You may be asking why people are using blogs for SEO? Part of the reason is blogs are easy to link to and new content is easy to generate. But there’s another reason . . .

If you do a general query in Google, the chances are you’ll see a host of “non-commercial” resources (including Wikipedia). I put non-commercial in quotes because these sites are all probably ad-based or otherwise serving as a gateway to a commercial site. Try it out - a couple sample queries to use are “internet marketing” or “seo.” On Google, you’re likely to see a bunch of sites offering information, tips, articles, discussion, or advice. Now why in the world would that be true? If any queries would generate a large list of companies, these are them, right? Google appears to have a bias towards “non-commercial” sites (or commercial resources that claim to be offering useful information) for queries that aren’t overtly commercial in nature.

Of course it is speculative to say that Google has programmed something into their search algorithm that helps informational sites rank higher for general queries. However, there’s good reason for Google to do it. Google talks about having variety in the search listings. If a company appears for a large number of general queries and also buys commercial listings, they might get multiple listings on a single page. In fact it might become common. So favoring informational sources helps increase variety because it is less likely that a site would spend money advertising an informational resource. This strategy would also increase the number of clicks on paid listings. Google would have a natural proclivity to display non-commercial results for general or border-line queries because it would make visitors more likely to click on paid links instead.

Is this idea coming out of left field? Maybe a little bit, but Google has talked about distinguishing between commercial and non-commercial queries in past patent applications. Both for limiting the number of sponsored search listings that appear for non-commercial queries and for identifying spam sites that may be leaping through the rankings a little to quickly. If they’re adept at identifying commercial queries, why not use that knowledge to make a little extra money and give visitors the impression that they are trying to provide relevant information rather than become another Yellow Pages?

This is why companies are starting to come out with blogs and other informational sources. To get better rankings.