If you are writing blog posts on your website but not optimising your posts for search engines, you could be missing out on a big opportunity to bring more visitors to your site.
Writing blogs that are optimised for search engines is not as simple as thinking about a topic and writing about it. There is nothing wrong with doing this of course (and I have been guilty of it), but if you are going to take the time to write a blog post, you might as well leverage what your are writing so that it is optimised for search engines which means it is more likely to be found by people searching the web.
More eyeballs on your site = more potential customers or sales. It will also help grow your authority on a given topic.
Writing content is a form of currency that is crucial to any business’s online marketing. More people are now searching online for answers so ranking in the search engines for what people are searching for is critical. The key is to be strategic in your approach using SEO tactics.
So here are some tips to get you started:
Find an interesting subject and offer your unique point of view
A good way to do this is to skim the news and see if there is any news relevant to your industry. If there is, why not write about it and offer your point of view. Sometimes things happen in other industries that you can relate to within your own. Consider writing about it. Another idea is to think about all the questions people ask you on a daily basis. Perhaps this is also a topic of interest worthy of writing about.
Conduct keyword research
Once you found a topic worthy of writing about, you need to conduct keyword research. This is a way of sense checking that people are actually searching for what you are planning to write about. You need to make sure that there are enough people searching for that keyword to make it worth your while. You also need to check that the keyword is not too competitive.
Also, make sure that what you are writing about is related to the products or services that you offer. Consider if the keywords you have chosen are keywords related to research or purchase intent. It’s ok to use either, but if they are doing research, build in a mechanism where you can capture a name or email address so you can try and build a relationship with them before they are ready to buy.
Pick your keywords
Select just one keyword for each post and vary the keyword with two or three variations of that keyword. You don’t want to spam your page and you still need to make it easy for other people to read. For example, if “car mats” was your main keyword vary the keyword to use other terms such as “Holden Car Mats,” “Rubber Car Mats,” or “Car Mats Rubber.”
Optimise the Blog Post
Once you have selected your keywords, you need to ensure that they are contained within your blog post. Specifically, the keyword should be in the URL, page title, description as well as in any headings. Your images should also be optimized for the keyword.
Use Anchor Text
Link one of those keywords to another related page on your website. Ideally, the link should go to a related page that has a strong call to action e.g. buy genuine car mats.
Share the content across social networks
The next step is to share your post across social media networks. These include mediums such as Facebook, Twitter or even LinkedIn if appropriate. Search engines are now paying a lot more attention to social networks and we will soon find that content that is shared across the web will rank strongly in the search engines. Use the keywords that you are targeting when you share the content. If you have a WordPress blog, you can use social plugins like FBLike, LinkedIn Share, TweetMeMe, Sexy Bookmarks, or the AddThis buttons.
You can also use the Facebook comments plugin to help increase user interaction with your content. Ensure your blog has an RSS Feed so people can read your content even if they are not visiting your website directly.
Find links
Getting links to your website is critical to help boost your site in search engine rankings. How many links do you need? The answer is not so straight forward but you need higher quality links than your competitors who are ranking above you. There are some free and paid tools that can help you find links.
Track the performance
Monitor your blog post and website in terms of how it ranks for the keywords you selected. Does it appear on page one? If not, what page does it appear on? Check your Google Analytics as well for what keywords are driving people to your site. If you check your progress, you will see what posts are working and which ones are not working so well with your readers. Repeat the tactics that worked. You can always strengthen your blog with more keywords.
As you can see SEO is a gradual process that can be time-consuming. Setting aside a small amount of time each week will mean that you will make progress over a period of time. The length of time will depend on how competitive your market is.
There is an art to selecting the right keywords for search. It is worth investing in the services of an SEO professional to assist you in keyword selection, SEO Copywriting and Linkbuilding. Swoop Digital can help search engines optimise your website with our comprehensive SEO Services.