to find information online, blogging will still be a viable and profitable practice, especially for SEO strategies. 

Does Blogging Have a Future?

Starting on May 14th, 2024, Google introduced AI Overviews to Google Search, a move that was concerning to most bloggers. 

What’s an AI Overview?

It’s where Google’s generative AI directly answers a search query at the very top of the results page. It typically provides an answer to the question posed by the search (in the example below, the question was ‘what is AI?’) and cites a few online sources for further reading. 

Here’s an example of it in action:

As you can see, the AI provides us with some information about artificial intelligence, and there are a few links at the bottom where users can learn more. 

The problem?

This feature further contributes to the zero-click search phenomenon, where a user’s search on Google ends without clicking on any of the organic results because they got what they need from an AI Overview, featured snippet, or knowledge bar. 

Google’s SERP (search engine results pages) features have been stealing clicks away from websites for a while now, but the AI Overview has only exacerbated the issue. 

In fact, 60% of all Google searches are now zero-click searches, which definitely concerns not only bloggers but also all websites engaging in SEO. 

However, while this statistic seems to paint a grim picture, it’s actually not something bloggers (or site owners) need to worry about.

As technical SEO consultant Pedro Dias pointed out on X, many zero-click searchers aren’t prospects who you’re targeting with your content anyway. They’re simply users who need quick answers to their questions. 

Also, note that in the AI Overview provided above, 2 of the 3 provided sources are blog posts. If a user truly wanted to educate themselves on AI, the brief description provided by Google wouldn’t fully scratch their itch. 

Therefore, it’s highly likely they’ll click on one of the blog posts provided to further their education. 

How blogs can stand out in the age of generative AI

The good news is that generative AI tools can only provide so much information on a given topic, and it’s usually pretty basic. 

To continue to rake in traffic to your blog despite the prevalence of AI Overviews, you need to embody Google’s E-E-A-T acronym:

• Experience. One thing AI chatbots don’t have is first-hand experience, which is where your writing will shine. Wherever possible, include your real-world experiences regarding the topics you write about. 

• Expertise. Your content needs to convince readers that you’re an authority on the subject, which is where expertise comes in. Do your best to cite instances where you exhibited your expertise, such as winning an award or solving a complicated problem. 

• Authoritativeness. For both users and Google to trust your content, your site needs to have links coming from other trusted websites in your industry. Link-building is the name of the game here, and your goal is to acquire as many valuable backlinks as possible. 

• Trustworthiness. Lastly, you build trustworthiness by exhibiting experience, expertise, and authoritativeness in your content. 

This acronym is what Google uses to train its human team of quality raters, and they’re who determine what constitutes a ‘quality’ website in the eyes of Google’s search bots. 

Following these guidelines will ensure your content is unique, contains valuable insights, and demonstrates your authority on the topics you cover – which are all things AI chatbots can’t do. 

Does Blogging Still Deliver Results? 

At its core, blogging is about delivering results for your SEO strategy, such as achieving higher keyword rankings, improving conversion rates, driving traffic to your site, and generating backlinks (whenever someone shares your post). 

So far, we’ve shown that blogging is still relevant, but does it still deliver the goods in terms of an ROI?

This is another resounding yes. 

Take it from us; one of the top-performing pages on our entire website is a blog post:

This post has been putting in serious work for us, as testified by the fact that it’s up there with our homepage and free SEO tools (which are our most popular pages). 

It’s a piece on buying backlinks, and it has an impressive organic traffic value of $4.9k. 

It also ranks for 232 keywords, 10 of which are in the top 3. 

Moreover, it’s been a huge hit amongst our audience, as it’s generated hundreds of comments:

As you can see, our audience truly appreciates our insights, which helps further establish us as thought leaders in the digital marketing/SEO space. 

The post also features a CTA at the end that directs to our Link Insertion and Link Outreach services to help us drive conversions. 

All that value and it’s all from a single blog post. 

We have countless other posts on our blog that receive similar numbers, which is why we’re such strong advocates of the practice.  

Also, according to in-depth research from Hubspot, 82% of marketers see a positive ROI from consistently blogging. They also see 126% more lead growth than businesses that don’t blog at all. 

