The Marketing Edge – 5 blogging tips to improve SEO

According to Hubspot, “blogs help businesses attract new website visitors and convert them into leads. Each time you publish an original blog post, you’re creating a new opportunity to get found in search engines, get shared on social media, get linked to by other sites, and get a new person to inter-act with your company.”

In fact, Hubspot found that companies that published 16 or more blog posts per month got almost 3.5 times more traffic than companies that published between 0 – 4 monthly posts. Calum Brannan of SO ME Academy also reports that “the average blog attracts 54 percent more visitors and gets indexed 430 percent more by search engines than traditional websites that don’t have a blog.”

Needless to say, to compete in today’s digital world and increase your search engine ranking, an engaging blog can be helpful. Your blog is the place to show your expertise and build a relationship with your clients. Your content must be engaging in order to stand out among millions of other blogs on the Internet and attract readers.

Here are five blogging tips to improve SEO:

Meet your readers

Your audience is the key to your blog’s success. Make sure you are attracting the right audience by gathering information about them that can help you to create content to meet their needs. Remember that a well-crafted blog can attract new clients to your business by answering questions they may have about the product or service you offer.

Keep them hooked

A catchy blog title and attractive photograph does a better job of attracting readers than written content. About 80 percent of readers will read your headline and only 20 percent will read the rest of your blog. Make sure that the 20 percent keep reading by telling a story in your content that both engages and informs your audience.

Create your image

Your blog forms your audience’s first impression of you. Make sure it’s a good one by creating an image that reflects your brand’s goals, values and expertise. Once you have this image in mind, make sure that it is consistently reflected through your blog’s content and voice. Be sure your content uses language your audience can understand, in a professional and helpful manner, without sounding condescending.

Quality and quantity

The purpose of a blog is to share current information. You need to post frequently in order to keep your blog at the top of your readers’ minds and search engines. Frequency can vary depending on your needs. Posting too often can actually drive readers away by decreasing the quality of your blog. Aim for two to three highly relevant and engaging blogs per week. Also, to make your blogs more conversational, respond to readers’ comments as they are posted.

Size and SEO matter

In order to be found by your potential readers, your blog must have search engine optimization (SEO). Be mindful of this when creating content for your blog. In order to be search engine optimized, a blog must have a minimum of 300 words. Along with this size requirement, your blog must also have keywords relevant to your content that will be used to search for it.