Blogging Improves Your SEO: Fact or Fiction?

Not too long ago I received an email from someone I built a website for in the past.  She has a business website with a blog built into it.  She updates her blog frequently, and several months after I turned the keys over to her I get this in my inbox from her:

I’ve been blogging all the time but I don’t see my rankings going up.  What am I doing wrong?

This is a rather loaded question because it’s based on the preconception that blogging improves your search engine rankings.  Or let me restate that in a way that more closely relates to this particular preconception: frequently updating your blog will automatically elevate your search engine rankings.

I know that the statement, “Blogging improves your SEO” gets thrown around a lot, and when asked by others, I will affirm that statement.  But that statement on its own isn’t exactly true, it needs outside help in order to live up to its reputation.

I can’t speak for anyone else who makes this statement, but when I say “blogging improves your SEO”, I’m saying it with some particular patterns in mind.  The general pattern I’m referring to is:

1. You continually publish content that resonates strongly with your readers.  Your readers like what you’re offering, they share your information with others and link to your content, blog and website.
2. These links are like “votes” with the search engines, and in a nutshell, the more links you have to your site, the higher your site will rank in the search engines.
3. As more and more people begin linking to your site, your blog is exposed to a larger audience.  Some of these people may even visit your blog through these links, like what they see and link to and share your content again.

This is the basic formula behind the statement “blogging improves your SEO”, and it all starts with the content you’re publishing.  If you are frequently publishing great content, then your readers will share and link to it, and these links will eventually cause your search rankings to get stronger.

In the case of the email I received, it was apparent to me that this person understood that blogging can boost your your site’s search engine rankings, but she didn’t understand the how’s and why’s behind it.

What do you think about the idea of blogging to improve your SEO?  Is this something you actively pursue, or is it just something you combine with your other goals from blogging?