How To Search Engine Optimise Your Content
Today I review some of the best strategies for writing great content that gets ranked well in Google.
Often business owners across Fife in St Andrews, Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy ask me the following :
“What are we going to do, how are we going to get to the top of Google, what should we write about?”
Fortunately I have 8 blog marketing tips I can share with you today.
1. Write Naturally - Write Great Content
You should really write for your reader. That's what Google wants, they want you to write for your reader, write in a natural human way, don't spam your copy with lots of keywords. Don't stuff your copy every single keyword that you want to be ranked for in Google. It doesn't work like that anymore; maybe years ago it used to work but not anymore!
Google has some of the most intelligent people in the world working for them. They can soon spot if you're a business playing tricks, and as a result you will get pulled up by Google. It could result in you losing your internet presence. It can be as devastating as losing your physical space in a normal offline business setup.
2. Answer Each Customer Question As A Separate Blog Post
Write something you would like to read. I always recommend answering questions on your website. This is what your blog really should be used for. Sit down and come up with the top 100 questions your customers regularly ask you. Next try and answer each question with 400-600 words - hopefully more.
If the question is about a problem, a comparison or a price, go to great lengths to answer it in full. You know what it's like personally when you're searching for something online, you want to find out quickly what’s the best service, comparison or price. These are the types of things people are searching for and that's what you want to be found for. For each question you need to have a blog post that specifically answers it.
3. Include Your Keywords In The Blog Title
It's critical that your keywords appear in your blog title. So many blog posts get written, they're very good content, and then the writer will shoot themselves in the foot because they haven't used the keyword in the title. Google relies on the title for indexing. It's also important you take on board the fact that there are about 200 factors that determine how well your blog post will rank in Google.
4. Spend Time Crafting A Compelling Description
Take note that Google doesn’t use the description to rank your blog post, but it does use the description as part of your listing when your keyword gets searched on and display in the page results. That's why you really need to write it for the reader, as it needs to be compelling copy to ensure you get the click through to your webpage.
5. Use The WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin
Over 20% of all the websites in the world are run on Wordpress (.org, not .com), so if you are using Wordpress.org, then use a plugin called WordPress SEO by Yoast. It allows you to fill in several boxes that improve your positioning through search engine optimization. One of these boxes is for title, and another one is for description. It is easy to use.
6. Categorise Your Blog Posts
Make sure you categorize your posts properly. You might have 10 different categories on your website for different services or products. Develop different categories that make it easier for Google to understand what category your content is in.
7. Embed Audio or Video Media Into Your Posts
Going forward if you write a solid piece of content, which actually answers a customer’s question, think how you can improve it by putting in a relevant SoundCloud player, YouTube video, or SlideShare presentation. It doesn't have to be your own content. Google loves it when you make the article sticky, which is when people spend longer on your website because you entertain or educate them with more information. As you can imagine, when you land on a page that's text, has bullet points, subheadings, a video or a presentation, it all makes for a good experience. The visitor is getting their question answered and being entertained.
8. Stick To Quality Content Over Quantity
Business owners often get confused about links, often I hear them saying let's link out to other businesses so as they will link back to us. They imagine this will help improve their listings. Well, it kind of works and doesn't work. I always think, if you write great content, people will want to share it, and you should leave it at that. If it's great content, other authority sites will link to you because they feel you've written a good piece on a related subject.
It's not really a numbers game, it's a quality game. If you try and spam the search engines by having lots of links, then that's a way to shoot yourself in the foot. I urge you to think more about about quality rather than quantity. Google is very smart, and they will come down on you like a ton of bricks if you play any games. It's not worth the risks.