Is SEO Useless if I’m Not Actively Blogging?

Unable to blog consistently due to health but want to do SEO when I can.

[Madison Grace]

Hi everyone! Glad to be here.

I’ve been unable to blog consistently for two years due to health issues. I had to take a break to focus on recovery. I’m doing better, but I’m still not well enough to come back to blogging 100%. However, as part of pushing myself back to recovery, I’ve been encouraged to participate in my passions as much as I can.

I was thinking I could focus on things that weren’t too taxing — like optimize current posts for SEO, make a couple SEO-ed posts here and there, build some lead magnets to build my email list, etc. That way I could be slowly building my audience to have a higher subscriber count by the time I’m ready to fully come back.

How does this work from an SEO point of view? Is it completely useless if I’m inconsistent with posting, and I’d be wasting my time? Is extra traffic and more subscribers any good if I’m not posting consistently? Or will the extra traffic and subscribers be good for my blog overall, even if I can’t get back to actively posting for a while until I’m better?

I would greatly appreciate any help. Thanks so much!

[JorgeV]

Hello,

I do not have answers to your questions, but I wish you a good recovery. Some year ago, an health issue kept me away from the web for a couple of years, this let me the time to think a lot, and when I returned, I had plenty of ideas, which are still making me busy today.

[Madison Grace]

Thank you so much, Jorge! Nice to know I’m not the only one who had to take a break from blogging due to health. That’s awesome you gained all that inspiration! Best of luck with your blogging and thanks again.

[tangor]

@Madison Grace: Welcome to Webmasterworld!

SEO is two things:

1. Doing it right, good content, no gaming the system.
2. Gaming the system via less obvious metrics and attempting to leverage that.

SEO is important at some level, but mostly means MAKE NO MISTAKES---of which there are many, such as keyword stuffing, click bait, etc.---and HAVE GOOD CONTENT (preferably UNIQUE). If one does the right things then one has done well!

MEANWHILE, always look to your health, your recovery, AND your passions!

Good Luck!

[Madison Grace]

Hey tangor! Thank you so much. : ) Any thoughts on how I should be doing SEO even if I cannot blog actively for the time being? Or is it a waste of time?

[tangor]

Unless there's a crying need to update your existing content (SEO or not), there's nothing wrong for a site to be on hiatus as the web itself doesn't know you're taking a break. Search engines might, but not the web and potential visitors.

My question, to learn what YOU think is SEO, is are there any aspects you want to change/chase? SEO is such a nebulous term at times and is often used to cover a wide variety of website and coding practices.

[Madison Grace]

Hmmm, okay. Well I basically think of SEO as better ranking for my site in search engines so people can more easily find my site when they search for things.

[tangor]

It's your time, only you can determine if it is wasted. :)

What steps would you take to "rank better"? There's the old (and deprecated) link building (especially paid!), keyword "optimization", which can occasionally impact legibility and INTENT in articles, and the hoary and best forgotten "directories", etc.

Unless you have a clear concept of what you THINK you might change to rise in ranking best hold off until you KNOW what you will do, and WHY.

Clean, quick code, good presentation (visually), minimum third party/add ons, and STELLAR CONTENT will generally give better results than "seo tricks" that often dilute the better part of good practice.

ASIDE: sometimes the chase for "seo" involves a great amount of time and effort and, when personal resources are somewhat limited, might be a hill too far. ON THE OTHER HAND, new content, even over an extended time period, can always be a plus.

OBSERVATION: I've a number of sites that date from 1996 that have NOT been "seo'd" simply because they still work, still get good traffic, still have content that satisfies user wants. Rather than revisit the past to "update" to this current present or a "future" yet to appear I put my time in the NEW CONTENT with CURRENT BEST PRACTICES and not worry about dragging all the old to a new level that is, even now, changing day by day for "seo" and yet NOT advancing actual information/intent (that's g's new mantra).

At this point babbling is coming to the surface, so to keep it simple:

Code the new stuff clean, GREAT CONTENT, and let the past/archive remain the foundation for what one has built thus far remain as EVERGREEN (which g ALSO recognizes!)

[Madison Grace]

Thanks so much for your detailed response, tangor! I definitely think I need to work on technical issues that improve SEO like my page load time and finally uploading a site map... But I totally agree that great content is more important!

I’d like to work on some fantastic content to put out, but would it be worth it to get an influx of traffic and possibly subscribers when I’m not posting consistently? Would it hurt my overall site to bring new people to it but not be posting consistently? Would they be discouraged from subscribing or staying subscribed?

[tangor]

Those questions fall into a different category that is NOT SEO ... it is marketing, product, and delivery.

In most instances where subscriptions---talking money here---they are paying you for content. To KEEP those kind of subscribers you MUST provide new content on a fairly regular basis ... MONTHLY, WEEKLY or (really hard work!) DAILY! Do not confuse subscriptions with YT subscribers which is just a list of who "likes" or wants to be either notified or recognized.

Breaking down your question:

1. New folks are just that. New.
2. Keeping folks means content must be updated on some regular basis.

If you have enough posted content to keep "new" occupied for "x" subscription" rounds, great. If your content is top-notch and unique long term subscribers will hang around for a while, anticipating the next release/updates. What that sweet spot will be I cannot say. Depends on niche, timeliness of content, and user satisfaction.

While we don't discuss SITE SPECIFICS at ww on the public side, there is a paid PRO MEMBER side where more details might be addressed. You can reveal your NICHE (entertainment, tech, sports, ecom, production) and might get a few more thoughts.

Me? If you can put out a stellar content post every two weeks you have the potential to keep a subscriber base satisfied ... depending on what you ask in fees. :)

[Madison Grace]

Thank you! Sorry, I should have clarified. I say “subscribers” as those who have signed up for my email list, not those who pay for content. There is no membership or fee currently.

[tangor]

Then you are in a good place. Post as you can, when you can. But always to the Hoorah! to keep all interested!

We have a new year. We have interesting times. And we all can work on what these new things might suggest, or bring to us!

Go for it!

[dojo]

I have websites with thousands of articles, that rank poorly, and sites with little content, ranking wonderfully (same with clients' websites). SEO is not just churning content, if you have indexation issues or all kinds of serious technical problems, you're just writing in vain. I've had clients who were hit by google penalties (and they didn't know), clients with websites set up to "no index", canonicalization issues etc. Always make sure your website is pristine, on-page, and then worry about adding more content.

[tangor]

Agreed, but do both hand in hand, else you---and the user---can be distracted from what is really important: Steady Business.

YMMV