How Does Blogging Affect SEO?

Blogging will impact your SEO in a variety of helpful ways, including: 

• Satisfying user search intent 
• Improving click-through rates (CTR)
• Targeting SERP features and AI Overviews
• Generating high-quality backlinks 
• Better index coverage

These are all significant benefits, so let’s unpack each one in further detail. 

Blogs satisfy all forms of user search intent 

Search intent refers to the ‘why’ behind a user search. In other words, it represents what they hope to achieve with their search. 

For example, if you search for something like ‘how to play guitar,’ it’s clear that you want to learn something, which would make the intent informational. 

In general, there are four types of search intent, which include:

• Informational: The user wants to learn something from their search (i.e., answer a question, learn how to use a tool, etc.).

• Navigational: The user is trying to navigate to a specific page online (i.e., the Netflix login page). 

• Commercial: The user is doing research to eventually make a purchase (i.e., buyer’s guides, reviews, etc.). 

• Transactional: The user is ready to make a purchase that very session (i.e., demos, pricing, reviews, product pages, etc.). 

What’s great about blogs is that they can satisfy all types of user intent (except for navigational, which has no SEO value anyway). 

This means you can create informational (how-to’s, guides, FAQs), commercial (buyer’s guides), and transactional (reviews, testimonials, case studies) blog posts, which also correspond with the different stages of your sales funnel. 

When prospects are at the top of your funnel, they want to learn more information about what you do (informational). When they’re in the middle, they want to learn more about your products (commercial). Lastly, at the bottom of your funnel, you have to convince them to make a purchase (transactional). 

In short, blogs are a simple yet highly effective form of matching content with all forms of search intent. 

A higher organic click-through rate (CTR)

Your click-through rate refers to how many users click on your website in the SERPs compared to how many times it shows up in user search results. 

A low CTR means most users skip over your web pages in favor of others, which isn’t good for your SEO. 

Arguably, the most reliable way to raise your organic CTR is to produce lots of high-quality blog content. If your blog post titles are attention-grabbing, relevant, and exciting – users will begin clicking on your web pages over competitors, raising your CTR as a result. 

They enable you to target SERP features and AI Overviews

Another reason blogs work so well for SEO is they allow you to target Google SERP features and AI Overviews. 

We already provided an example of an AI Overview above, and it listed two blogs as sources for further reading. 

Therefore, if your content is valuable and optimized for SEO, you’ll stand a greater chance of appearing in the AI Overview. 

SERP features and AI Overviews are both special elements that appear above the top paid and organic results in what’s known as position zero. 

Here’s an example of a featured snippet, one of the most common SERP features:

There are also knowledge panels, video carousels, image packs, local packs, map packs, and more. 

Position zero is a powerful spot to hold on Google, and it’s a surefire way to give your SEO profile a much-needed boost. 

Excellent link-building opportunities

Another major reason why blogs are integral for SEO is the amazing opportunities they provide to include internal links and external links. 

Well-written, informative blog posts also attract backlinks from other content creators online. The more backlinks you acquire from trusted websites, the easier it will be for your web pages to reach the top of the SERPs. 

Link building is an important aspect of SEO because:

1. They’re an extremely important ranking factor since they act as ‘credibility votes’ for the quality and accuracy of your content. 
2. The number of backlinks AND referring domains are considered in addition to the authority (ranking power) of the linking domains. 
3. Cracking the top 10 on Google is incredibly difficult without a decent backlink profile. 
4. You should only target backlinks from trusted websites to increase your ranking power. 

Producing high-quality blog posts that contain videos and infographics will increase your chances of other creators sharing your content. 

This is because visual content attracts 12x more shares than static content, so include visuals whenever possible! 

When vetting backlink opportunities, check the authority score of the domain in question to see if it’s viable. 

How do you do that?

You can with our free domain authority checker tool. It will help you determine if a backlink is worth pursuing from a domain or not (stick with DA scores at or above 20). 

Better index coverage

If you want to rank on Google Search, then Google must have your web pages in its index, which is something that doesn’t happen instantly. 

Instead, Google regularly crawls the web to update its index, but it does so with a budget (since crawling takes resources). 

