How to Create and SEO Blog Post
If you’re not quite sure what search engine optimization is, go ahead and check out this blog post about how SEO can help your small business, and meet us back here. You’ll want to understand the importance of being found where your customers are before you can dive into the “how”.
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Leveraging Content Marketing
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the most cost efficient way to rank higher in search engine results online.
Well, there’s a few factors that come into play with an efficient content strategy, so let’s focus on the top goals. Think about it, online research is now a big part of the purchase journey. In fact, it was found that nearly 88% of consumers do online research before buying in stores. That figure rose from 81% in 2014, and is only predicted to increase. As information becomes more available, consumers become more educated about their purchases.
Content marketing is a strategy that places your business in front of these researching consumers. An effective strategy has the ability to gain attention from your ideal customers, and provide value that ensures loyalty. Most commonly used content marketing channels include social media, influencer marketing, media spotlights and on-site blogs. By using a mix of these channels, your company can position itself as an expert in the industry, and gain a loyal following of repeat customers.
Related: Claim Your Free Technical SEO Website Audit >>
How Do Blog Posts Help with Marketing?
Blog posts give a big SEO boost to any website, if done correctly.
A blog is an onsite feed to provide value to your audience in your content strategy. Key advantages to an onsite blog include:
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Keyword Optimization
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optimized calls to action
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making the business human
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Controlled marketing message
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Value Added Expertise
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product and promotion spotlights
So what does all of this mean? A blog is a great way to shared owned content that positions your business as an expert in the industry and gives value to your consumer. Whether the blog focuses on ways to efficiently use your product, a spotlight on a business partner, or a behind the scenes look at your business, your content is aimed to catch the eye of your ideal customer. A strong content strategy is mapped out months in advance with focuses in seasonality, keyword focuses, and strong calls to action. Let’s map out the Anatomy of a solid SEO blog post.
Related: 5 Social Media Marketing Tips >>
Optimize your SEO efforts
Draft a Keyword Rich Blog Post
Anatomy of an SEO Blog Post
While I always say that perfection is the enemy of progress, there are some key factors that will help your blog content rank on Google, therefore bringing more customers to your site. In other words, I will NEVER advise to not post content until it has every ingredient below. Getting content out there and put into the crawling queue will always be better than nothing :). With that said, these steps will only boost your original content further.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is number one. There are a few tools you can use to come up with a solid keyword strategy, and one of my favorite is UberSuggest. Simply type in the subject matter of your post and find hundreds of search terms, their current rankings, and similar terms to focus on. The reason why keyword research is so important is because you need these keywords not only in the content, in the H1/H2 optimization, in the meta data and Alt Tags, but it is also just as important to include keywords in your actual URL. If you’re not sure on these definitions, we’re working on an SEO dictionary. Contact us here if you want to be put on the waiting list for free release!
Pro Tip: don’t just keyword stuff. Google still wants you to write for humans, so make sure your content is still made for consumers, not just search engines.
Sitemap
An XML sitemap tells a search engine; like Google, Bing or Yahoo, how to crawl your site. Adding your newest blog post to your sitemap will help guide search engines to read your content and start ranking faster. You can use this XML sitemap generator online, or if you’re using a content management system like Squarespace, this may already be included in your plan.
Internal Linking
Internal linking is an easy way to get a better click through rate on your site. Whenever you draft a new blog post, try to add some links to your past posts or pages that add value to the post. Like we have done to direct you to these top 5 social media marketing tips. Or you can check out more about our services by going to this page.
URL Inspection
URL inspection is a tool within Google Search Console that requests Google to index your URL. In addition you can add a schema markup to your HTML code which directs Google to index the site as an article. We’ll have a how-to schema markup blog coming soon, so stay tuned.
Social Shares
This one is pretty obvious, but the more you can promote your content, the more people have a chance of finding it. You can share your content through Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit and more. But don’t just stop there. You can promote old blogs on your social media as well. Don’t be spammy, but re-sharing a solid post 6 months later only brings new eyes back to your hard work.
What We’ve Learned as SEO Experts
We’ve worked with many small start up brands, and we have all the kudos for you solopreneurs out there! But remember, a solid marketing strategy takes time and effort. As a small business, time is the one non-renewable asset, and we need to keep that in mind. Our customers outsource their content strategy to us so that no time or resources are wasted. You focus on what you do best, and we focus on getting customers in your door. If you’d like to talk further about your strategy, let’s book a coffee coaching session. We’d love to learn more about your small business.