Regarding digital content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) is how people find your content. The more optimized your blogs are, the higher they will rank in search engine result pages (SERP). Your goal is to get to the first page so that you get as much traffic to your sight as possible.
But SEO can be a fine balance. Keyword stuffing is not enough, and it can actually hurt your chances in the long run. So, how do you boost SEO in your blogs? Here are a few of our tips:
Research Keywords and Use Them Wisely
As said above, keyword stuffing is never a good idea. However, you should utilize keywords. This is typically the most basic cornerstone of written content SEO.
When researching keywords to build your blog around, search for things like keyword difficulty and how often a keyword is used, as well as how often a keyword is searched for. This will give you an idea of how likely your blog will be to appear at the top of most relevant searches. Make a list of relevant keywords that you can perform well in.
Plan your content around these keywords, breaking your blog into sections, with each one focusing on a particular keyword. Have one focus keyword, which should be included in the title, meta description, and intro of your blog. Secondary keywords can be worked into the blog naturally, but make sure not to overuse them.
Hook Readers With a Great Title
The title of your blog should include the focus keyword of the blog. However, if your focus keyword is “Minneapolis tax lawyer,” you don’t want the title of your blog to be “Minneapolis Tax Lawyer.” That’s boring, and it doesn’t engage with the reader much. Instead, think about what you want to say about Minneapolis tax lawyers. Is it, “What To Look For In a Minneapolis Tax Lawyer”? Or perhaps “Why Hire a Minneapolis Tax Lawyer In October”?
Your title should be specific, telling readers what they’ll find in your blog and encouraging them to read more. Don’t give them all the information, but leave them confident that you have the information they need. Your title should also reflect the tone of your brand. If your brand is upbeat and fun, have a more conversational, fun, or clever title. If your brand is more serious, stick to a more professional title.
Structure Your Blog Posts
No one wants to read a blog that is simply one big block of text, and a blog like that isn’t going to perform very well on Google or any other search engine. Instead, structure your blog posts. Have a compelling introduction that hooks the readers, then break the body into different sections, divided by subheadings to vary your formatting. You should also consider using bolded text, bullet points, and other formatting variations. Images can also be a terrific break from the text for a blog post.
Not only will this be easier to read, but it will also have a significant impact on our SEO. Google analyzes those formatting variations and structure of blogs and tends to prioritize those as higher quality content. These blogs will appear further up in SERP and you’ll likely find more readers.
Give Your Blog Post Length
Best SEO practices recommend having a blog that is at least 300 words in order to adequately cover the topic and catch the attention of Google’s algorithm. The average blog is typically about 500 words. But readers like a deep dive that really gives them a clear understanding of the subject. For that, it helps to go a little longer. Our blogs, for example, tend to land somewhere around 750-800 words. You can even go over 1,000 if you want to delve into a particular subject fully.
Always Add Metadata and Alt Text
Metadata describes what people will see when they find your blog post on a SERP. It includes a title and a small blurb describing the blog. They can then click the link to follow to your blog post. Google automatically generates this metadata, but it’s important that you add it yourself. This way you can have more control over it and ensure it’s SEO optimized.
Consider altering your title slightly for the metadata so that the primary keyword is at the front of it. Also mention the primary keyword and, if possible, at least one secondary keyword in the meta description. This can boost your SEO and ensure that your description isn’t awkward and cut off, as often happens with automatically generated descriptions.
Alt text is used for images to give a description of the image for those who have vision impairments. This not only makes your blog more accessible but also gives you an opportunity to add keywords where they fit naturally. Alt text itself is also a significant factor in boosting your search engine ranking.