To improve its efficiency, Google’s crawler bots focus on websites that are popular and receive frequent updates first. This means that if you regularly publish blog content, Google will index your website more often, which will speed up the time it takes for your optimizations to impact your rankings. 

Beyond AI Summaries: 7 Tips For Creating Blog Content that Stands Out in 2024

By now, it should be clear that blogging still has a bright future, even amidst emerging search trends like generative AI. 

Ready to jump on the blogging bandwagon to enjoy more traffic, leads, and sales?

Before you write your first post, check out these helpful tips for drafting blog content that appeals to both target audiences and search engines. 

Tip #1: Find the sweet spot between quality and quantity 

While longer blog posts have become the norm, with the average post now clocking in at 1,427 words, don’t forget that quality reigns supreme. Data from Semrush reveals that top-performing posts average 1,152 words, highlighting that it’s not about reaching a magic word count but about delivering valuable content.

This means you shouldn’t inflate your blogs with fluff only to reach your desired word count.

It should come as no surprise that excessive wordiness is a turn-off for readers. 

Research from Adobe found that 39% of consumers find verbose or poorly written content the most annoying aspect of online articles.

So, what does this mean for bloggers in 2024?

➡️ Prioritize value: Focus on providing in-depth information, actionable tips, or unique perspectives that your readers can’t find elsewhere. You always want to stay one step ahead of your competition and generative AI tools quality-wise, so stay away from generic rundowns. 

➡️ Edit ruthlessly: Trim the fluff! Every sentence should serve a purpose. Cut out unnecessary words, repetitive phrases, and tangential ideas. 

➡️ Write for readability: Use clear and concise language while breaking up the text with subheadings, bullet points, and images to enhance the reading experience.

➡️ Consider your audience: Tailor your content to the specific needs and interests of your target readers. What kind of information are they seeking? How much detail do they prefer? What tone of voice do they respond to?

➡️ Don’t force it: While longer posts can rank well in search engines, don’t artificially inflate your word count. If you’ve said all there is to say about a topic in just 800 words, there’s no need to stretch it to 1,500. 

In a world filled with information overload and AI-generated word salad, readers crave substance over fluff. 

By prioritizing quality, you’ll build a loyal following of engaged readers who value your expertise and insights. It’s better to have a few stellar blog posts than a dozen mediocre ones.

Tip #2: Tailor content to match user intent behind keywords

The rise of AI and evolving search algorithms have made understanding and matching users’ search intent more crucial than ever before for bloggers.

Remember, search intent refers to the ‘why’ behind the search. 

Google’s algorithms have also become increasingly sophisticated in determining user intent. 

This is because they want to deliver content that directly answers the searcher’s question or solves their problem. 

If your blog post doesn’t align with that intent, it will likely be buried in the search results, regardless of how well-written or informative it might be.

Here are a few ways to match user intent in your blogs:

➡️ Keep it focused: Be crystal clear about the specific question or problem your post aims to address. Don’t try to cover too much ground; focus on delivering a comprehensive answer to a single query.

➡️ Front-load the answer: Don’t make readers hunt for the information they need. State your main point or solution clearly and concisely in the first few sentences.

➡️ Be strategic with keyword placement: Include your target keyword early in the post (ideally in the title, introduction, and first heading). This signals to Google (and readers) what your content is about.

➡️ Concise and value-driven: Get to the point quickly. Avoid filler content and unnecessary details. Every sentence should contribute to meeting the search intent.

➡️ Provide rich context: Supplement your answer with relevant examples, data, visuals, or external resources that add value and deepen understanding.

➡️ Address related topics strategically: If you want to include additional information that doesn’t directly answer the main query, do it towards the end of the post. This ensures you’ve first satisfied the primary user intent.

Tip #3: Leverage AI in Blogging 

When ChatGPT went live in November 2022, it kicked off the AI chatbot revolution, and it had bloggers around the world raising their eyebrows. 

Why is that?

The cause for concern was that AI chatbots like ChatGPT have the ability to generate human-like writing in an instant. 

Moreover, chatbots can handle just about every type of content, including blog posts, landing pages, emails, and more. 

