Although many bloggers would like to believe that writing quality content is enough to ensure the success of the blog, the somewhat sobering truth is that search engine optimization is actually more important for bloggers than for any other medium. Blogging is a quite dynamic activity, with some people writing multiple blogs a day. For anyone to see a blog on the search engine requires more SEO skills than most.
SEO for blogs can actually help writers hone their creative writing process. Good search engine optimization techniques these days involves a strong grasp of the language, including synonyms and focused topical writing. Learning and maintaining good SEO techniques is good or writing, as the major search engines are becoming smarter when it comes to recognizing what people deem relevant and important.
SEO for blogs also involves keeping the writing as simple as possible, something that many erudite, passionate people have a problem with. Regardless of whether bloggers think it is important, using these techniques will organically create a more palatable writing style, which will be easier to read and perhaps draw in more readers anyway.
Search engine rankings also build off of outbound links, which a well written blog is sure to get many of.