In the ’90s, people didn’t understand what blogging was.

In the ’00s, people read other people’s blogs when they woke up in the morning or when they arrived at work.

Now, in the ’10s, it seems like people don’t understand what blogging is again.

Well, it is not a fad that disappeared. The only thing that disappeared is the mistaken idea that people will actually seek out your blog, or return to it on their own if they like an article you posted. That just isn’t happening. There are so many competing interests online that even the most well-intentioned tools, reminders and browser apps (RSS readers, bookmarking sites and Morning Joe, for example) are not enough to drive people back to favorite blogs regularly.

So why bother blogging?

The key is your Google search ranking. If you care whether your website shows up on Google, you need to be adding fresh content to your website on a regular basis. You could do this by editing static pages, but that is not nearly as good as writing a blog post now and then. Why not? Because blog posts, because of the nature of their technical underpinnings, are DATED. And Google knows it. When Google comes to your website to check in with its bots, it can see if you have a new blog post each week, and will grant you a better search ranking because your content is not only on topic, but fresh.

(In case you aren’t aware, a blog – by definition – is a collection of articles organized by date, with the newest article at the top. You don’t need to delete your older articles. They will naturally fall to the bottom, and everyone knows that no one scrolls anymore. The keywords in your older blog posts will help your SEO, and the date at the top will let readers know when you wrote it.)

Well, that’s nice, but wouldn’t it be pleasant if someone were actually reading it, other than Google bots?

Of course.

That’s why blogging is just the first step in creating content that can be used in many ways.

Not sure what to put on your company Facebook page? How about a link to your latest blog post!

Need content for the email newsletter you promised your loyal customers? How about using your blog articles as your newsletter articles! In fact, if you use MailChimp, you can automate the entire process.

So just because no one is visiting your blog and no one ever will, that’s no reason to stop writing!