3 Tips for Optimizing Your Blog Content

3 Tips for Optimizing Your Blog Content So You’ll Get Noticed

Regardless of how small or large your company is, a blog can be a significant marketing opportunity for you. Not only can it attract a large number of potential customers to your website via a blog post that is of interest to them, but it can also generate numerous leads simply by encouraging readers to subscribe to your blog (which will have them coming back to your blog for additional content later on).

As long as your blog has proper SEO, it is easy for search engines to locate and analyze the content on your blog. It also makes it easy for your target audience to locate you. Here are three tips that will help you in the optimization of your blog content in terms of SEO.

Tip #1: Take the Time to Perform Keyword Research

In terms of SEO, the most important element is keyword research. The key is finding keywords that your readers will potentially use that are related to your products and/or services, and then include those keywords in your blog posts. This will increase the chances of your posts appearing in the search engines when users conduct search queries.

There are multiple tools available to assist you in your keyword research task. The most popular tool is the Google AdWords Keyword Planner since the Google search engine is the most popular search engine used by individuals. However, there are plenty of other keyword research tools that are can prove to be beneficial.

Once you have performed your research and decided on the keywords that you want to utilize in your content, you need to make sure that you are using them effectively in the content. Ideally, you will only want to use two to three keywords in a single blog post to ensure that the content remains focused. Then, of course, you need to optimize those keywords by strategically placing them throughout the content. Ideally, the keywords should be placed at the beginning of the title (within the first 65 characters) and then scattered sporadically throughout the body of the text.

It is very important that you avoid stuffing the keywords in your content, which is when you would literally stuff the keywords into your content and make the blog difficult for your readers to read. This is not only frustrating for your readers, but it is also a direct violation of Google’s policies.

Tip #2: Focus on Optimizing Numerous Blog Features

In order to take full advantage of your keywords, it is important that you target specific areas of your blog post. It is common for this to be overlooked, but it is crucial that you don’t do this, as it is can result in higher rankings for your page and higher placement in the SERPs.

• URL – The easiest place for you to optimize is the blog post’s URL. You will want to keep it simple, while also including one or two keywords. This will help the search engine easily understand what your article includes.
• Length – As a general rule, longer articles will be rated higher than shorter articles. So, make sure that your articles are 300 words at minimum. Keep in mind that if your posts are too long, then there is a chance that users won’t read the entire post and could avoid many of your posts in the foreseeable future. Whenever possible, a good rule of thumb in terms of word count is 500 to 700 words.
• Images – When placing images within your blog posts, make sure that you are including alternate text (aka alt text). This will allow you to describe your images for individuals utilizing text-reading software as well as search engines. Make sure to add a keyword or two within the alt text, as this will help search engines locate your post and your post will rank higher.

Tip #3: Make Sure to Use Links to Reference Other Pages and Your Own

Google, and other search engines, will pay attention to the number of times that your blog posts are linked to and the number of links that are contained within the post itself. By making use of internal and external links, you will be able to take full advantage of this particular metric.

Internal links, which are links that reference specific areas of your website, will assist search engines with indexing your website and in the identification of keywords. If you link a specific keyword, then this can help in increasing page rank since it demonstrates that your website has more related content. This linking makes that content eligible for higher page ranks as well. The internal linking process helps to keep your readers on your website by continuing to go from one page to the next rather than going to a different website.

External linking is just as important as internal linking. Like how we linked to Google's Adwords Keyword Planner above. With external linking, the importance is more practical and you need to focus more on etiquette. When you are creating your posts and decide to mention another article or blog, you need to be polite and include a link to it. In many cases, they will notice and offer a link back in their own blog, which can help your own page rank. In addition, search engines utilize external links in the identification of keywords, which will help bring your blog posts higher in the SERPs for your keywords.

It is important to keep in mind that, just like keyword stuffing, it is possible to link stuff. If you add too many links to your posts, it can appear spammy. This can not only deter readers, but it can lower your ranking. Therefore, focus on creating content that it valuable and helpful with useful and relevant links.

Conclusion

While there is not one specific strategy that you should focus on when it comes to optimizing your blog content, it is important that you focus on SEO at all times. By ensuring that all of your blog posts are always search engine-friendly, you will be able to realize the benefits of more readers and increased leads.

For more information on SEO optimization for your blog, send us an e-mail or call us at WebDetail.