• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, October 24, 2023

The numbers are staggering. There are more than 600 million blogs out of 1.9 billion websites worldwide and about 7 million blog posts are published per day, according to BrightEdge data. 

The blog's authors account for more than 6 million blog posts daily, or more than 2.5 billion annually.

With so many posts, how does a blogger outperform the 2.5 billion blogs published annually?

Research from BrightEdge makes it clear that blogs are a dominant content type in top search rankings. It shows blogs are the most predominant form of content in the top 10 search-engine rankings, excluding home pages. If they have the ability to address consumer needs, blogs stand out as a main content type in top search rankings.

Their prevalence in top ranks — 511 times in the top 3 and 1,014 times in the top 5 — underscores their SEO significance. This may be because blogs cater to search engine optimization (SEO) best practices, such as comprehensive content and optimal text-to-code ratios, and it highlights the vital role they play, according to Jim Yu, CEO at BrightEdge.

Success is not just about having a blog on your website, but rather ensuring that the content resonates with readers. (Feedback is always welcome through email or comments.) This may sound simple, but it’s important to determine what site visitors want to read about, for starters.  

Blogs have SEO-friendly traits:

• Word Count: Blogs average 629 words - 50% greater than the average page ranking at 417 words
• Text-to-Code Ratio: Blogs have a higher text-to-code ratio (10.35% vs. 7.72%), contributing to better indexability and faster load times
• SEO Attributes: Blogs are 30% less likely to lack key SEO attributes, making them inherently more SEO-friendly
• Thin Content: Blogs are 10% less likely to feature thin content to improve SEO performance

BrightEdge findings also highlight the strategic importance of blogs in several key areas:

• Engaging Audiences: Blogs resonate with diverse audiences, addressing their genuine questions and aligning with their interests
• Adaptable Content: Blogs are versatile, occupying top search positions for a wide range of topics and search intents
• SEO-Powered Insights: With SEO-friendly features, blogs incorporating data insights can stay in tune with real-time search behaviors
• Digital Presence Amplifier: Blogs enhance the visibility of other digital assets, remaining essential as search priorities shift toward user and conversational intent

Add a podcasts to blog posts:

Multiple types of sensory is always welcome. Audacy on Tuesday released the State of Audio: Level Up, the fifth installment of the company’s bi-annual audio thought leadership series. The company calls it a “blueprint for audio advertising, designed to provide a go-to playbook such as planning tips, creative how-tos and innovative trends for advertisers. advertisers level up the performance of their audio investments.

Text and digital audio are stronger together. The company did not provide statistics on that combination, but said with the combination of radio and digital, audio advertisers see 1.5 times the return on ad-spend compared with digital-only campaigns.

The future of generative artificial intelligence and content unlocks success and quality.

To outperform competitors, blog content must differ while ensuring balance to rank well. In a new era of search experiences, with helpful content update (HCU) and Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), is essential to follow guidelines and write for the human reader, according to Yu.

Generative AI content models must be trained on high-quality datasets to generate accurate responses. Understanding audience nuances and patterns is crucial.

Quality data that includes accuracy, connectivity, completeness, and reliability is central. The future will require AI and humans to add the voice and trust in your brands.