If you’re thinking about writing a blog for your business, chances are you’re all about being read by your customer but not just by the customers who already know where you are but those new ones who come across your site through a search engine. By a search engine, of course, we mean the one and only Google.
How did they find you? Chances are they typed in a few keywords and your website sprung up. If this was a piece of luck, then congratulations. Now it’s time to work out how you can create bigger and better blogs with great, searchable content, using this Search Engine Optimisation or seo guide.
Keyword Research
This forms the cornerstone of your research and will help you plan and edit your content around words and phrases that are most commonly used when searching for a business such as yours. You’re not just looking at keywords but also phrases that represent the problems they want businesses like yours to solve. For example, if you run a dressmaking business, you’d expect to find keywords such as “dressmaker”, “alterations” and so on but you might also find success with phrases such as “how to take a hem up” or “altering a dress that’s too big/small”.
Putting Research Into Practice
Once you’ve got your words and phrases lined up you need to turn that knowledge into a practical tool, so plan out your content carefully.
Google is clever and uses its algorithms to promote high-quality content over and above content that’s poorly written.
While you need to make sure you use your keywords and phrases, you must be careful not to overstuff your blog. Stick to one topic, make it long – somewhere between 800 to 1,500 words and make it readable, practical and useful for your reader.
Those words must be placed naturally within the content and not be an obvious attempt to just place them everywhere. Your reader should not even realize they’re a deliberate placement.
The Behind the Scenes Work
Getting your content spot on is just the start. Along with some great images, there are some other neat little tricks that will help you out.
Hover your mouse over an image on a lot of sites and you’ll find a little caption pops up. The idea is that computers who read to those with poor vision can describe the image on the page. It is also helpful when it comes to making your image as well as your text searchable so think about some keywords relevant to that image that your customer might use to search.
Writing the blog is only ever step one of the process. You’re looking to create a content plan that is deliberate and well thought out. Don’t jump in without first doing your research and then you’ll be on track to making yourself a blog that gets you noticed not on the fifth page of a Google search but right up there at the top.
