What is SEO and why is it important for your business? Well, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and there is a long list of reasons why it is important for your business, but in the grand scheme of things, SEO generates leads and connections with your audience. SEO brings the clients to the yard, and by yard I mean your website. That is our ultimate goal, right? OK, so how do you build SEO? Well, one of the best ways is by creating a blog for your website. However, there is a bit of a science to ‘blogging for SEO,’ and that is what we are going to talk about today – how to achieve high search rankings with your blog posts. Let’s get straight to it!
Lengthy Blog Posts Generate More SEO
In order to generate SEO, your blog posts need to have the right amount of content. It is recommended that each blog post have no less than 300 words, but we recommend a 700-800 word count to increase your SEO. The reason for this is all in relation to the keywords that you should be including in your content, and we will get into that later on in this post, so keep reading.
Blog Consistently
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Blogging for SEO is all about giving Google what they want, and let me tell you – Google is a little bit OCD. Those folks at Google crave and reward consistency when it comes to your blog posts. It goes beyond just deciding how many days per week that you blog – if you choose to blog two days per week, then those two days need to be the same each week. For instance, here at The Storyteller Agency we get really excited for Tuesdays and Fridays because those are the days that we choose to share our creative brains and knowledge with you guys.
Include Keyword-Rich Content in Your Blog Posts
When people are searching online for businesses or services such as yours, what words do they most often type into the Google search box? Jackpot! Those are your keywords. Now, those words need to be scattered throughout the entire content of your blog in order to generate SEO. Be careful though not to flood your content with these keywords, as that can decrease the readability of your post and can actually backfire. Remember what I told you about Google being a bit OCD? Well, too many keywords is the equivalent of clutter, and you won’t get any SEO rewards for that.
Keyword Research
Choosing keywords for your content is no guessing game – it requires some research and will be well worth your time. There are plenty of keyword research tools out there depending on how deep you want to go with your research. Google provides a free tool that is easy to use and would be a great starting point.
Always Include Visually Stimulating Media in Your Blog Posts
The importance of visual content included within each blog post is HUGE, as visual stimulation is what draws people in and holds their attention. We recommend scattering at least three photos into the content of your blog post, but at the very least you need to include one eye-grabbing photo in each post, which will automatically be displayed when posted across your social media platforms – with the exception of Twitter, in which you must manually add the photo yourself. When scattering visual content throughout your blog post, we recommend a pattern of ‘right to left’ down the page, which has been shown to increase the readability of your post.
Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly
Google really likes for your website and content to be easily accessed from any technological device, keeping things clean and simple – don’t make me use another OCD reference. Nowadays it’s proving to be the mobile-friendly way or the highway, so if your business isn’t on the mobile-friendly train, it’s time to hop on and start reaping the benefits, including SEO.
Solve Problems with Your Content
What information is your audience looking for? What are the problems that you can help them solve? Once you figure that out, start writing. If your audience feels like they are benefiting from the content in your blog posts, they are going to come back for more and the more click-through that your post gets, the better your SEO.
Categorize and Tag All Blog Posts
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Picture this – your blog as a whole is a recipe box and each post is an individual recipe. How hard would it be to find each recipe without the categories? Exactly. That is why you need to place each blog post into its designated category. Now, tagging a blog post is basically adding the keyword search terms that are relevant to each post and makes it easier for your audience to find. The proper tags will increase the SEO of your blog post.
Are you interested in learning more about how creating a blog can benefit your business? Reach out to us at The Storyteller Agency. Call us at 850.267.0931 or send us an email to info@storytelleragency.com. We are bursting at the seams with blog and SEO knowledge and would love to help you out!
