Whether you’re new to SEO or a seasoned expert, I’m here to tell you that your blog content matters. By saying goodbye to your new hire blogs and telling people what everyone’s favourite biscuit is, you can say hello to blog content that actually matters.
What Should Blog Content Do?
Before I get into the actionable tips for you to take away, first, I need to cover what your blog content should actually do for you and your SEO efforts.
Above all else, your business blog is there to serve your audience. These blogs will be used to provide value to your visitors and potential customers. Your blog should be there to;
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answer questions about your product, services or industry
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provide solutions to your audience’s problems
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share other relevant information in your niche
It’s not there to share the news that Debbie from Accounting is celebrating her 3-year work anniversary. These are one of the many blogging mistakes that people tend to make when they first start out.
It’s all about creating high-quality content that is relevant to both you as a business and your audience. In turn, this meets the needs of your readers, can improve your engagement rates and encourage people to come back to you time and time again.
How To Increase Traffic To Your Blog
So, how do we make the blog pieces we create ‘SEO friendly’?
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Keyword Research
The first thing we want to do is research relevant keywords that our audience is searching for. Using free tools like Google Keyword Planner or paid tools like Semrush, you can find keywords that are related to what you do.
Say you sell dog leads; in your research, you may come across people searching for things like ‘which dog lead’ or ‘best dog lead for a pug’ - these are things you can blog about! They answer customers' questions and can provide a huge amount of value.
Once you’ve got your keywords, you want to weave these into your content naturally. From your heading, subheadings and the content in between. But the key word here is naturally. Don’t force it - Google doesn’t like keyword spam!
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Structure
Consider your structure! You want people to be able to scan and digest your content easily, so you want to present it in a way that does exactly that.
You can do this by using short paragraphs, bullet points and splitting up your content using subheadings. Blog content can often be lengthy, and maybe your user is just searching for that one specific answer. We want our users to be able to scan the text and easily pick out exactly what it is they need.
Not only is this good for the user, but it’s also great for search engines. By using heading tags, you’re telling the likes of Google what the structure and hierarchy of your content is, making it easier for them to understand and then rank.
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Use Links
Link your socks off - but also don’t overdo it. Your blog pieces should include two different types of links, internal links and external links.
Internal links are good at connecting the dots between the content on your website. Say we wrote that piece about choosing the right dog lead, we’d probably want to link back to our dog lead page. This helps the user in their website journey and search engines understand the wider context of our website.
External links are also really helpful if you’re citing information, especially if you have got it from reliable sources. If search engines see you using high-quality sources to get your point across, it’s a thumbs up from them.
Kick Start Your Blogging Growth
So, remember first to make your blog content count - because not all content is good content! Answer questions, solve problems, and provide further industry insight. Then, ensure it’s easy to read, well cited, guides the reader and includes keywords to help your SEO efforts.
Why not start off by looking more into your keywords? What are users searching for that’s related to what you do? What questions do they have? Where can you add value? To us, that’s the best place to start…
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