Publishing regular blog posts can be an excellent marketing strategy. Not only is blog writing extremely cost-effective, but this type of content can be an excellent way to engage your audience while also boosting your search engine rankings in the process. Not sure where to begin when it comes to blogging for search engine optimization (SEO)? There are a few tips worth keeping in mind.
DO Keyword Research
Your blog posts will have a better chance of being ranked by search engine algorithms if they contain the same short- and long-tail keywords that your target audience is already searching for. Unfortunately, you can’t really guess what your audience is searching for unless you take some time to conduct some actual keyword research.
There are plenty of free and paid keyword research tools available these days, so take advantage. Once you have a better feel for what your target audience is researching, you can begin covering these topics and incorporating these keywords in your blog.
DON’T Stuff Those Keywords
You’ll need to be careful about how you incorporate those keywords, though. Many years ago, bloggers would engage in a black-hat SEO technique known as “keyword stuffing,” or intentionally inserting as many SEO keywords into content as possible in order to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs). While this strategy may have been effective for a little while, it didn’t take long for Google to revamp its algorithms. Today, Google actually penalizes websites that have keyword-stuffed content.
When using keywords for SEO purposes in your blog, then, it’s important to incorporate those keywords as naturally as possible. Otherwise, you’ll actually be doing more harm than good.
DO Insert Strategic Backlinks
Using backlinks in your blogs can also be a great way to boost your SEO. A backlink refers to a link to another authoritative website that is relevant to the topic at hand. This could be a link to another industry site or even to another one of your own blogs. Incorporating strategic backlinks can increase your “Quality Score” and enhance your SEO.
DON’T Beat a Dead Horse
Last but certainly not least, try to avoid covering the same blog topics that have already been done by your competitors. Unless you have something new and exciting to add, it’s probably best to brainstorm new topics altogether. The more unique your blog topics are, the more likely they are to actually be useful to your target audience. Unique blogs are more likely to be shared on social media, which can also boost your SEO. When brainstorming new blog topics, think to yourself, “is this something that I would want to read?”
There’s a lot to do (and not do) when you’re blogging as part of an ongoing SEO/marketing strategy. If you don’t have a lot of blogging experience, it can be a little overwhelming. By working with a professional marketing team like CleverLight Media, you can get the help you need optimizing your blog content for today’s search engines. Contact us today to learn more!
