SEO Tips for Getting Your Blog Off the Ground
Once seen solely as a public diary, blogs have come a ways since their inception. Although the blogging days reminiscent of “Julie & Julia” are largely gone, blogs themselves aren’t getting any less important. Whether your blog is a standalone site or an asset tied to your business’ e-commerce platform, blog posts are crucial to your digital presence.
Why is a blog so important to your business? Because it offers a prime avenue for generating leads. Consumers have problems that need solving, and they’re often looking for a product or service that can do that. When you create informative blog posts that explain how your product or service addresses their pain points, they’ll take notice. After reading your post, they may be intrigued enough to look at your offering and potentially purchase it.
If you’re in the beginning phase of building your blog, you’ve come to the right place. This article will dive into some of the key strategies associated with search engine optimization. The right SEO tactics will help ensure that audiences are actually getting to your blog and finding the information they’re seeking.
1. Use Keywords to Your Advantage
To start, you may be writing posts based on your own interests or what you think your audience is interested in. While this can work to an extent, there will come a time when you aren’t pinning the tail on the donkey. This is where keywords come into play. With keyword research, you can plan and execute a content strategy that speaks to your audience’s unique needs. It will help you pinpoint what you need to write in order to stand out.
Writing on topics that are most relevant to your target users is how you can build an engaged community. Say you are a law firm specializing in family services. Using keyword research to drive your law firm digital marketing strategy, you may find that “child custody” is well written about, but adoption is not. With this in mind, you may rank higher if you write about “adoption law.” Those looking for adoption assistance may find your blog more easily since you’re writing on subject matter specifically relevant to their search.
Where you rank on the search engine results pages determines how many users will be coming to your site. The further down you rank, the less likely audiences will actually get to your blog post. But with the right keyword research, you can stand out in the eyes of Google for the terms you’re targeting. As a new blog, don’t try to stuff your page with numerous keywords. Instead, it’s best practice to select one to two long-tail keywords to write on per post.
2. Set Up an Organized Blog Structure
If you’re just starting your blog, now is the best time to think about how you want to structure it. You’ve likely come across a blog that was cluttered and too hard to navigate. The chances you would return to said blog are slim to none. When structuring your blog, you’ll want to set up topic tags that can help keep you organized. These tags are essentially thematic labels that you assign to each post.
Don’t get caught creating new tags for the sake of creating them. Having too many topic tags is actually harmful for your SEO, as the algorithm thinks you are duplicating content on your blog. Tags like “gardening,” “garden,” and “outdoor garden” are too similar. Instead, pick one and organize all of your “gardening” posts accordingly.
Lastly, keep in mind how your overall site is set up. It’s better to create a structure with a few key dropdowns than a header cluttered with them. With this methodology, you can internally link posts, which lets search engines know which pages are most important to your site. Spend some time thinking about structure as you create your first few blog posts. By creating a web of interlinked content, you will project authority that search engines will notice.
3. Write for Humans
With SEO on your mind, you may be tempted to write too much for Google and not for your actual audience. This is an easy trap to fall into. The key is to put your audience at the forefront and write for their needs. Creating top-notch, informative posts will keep your readers — and Google — happy.
What does writing a well-thought-out blog post look like? It means doing your research ahead of time, creating well-connected paragraphs, and writing succinctly. When a user comes across your post, they’ll be able to scan it for the answers they’re looking for. Breaking up the post into relevant sections also means that you’re less likely to ramble! Writing clearly, in turn, will win in the eyes of Google, which will see your content as approachable and authoritative.
Along with this, aim to write so clearly that — Google willing — you’ll be featured in a snippet. Featured snippets are the answer boxes you see at the top of a Google search query. For instance, if you ask Google “how long does it take to bake a cake?” it will instantaneously sort through various content that answers the query. A snippet from the chosen site will appear at the top with a direct answer — in this case, the temperature and baking time. Writing with snippets in mind is another way to keep your posts direct and to the point, and it could yield an SEO bonanza.
Takeaways
Creating a new blog is a fun endeavor, so don’t be put off by the SEO aspect of it. With a few key tactics, you can produce a blog that you’re proud of and that your audience will actually find.
Building an SEO-worthy blog takes time, so don’t get discouraged when you don’t see your posts in the top few search queries immediately. Keep generating high-quality content that matches users’ search intent, and the results will come.
