Business blogging has quickly gained popularity as brands of all sizes have realized its benefits to raising brand exposure, attracting visitors, and generating leads.
But your blogging efforts can only be successful if you take advantage of this marketing strategy’s significant search engine optimization potential.
If you are looking to grow your business and enhance your visibility online, take these 8 steps to format your blog posts and create an SEO-perfect business blogging framework.
Blogging for SEO: How to write the SEO Perfect Blog
1) Find Your Keywords
First, you should find one or two long-tail keywords on which to focus your post. These keywords will be phrases that are between 4 and 6 words long, and should consist of common search terms among your target audience. Keyword research tools can help you find the long-tail keywords on which to focus for maximum search volume and potential exposure.
2) Choose the Title Wisely
Your post’s title should accomplish two things: raise user interest in the content and strategically/naturally include a keyword. The title is what users will see on their search engine results pages, and whether or not it sounds interesting will determine whether you receive the clicks you want. At the same time, natural integration of a long-tail keyword will make a major difference as search engines scan your post for SEO relevancy.
3) Optimise the URL
Your URL should be consistent with your title and, if possible, include at least part of the long-tail keywords you are focusing on. At the same time, it should also help users identify the topic they’re about to read. This URL guide helps you better understand the impact the URL can make on your blog’s SEO.
4) Add Images With Alt Text
Search engines look for alt text on your images, which tells them about your visual content. As a result, alt text that incorporates your keyword is crucial for SEO success. It’s just one of how you should optimise your image for search engine optimisation.
5) Include Internal and External Links
Including links lets search engines know that your post is a hub for information and that you are using other sources to back up your statements. As a result, your content’s relevancy scores increase. Of course, you should only link where appropriate, both to pages on your own website and external sources.
6) Strategically Place (and Write) Subheadings
One giant wall of text will not help you succeed with search engines. Instead, break up your post through individual subheadings for your various sections. These subheadings also give you an opportunity to add your long-tail keyword in your post in a natural way.
7) Think About Your Meta Description
Your meta description is the short paragraph that shows up under your headline in search engine results pages. If you leave it blank, search engines like Google simply pull in the first characters of your post, potentially cutting off mid-sentence. Manually adding your own description allows you to add text that not only includes your keywords but also convinces potential visitors to read your content.
8) Incorporate Yoast to Perfect Your Strategy
Yoast is a WordPress plugin that allows you to optimise all of the above for each of your blog posts. It checks the presence of a focus keyword in your URL, headline, meta description, and elsewhere. In addition, you can even use it to check whether your blog post is easy enough to read and whether the keywords seem naturally integrated into your blog post. The result is content that is ideally optimised for search engines and gets you the visitors you crave.
Of course, if you work with us, you get all of the above. We build Yoast into all of our website and use it in our own content marketing efforts. So for an effective business blogging presence that makes the most out of the potential traffic you can get from Google, Bing, and other search engines, contact us.
Further Reading
What are Personalised URLs (PURLs) and Why You Should Be Using Them
Using Inbound Marketing to Create Valuable Leads
Small Business Tips: Getting Started With Social Media
Digital Marketing Partnership Success: How to Make the Most of Yours
The Importance of Direction in Web Design
