Why Starting a Blog is a Great Idea for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The basic job of search engines like Google is to direct searches to the most relevant content on the web. If you want your company’s website to be found for searches that are relevant to your business, its main pages should definitely be written in a way that targets at least the basic pertinent keywords. However, is that enough? Unfortunately – Nay, not so! In order to rank your web pages well, among other things, Google requires you to constantly post fresh content on your website. Since you cannot keep adding to your main web pages, as this would be tantamount to a marketing disaster, your only solution is to create a blog.
Deciding the Theme of Your Blog: So, what steps should you follow in deciding the theme of your blog? You must first have a clear understanding of who your target audience is. If I am a jewellery retailer, my blog should talk directly to people who fit in with my customer-profile. My blog and posts therein should address topics related to design and colour trends, new interesting materials used for jewellery, news surrounding the latest happenings, and even topics related to fashion and lifestyle. Basically, everything that is of interest to my target audience and directly or indirectly relevant to my business. If I am a B2B entity, my posts should target matters of interest to my buyers.
How to Use Keywords for SEO Success: Each blog post should be focused on one main keyword or phrase, and about 4 or 5 additional ones that are relevant to the main keyword. These keywords should be incorporated into your content. Within the post (blog article)’s content, search engines accord extra weight to headlines, alt tags (assigned to your pictures), and none more so than your article’s main title. Meta Tags are meant to tell search engines what your article is about, so you must include keywords into the Title, Description, and Keyword Tag fields within each page’s source code. You can carry out SEO keyword analysis to figure out what keywords trend within the arena of your business. This will tell you the exact keyword phrases that are searched, and you should target the same.
Creating Blog Articles: Google and other search engines pay the greatest of attention to quality content – and Google especially, has this process down to a tee. So, especially when it comes to articles that will appear within your own website, do not ever put up content just for the heck of it! SEO is a big “technical” goal, but ironically, in order to chase it, your content must be very appealing to human beings! Since actual readers are the heart of google’s endeavours – they must be at the heart of the endeavours of every blog host and post too! There are no short-cuts. Don’t forget to include images. They break the monotony for readers. But, be careful not to use copyrighted pictures.
The Goal: Consistently create valuable content for your target audience, keeping in mind the principles of SEO, and keep checking to see the progress of your posts for their targeted keywords. It takes at least a few months for each post to start doing well on search results. Your aim should be to rank at least on the first page of search results for your targeted keywords. SEO is a learning process. Study which articles are doing well and which aren’t. Adjust your writing accordingly.
Include an option for your posts to be shared on social media channels like Facebook. Share your article on your own social media pages. Also include a comments section so your readers can start a conversation about the contents of your blog post. All this will help your post gain popularity.
A blog is any business’s best bet for on-page (content posted on your own website) SEO. Every moment lost is business lost – It’s really that simple. Put your heart and soul into the blog development process, and it is sure to pay off.
Get blogging now!