Imagine that your business had a massive advertising budget, the type of money that it takes to make a Super Bowl commercial.
But instead of airing your ad during the Big Game, you decided that it would play on TV during 2 a.m. Law & Order re-runs. How many people would see it?
The scenario we describe here – unlikely as it might seem – is essentially what happens when you write blog posts without thinking about search engine optimization (or SEO): You put a lot of work into creating something valuable, and then ensure your target audience won’t see it.
When you practice SEO for blogging, you’re making it easy for people looking for the keywords connected to your business to find you on search engines.
Want to make sure your content finds the right audience? Here are a few tips from our partners at Hubspot to help you master SEO for blogging.
1. Long-Tail Keywords Are Key
No one wants to read a blog post that’s overflowing with keywords. Not your readers, who will be turned off by unnatural repetition. And certainly not Google, which penalizes websites that engage in keyword stuffing.
Instead of just overusing a few short keywords again and again, sprinkle long-tail keywords throughout your post. The term “long-tail keywords” refers to a specific phrase that people search for when they’re interested in your business – or what your business makes or does.
So if you had a landscaping company in Philadelphia, you’d choose the long-tail keyword “Philadelphia lawn care,” as opposed to something like “landscaping.” There’s less competition for long-tail keywords, and you’ll see higher quality traffic.
Once you’ve chosen your keywords, you’ll need to make sure you’ve placed them in four specific sections of the blog post:
- The title/headline, which is crucial to letting readers – and search engines – know if your post is relevant to them. The keyword should appear within the first 65 characters of the title.
- The body of the post, provided you can use your keywords in a natural, reader-friendly way.
- The URL, which helps search engines determine what your post is about.
- The meta description, which gives readers and search engines a quick recap of what your blog post is about.
The words you choose are important, but so are the images you include with your post. Read on to see how to optimize your images.
2. Can Search Engines See Pictures?
Images are important for readers on the web. They help illustrate your topic, and make the page seem more lively. But search engines don’t view your posts the same way readers do, which is why you need to optimize your images by making sure their alt text includes your chosen keywords.
3. Make Sure Your Blog Is Responsive
Our third SEO for blogging tip focuses not on what you write, but how readers view it. According to Google, more people search for things on mobile devices than on computers.
Google has begun to display mobile-friendly results first, which is why it’s important that your blog appear on a mobile-friendly – or better yet, responsive – website.
When you use responsive design, your page can adapt to whatever device displays it: mobile, desktop, tablet, etc., while still using the same URL.
As Hubspot puts it: “This helps your post’s SEO because any inbound links that come back to your site won’t be divided between the separate URLs. Any SEO power you gain from these links will be centralized, helping Google more easily recognize your post’s value and rank it accordingly.”
Do you need help with SEO for blogging? Does the idea of writing a blog in addition to the rest of your workload seem overwhelming? Contact IQnection.
Our SEO experts that can find the perfect keywords to attract your audience, while our digital marketing team creates blog posts that are both useful and engaging. With our help, you’ll produce content that establishes you as an expert in your field.
