10 Ways to Optimize Your Blog Post for SEO
Don’t know how to optimize your blog? You are not sure if the content you are releasing in blogs is helping your business to be visible?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a crucial strategy used by businesses with web pages so it ranks higher on search engines so more people will find their products and services.
Creative blog content has a big contribution to SEO however, Google gets smarter every day and changes frequently so marketers need to be constantly creating the right kind of blog so that they have the right factors to rank higher than other blogs that are also being published.
How to Use SEO for Your Blog in 10 Ways
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Identify your blog’s target audience
There are many businesses out there that use blogs to catch visitor’s attention so no matter what industry you are in, your blog content should resonate with your target audience as they will be the ones that will read the content.
You should correctly identify who your audience is so you have an understanding of what they are interested in for them to click on your blogs.
Understanding buyer behavior, demographics, and psychographics of your target audience will be your guide in creating the correct blog content that will satisfy and engage your readers as they will find what they are looking for when they click on it.
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Use a catchy title
The title of your blog post is the first thing that your reader will see when they come across your article, and it has a huge influence on whether they will click or move on. A catchy title uses data, asks an interesting question, or evokes curiosity to engage the reader’s interest.
You should use relevant keywords in your title while making it catchy such as inserting emotional and uncommon words to grab the readers’ attention for them to click and read your blog.
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Conduct a keyword research
Keyword research will help you determine what are the popular keywords that people are searching for. When you establish who your target audience is, you need to find out what they are searching for and what ‘keywords’ they are using when they search so you are prepared when you write blogs.
Conducting keyword research makes you ready because you already anticipate what they want and have the blogs with the right title and keywords within the content.
Make sure you have a keyword strategy when writing your content so that the keywords are placed in the right places.
Related: How to Target for Local Keywords: A Guide to Keyword Research for SEO
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Internal linking
Link at least one of your own articles or web pages in your blog. This helps users navigate to other pages.
It engages them more and will build contextual relationships between your web pages. It also ensures it will link back to your website if your article gets shared to another website.
Creating quality content is important as it increases the chances of it being shared to another website.
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Add high-quality visuals
Other than writing relevant and cleverly written content, blogs should contain high-quality visuals and images so that they appear on the search engine results page.
Google also uses visuals for certain keywords so the images and videos should be creative and designed with eye-catching graphics to be a part of the top spot.
The visuals need to be original such as their own images and videos and they need to have a corresponding descriptive alt text within the blog post.
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Make sure your blog is readable
Readability is an important factor for search engines. Readers get frustrated by long and wordy paragraphs and sentences as it makes it harder for them to read.
Blogs should be written by using short sentences, paragraphs, and with proper punctuations.
The blog should use proper hierarchy in terms of headings such as the main title should be H1, the subheadings can be H2, H3, and so on.
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A persuasive call to action
A blog is not complete without a call to action or a CTA. CTA’s are put in place because it leads visitors to the next part through your blog.
CTA’s need to be relevant to the blog and naturally blend within the content. They should also be written persuasively so it influences the reader’s emotion to take the desired action.
CTA’s take many forms so anyone can be creative in creating them such as the common ones like buttons, hyperlinks, or widgets. CTA’s should be bold and enticing so that they are easily seen and influences the reader to take action like buying a product or signing up for a subscription.
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Use meta description
A meta description is for visitors to get a peak of information of what your blog entails. Use long-tail terms so that visitors and Google have a clear understanding of what your blog is about. Use keywords that catch their attention so that they will click because their attention was engaged.
The meta description should be compelling and readable in order for it to rank higher on the results. Try not to make it too wordy but concise yet meaty.
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Update existing content
In order to improve the SEO for your blog, it does not necessarily mean constantly writing new blogs, while it is partly true, you should spend time and effort in improving your existing blog content. It is best to remove outdated and irrelevant content and update the current blog content.
Updating the content will help you to rank higher on SERP and increase the number of visitors and leads. It is also better to spend less time because you are updating existing content rather than making new ones.
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Analyze content results
Analyze whether your content is performing well or not. You can use Google Analytics, a free tool that tracks data and reports about your website’s traffic. Google Analytics is free, but you need to pay a recurring fee if you want more advanced features or the ability to do more with the service.
Knowing content results is important because you will know how much traffic your website is generating and the extent of user engagement.
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Big Easy SEO is a web design, SEO, and digital marketing agency that strives to help small to medium sized businesses boost their brand in the online market and search engines.
Our goal is to provide metrics, results, and services tailor made to your business through a variety of strategies including search engine optimization (SEO), web design, and ads. Contact us now!