This caused many to declare that human writers would soon be obsolete, and lots of websites began auto-generating blogs using AI-powered tools. 

So, did the AI chatbot revolution kill blogs created by humans?

We’re nearly two years separated from the launch of ChatGPT, and it’s relatively safe to say no. 

In fact, there’s been quite a bit of backlash against AI-generated content on search engines. This is because AI can’t generate original insights or exhibit first-hand experience. As a result, most AI-generated blogs were generic summaries of existing information. 

AI also has problems with hallucinating and making things up out of thin air, which isn’t good. 

Not only that, but Google also started to fight back against AI spam with its now famous March Core Update earlier this year. 

All this has led to a stronger appreciation for human-generated content that provides true value. 

Does this mean AI is completely useless?

Not at all! 

While it’s not a replacement for human writers, AI technology is the perfect way to make human writers even stronger. 

AI tools are excellent for:

• Brainstorming ideas 
• Conducting keyword research 
• Rephrasing sentences 
• Getting rid of writer’s block 
• Creating outlines 

Using AI tools like ChatGPT to supplement your blog writing is the way to go, so don’t be shy about pulling one up should writer’s block rear its ugly head. 

Tip #4: Make your blogs easy to skim

In the modern era, human attention spans are shorter than ever. The average attention span is only 8.25 seconds, which is actually less than a goldfish, which is a scary thought (but it’ll be gone in 8.25 seconds, so it’s fine). 

Blogging-wise, this means that your blogs MUST be easy to skim and scan. 

According to research by the Nielsen Norman Group, 79% of readers scan a page (meaning they read the subheadings first) to see if it’s worth reading. Only 16% read posts word-for-word, which is why you need to make your blogs scannable. 

To make your blogs easy to skim, you should use the following tactics: 

• Headers: Break up your text with clear, descriptive heading tags (H2, H3, etc.). This creates a visual hierarchy and allows readers to jump to the sections that interest them most.
• Lists and charts: Lists and charts present information in a concise, scannable format. Use bulleted or numbered lists for steps, tips, resources, and charts or graphs to visualize data.
• Short sentences and paragraphs: Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and to the point. Aim for 1-3 sentences per paragraph to avoid overwhelming your readers.
• Visuals: Break up long stretches of text with images, videos, infographics, or other visual elements like emojis. These make your content more engaging and help illustrate your points.
• Formatting: Use bold, italics, or underlining (sparingly) to highlight key points or important terms. This draws the reader’s eye to essential information. 

Tip #5: Optimize content for SEO

You need to write SEO-friendly copy that contains focus keywords in all the right places. The days of spamming keywords are long gone, so you’ll need to place them organically in the following locations:

Besides keyword usage, there are other key on-page SEO best practices you need to follow to rank #1 on Google, so let’s briefly look at the most important ones. 

Keyword research

• Identify Relevant Keywords: Use keyword research tools (like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Semrush) to find keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for.
• Include Long-Tail Keywords: These are more specific phrases (e.g., “best hiking trails in Cape Town“) that have less competition and are often easier to rank for. Evidence shows that long-tail keywords have high conversion rates (36%, which is higher than most optimized landing pages), so you’ll want to include them to boost your sales. 

On-page SEO

• Compelling Title Tag: Include your target keyword in a catchy title tag (the headline that appears in search results).
• Meta Description: Write a concise, informative description that accurately summarizes your blog post and encourages clicks. The meta description is strictly for users on Google, so don’t worry about using keywords here. 
• Header Tags (H1, H2, H3): Use header tags to structure your content and include relevant keywords in them.
• Keyword Placement: Place your target keyword throughout your content (title, headings, body text), but avoid keyword stuffing (throwing keywords all over the place), which can harm your rankings and turn off readers.
• Image Optimization: Use descriptive filenames and alt text for images, including relevant keywords when appropriate (especially for alt text).
• Internal Linking: Link to related pages on your website to improve your user experience and help search engines better understand your site’s structure. 

