Whether you’re blogging to promote your business or just for laughs, doing blog SEO right can get you a lot of new readers. With the right content and the right keywords, you can get your content in front of the people you want to read it. You can even increase conversions and strengthen your brand.
The number one thing you can do to improve your blog SEO is fill it with great content, and refresh that content regularly. Use keywords appropriate to your industry or services, and consider the search intent readers have when they type those keywords into a search engine. Prioritize readability, and make sure both your on-page and off-page SEO elements are on point.
Make High-Quality Content Your Top Priority
Publishing high-quality content is the single most effective thing you can do to improve your blog SEO. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing want to promote high-quality content that offers something of value to users. Whether you’re providing information or entertainment, you want to produce the best content you can for your readers.
Good content is interesting and useful, and represents a deep understanding of your field. It should be easy to read, well organized, completely unique, fresh, and it should demonstrate what Google calls E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Don’t be afraid to work with subject matter experts and thought leaders to generate authoritative content for your blog.
Consider Search Intent
It’s not enough anymore for readers to accidentally stumble upon your blog because it happened to use the same search terms they entered into Google. Today’s search engine algorithms consider the search intent of the user, or what they mean to achieve from the search. Readers should be finding your blog on purpose because it contains content they want. Analyze the highest-ranking search returns for your topics to determine what information readers are searching for, and what format they want it in, so you can give it to them.
Prioritize Readability
No one wants to tackle a wall of text. If your content isn’t easy to read – or even to skim – then readers aren’t going to bother with it. Improve your bounce rates by making blog content easy to read. Use short sentences and break up content into short paragraphs of no more than four lines. Add visual elements, like photos, infographics, and videos or gifs. Incorporate subheadings (and use your SEO keywords in them). Use simple language. Add bulleted or numbered lists where appropriate.
Adjust Your On-Page SEO
Adjusting your on-page SEO might require the services of a Phoenix SEO agency, but it’s worth paying for someone to tweak the technical aspects of your blog SEO. However, if you’re on a tight budget, you can still do a lot to adjust your on-page SEO without bringing in an expert. You should learn how to edit metadata so that you can add relevant keywords to your title and headings tags and create a compelling meta description to draw in more traffic from organic search.
Create concise, descriptive URLs that tell users what kind of content they can expect from each page. Incorporate your target keywords into the body of your content, but don’t overdo it – use a single primary keyword three to six times in the body of your blog post. Add alt text to images to make your blog more accessible to those with visual impairments. Include internal links between blog posts or between your posts and other parts of the site, and don’t be afraid to link out to authoritative sites you use as sources.
Refresh Older Content
As content ages, it can become outdated. The search intent behind the keywords you used can evolve with time. Your industry can change. Products you reviewed can become obsolete. As a result, your rankings can fall.
Refresh older content regularly. Update sources or facts that have become outdated. Revise keyword optimization with an eye towards search intent. Add new, more relevant calls to action and advice. Remove sections of content that have lost their relevance.
Accumulate Backlinks
Backlinks are a powerful way to build your site’s authority and climb in search rankings. There are plenty of ways to earn backlinks, but one of the most effective ones is to simply produce useful, authoritative, entertaining content that people want to link to and share. You can also reach out to other blog owners or webmasters to see if they’d be open to linking back to your blog.
Want to get more readers’ eyes on your blog? It’s time to focus on your blog SEO. With the right SEO strategy, you can grow your readership more than you ever thought possible.