Technical SEO

• Website Speed: Optimize your website’s loading speed for both desktop and mobile devices. A slow website can negatively impact your ranking. The Google Lighthouse Chrome extension includes a very useful tool for measuring your site speed and suggesting improvements, so check it out.  
• Mobile-Friendliness: Ensure your blog is responsive and easy to read on different screen sizes.
• URL Structure: Use clear, descriptive URLs that include your target keyword.
• Sitemaps: Submit your XML sitemap to Google Search Console and other ‘command centers’ like Bing Webmaster Tools to help search engines crawl and index your content successfully (there are numerous ways the process can go wrong, so uploading a sitemap is a must).

Backlinks

As mentioned previously, you need to earn high-quality backlinks from other reputable websites to signal to search engines that your content is trustworthy and valuable.

How you go about securing said links is up to you, but there are some tried and true techniques for generating backlinks. 

These include guest posting, citation building, press releases (digital PR in general), and link insertions, just to name a few. 

Link-building is too big of a topic to get into here, so check out our Learning Hub post on why link–building is so important for SEO. 

Tip #6: Create An Omnichannel Content Strategy 

Believe it or not, many marketing experts claimed blogging was dead when platforms like X and YouTube became popular. 

Noticing a trend here?

No matter what it is, everyone loves to declare that SEO and blogging are dead whenever something vaguely new comes along. 

The thinking this time was that everyone would turn to social media for information, in turn making blogging an archaic form of content. 

Of course, now we know that didn’t happen. 

Not only did blogging outlive social media, but it also continued to thrive in spite of it. Much in the same vein, blogging is also outliving and thriving in the age of generative AI, so there’s that. 

Additionally, many bloggers discovered that their content could also work on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and X.

How’s that?

There are several ways to make your existing blog content work on other platforms. For instance, if you have a successful tutorial blog post, why not use it as a script for a short YouTube video?

Now, one blog post has transformed into a post and a video, expanding your reach to include YouTube. 

Or, if you want to generate more traffic for one of your blog posts, you can link to it in an X or Instagram post to encourage your followers to give it a read. 

In other words, you should use social media to bolster your blogging efforts, not replace them. 

Tip #7: Other Channels to Help Build Your Blog 

Besides social media platforms, there are other channels that are worth using to promote your blog content and brand in general. 

Newsletters 

Starting a newsletter is a great way to drive traffic to your blog posts. 

Your newsletter should contain updates relevant to your target audience, as well as links to your latest posts to learn more information. 

It works similarly to a push notification, although your subscribers will receive an email instead of a notification on their smart device. 

Podcasts 

People love listening to podcasts during their commute to work, and they’re also a great way to promote your website, business, and blog. 

You can interview guests from your industry or simply discuss relevant issues in your field by yourself. 

Besides the additional exposure, podcasts are also a great way to build backlinks. 

Whenever you agree to appear on a podcast, ask the host to include a link back to your website in the episode description. 

Voila, now you’ve generated a valuable backlink for your website. Beyond that, if the website you contribute to is truly eye-opening, you can gain additional backlinks and referral traffic through shares.  

Podcasts are inexpensive to produce and can yield impressive results, so starting one is well worth your time. 

Guest posts

Another battle-tested way to build brand awareness and acquire high-authority backlinks is to write guest posts for other blogs in your niche. 

Make sure the guest post you write is unique and contains relevant information, as spamming guest posts won’t get you very far. 

As long as your guest posts are high-quality, you’ll receive a boost in traffic and a backlink to help your SEO profile. 

60% of blogs write 1 – 5 guest posts per month, which is a testament to its effectiveness (why would they waste their time on a fruitless endeavor?). 

The key to scoring consistent guest posts is mastering the outreach process, which you can learn more about here.

Antiquated Blogging Tactics to Avoid in 2024 

Sometimes, learning what NOT to do helps, and there are definitely some outdated blogging practices you should avoid at all costs. 

Google updates its search algorithms thousands of times each year, not to mention the handful of core updates they inform the public about. In particular, these updates crack down on spammy, obsolete blogging practices like the ones we’re about to cover. 

Do your best to stay away from these ancient blog SEO techniques to avoid missing out on potential traffic. 

YMYL niches 

This tactic isn’t out of date; it’s just such a crowded and oversaturated space dominated by large enterprise-level companies with deep pockets. 

What’s YMYL?

It’s an acronym that stands for ‘Your Money, Your Life,’ and it refers to the financial and healthcare niches. Any business that offers advice or products that will affect your health or your bank account qualifies as a YMYL business. 

Granted, if your business is in finances or healthcare, you won’t be able to avoid YMYL. 

Yet, if it’s possible for you to focus on another niche besides what’s included in YMYL, you’ll have a much easier time finding success with blogging for SEO. 

That’s because YMYL websites receive additional scrutiny from Google’s crawlers and algorithms than other sites do. 

Why is that?

It’s because Google’s reputation is on the line every time it ranks a YMYL site in the top 10 results. If they rank an untrustworthy site at the top, users may wind up losing money or adversely affecting their health, which is bad news for everyone involved. 

Clickbait titles 

In the past, nefarious marketers noticed that they could rake in a ton of clicks (and, in turn, ad revenue) by creating outrageous (often very misleading) titles for their posts. 

Clickbait was born, and there’s been an intense battle between search engines and clickbaiters ever since. 

While clickbait was effective at one time in generating quick boosts in traffic, it’s become so frowned upon by search engines and users that it’s no longer worth it. For one, posting clickbait will be devastating for your reputation, especially if you’ve been creating high-quality content otherwise. 

All it takes is one clickbait title to start losing readers for good. 

For two, Google has also become quite good at cracking down on clickbait, so it’s not even a good way to boost traffic. 

Google will be able to find out if your readers had a positive or negative experience with your blog. So, if you deceive users into clicking on your posts with clickbait, you’ll tank your user experience, which will eventually spell disaster for your SEO profile. 

Text-only blogs 

The days of writing a few paragraphs of plain text and hitting publish are long gone, as you’ll lull readers to sleep if you don’t use any visuals. 

Besides images and videos, your blogs must be extremely easy to read. 

That means breaking up long paragraphs with bulleted lists, short sentences, and other copywriting tricks. 

High-resolution images are necessary for any blog post, regardless of the topic. At the bare minimum, you should include one featured image at the beginning of a post and one at the end. Ideally, four to five relevant, high-resolution images will do a lot to make your blog more engaging. 

Also, infographics are a superb visual addition that provides eye candy and adds to your content in various ways. 

Spamming dozens of posts 

In the Wild West days of SEO, websites would spam many blog posts for specific keywords in their niche.

The thinking was to become the #1 authority in a specific niche due to the sheer volume of posts they have on it. 

These were the days when there wasn’t too much information online, so websites could hold a monopoly of sorts for certain niches and industries. 

This led to websites creating truckloads of posts at a time, with the quality of each post suffering as a result. It was a time of quantity over quality, and some companies still adhere to this principle. 

Today, there are thousands of websites for every niche, and they all contain high-quality content. As a result, attempting to spam dozens of blog posts won’t yield any fruit. Instead, you’ll just waste a ton of resources creating subpar blogs that are useless to users or search engines. 

As we mentioned above, quality matters more than quantity in the modern age of SEO, so you’re better off producing one high-quality post instead of five low-quality ones.

Personal blogs 

Before social media influencers and vlogs on YouTube, hordes of personal blogs detailed the author’s daily routines. 

These ‘slice of life’ blogs were more akin to journals than content marketing posts. 

This type of blog typically deals with family life, traveling, photography, or entertainment reviews. 

While most personal blogs were created for fun, some were monetized and successful. It’s not impossible to score big with a personal blog in 2024, but it is highly unlikely. That’s because this content style has migrated to other platforms like YouTube, X, and TikTok. 

Final Thoughts: Is Blogging for SEO Still Relevant?

Whenever anything new comes along, a few marketers will sound the alarm claiming that blogging is dead. It’s happened a million times now and it’s never true. It wasn’t true for social media, and it’s turning out not to be true for AI, either.  

While some forms of media may be more convenient (Facebook and X), and AI shows enormous potential, you can’t beat the sheer power blogs wield to educate, inform, and convert readers online. 

Do you not have time to produce top-level content for your business?

Then don’t wait to check out our renowned content creation service at HOTH Blogger. If you’re looking for something even more hands-off, check out HOTH X, our fully managed SEO service.