Why should I blog?

It is a necessity to blog on your website. Regardless of the kind of site you have, be it an eCommerce site, a small business site, or a portfolio, you need to at least occasionally blog. Blogging is the best thing you can do for Search Engine Optimization, (SEO), but it can also be a great marketing tool for other campaigns and services.

SEO Blogging

Google likes to see active sites that are relevant; adding new content regularly needs to be a component of your ongoing SEO strategy. This will really help your site ranking in Google. By using the keywords that you are ranking for in the content, you can add other keywords to help you rank for those. Your blog also provides you with an extra opportunity to target search intent.

Why should a blog consider SEO

Blogging is a marketing tool

A blog is a great marketing tool for every website. It allows visitors to learn your brand, products, or services better. Additionally, your blog is a great way to present yourself as a good source of information. Many of the visitors to your site are not committed to your or your products and services.  An informative, well-written blog will help; if you can provide readers with useful information in a post, they’re more likely to remember that and become a customer in the future.

Setting up a new blog

When starting a blog, prepare first. Invest in doing proper keyword research and carefully consider your niche in your industry.

What should you blog about?

First, you need ideas. I come up with them at random times, when clients ask the same questions often when driving to a meeting. But where can you find inspiration for a great topic?

Keyword research

You’ll have to decide which terms you want to be found before you start writing your content. A good SEO agency will provide you with a list of keywords based on research with tools from several tools that use Google to determine them.  We try to get inside people’s heads and find out which words they use while searching for your type of business. When you write your blog posts, use these exact terms in your content to rank for them. For example, we would use the “best SEO company in NJ,” as it is one of our keywords. (Like how I slipped that in there?) So the first step is Keyword research when performing SEO copywriting and is an important part of any successful SEO strategy.

Targeting the right search intent with your blog

With keyword research, you need to not only think about what words they are typing in but also consider what they are looking for. When people use a search engine, they have a particular intent for each search. The SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) gives you an idea as to what they are looking for. If they are simply looking for information, the search engines will want to show them informational pages. That is where a blog could be useful as a marketing tool, for example, in an online store. When there is commercial or transactional intent, your product pages will be targeted, but informational intent is more commonly requested, so you also want to rank for that. Your blog can be used to write an informative, relevant article to drive visitors to your site

Depending on your niche, the goals you have for your site, and for your blog, which kind of intent you target will vary. Regardless of which intent, be sure to consider it when you choose your subjects.

Where do you get inspiration for your posts?

If you’ve done your keyword research properly, you’ll end up with a long list of keywords and key phrases to write content about, and which intent you want to target. This, unfortunately, is not enough, you need an angle or a story to write about, and include the keywords.

Finding inspiration is easier than you think; consider work you have done recently, comments from customers, current events, as sources for inspiration. I read a lot, and often come across articles, and then I write my version of that article. When an idea comes to me, I immediately add it to a list I keep on my phone, so I do not forget, inspiration can come at just about anytime. We do strongly recommend that you do not take a blog or article someone else has posted and repost it. Aside from being plagiarism, Google will see that, and it will hurt your ranking. We have clients that have found great articles, and they do not have the time to sit and rewrite them, so we do it for them. These can come from trade magazines, newspapers, and even other posts.

How to write a high-quality blog post

Any writing requires some skills – some are better at it than others. We will offer a few tips for you, but we want to introduce you to a few important concepts that impact the way your post will rank: originality and readability.

Original content

Like we stated earlier, originality is important. Your posts should not be repetitive, original, and fresh. The posts you create should be about what makes your company unique in your industry. The more competitive your industry, the more important being unique is.

Readable content

Once you have written your post, you need to be sure it is easy to read. Readability is one of the areas that impact the page score with Google. There needs to be a clear structure with subheadings and paragraphs that are logical to make it rank well with search engines.

Some tips on how to write awesome blog posts

Plan the writing first

Think through your idea and what you want to write. What is the message and who are you targeting with that message. What do you want them to walk away knowing after they read the post? I put my headings down, or questions I want to answer, on paper in the order I want to address them and then write the paragraph(s) for each of those. This tends to allow flow and to make sure I hit all of the areas I want to address in the post.

Before you begin, take a little time to think about what you want to write. Who is your audience, and what do you want to tell them? What do you want them to know/understand/do after they have read your post? Which topics do you want to cover in your post, and in what order? Answering these questions before you write will help you to write better articles.

Clear paragraphs

My advice is to put the most important sentence in the paragraph first and then elaborate on it. We advise that you always start each paragraph with the most important sentence, then explain or elaborate on it. Keep paragraphs to a maximum, of 7 or 8 sentences, and make sure they follow one another in a logical way.

Optimize posts for search engines

Now that you have written a blog post that is readable and original, you should go back and make sure you have included your keywords and that the reader's intent is addressed. This will help to ensure that it will rank well.

Linking Your Posts

Often, as we have here, you will reference something that you have written about in a prior post, be sure to create a link to that post within the post. These links will bring readers to another page which, will increase their time on your site (a really good thing); it will increase your standing as an “expert” making them feel more comfortable in becoming a customer. Additionally, internal links (links to other pages within your website) help to improve your search engine ranking.

Blog engagement

Blog engagement is an important factor for SEO. Some sites will allow readers to leave comments about your post, and you can even respond to these posts. Although this is good for SEO, I do not care to make this option available. It requires a good deal of monitoring, and the potential for spam posts is too great. I do, however, share my posts on social media, including LinkedIn and Facebook. This helps our SEO ranking, and if someone likes, comments, or shares a post, it helps drive traffic even more.

If you do choose to allow comments, replying to comments is important. You will answer questions and post appropriate, professional responses to each post. This can be time-consuming. If you do not do it, you will find it will negatively impact your SEO.

Marketing your blog

If you’re writing posts, you need an audience. Nobody wants to perform to an empty room! Ranking well in search engines through flawless SEO will, of course, help. But there is always more you can do.

Maintaining a blog

Having a blog is a great thing for your SEO efforts; it will most definitely improve your SEO ranking. However, a neglected blog will kill your site. If a potential customer were to visit your site and see you have not posted since June 4, 2017, they would get the impression you do not care. They may land on your post from a search, but they will also bounce from your site very quickly, costing you a potential customer. You need to commit to the blog. If you post every two weeks, then make sure to be consistent so that when people come back for more, it is there, fresh and relevant. If things in your industry change, maybe there is a change in what you recommend to solve a problem, and the blog post you wrote three years ago is no longer valid, make sure to update it, remember relevant content.

Avoiding content cannibalization

It is anticipated that you will eventually write about a topic more than once. This is not on its own an issue, but pay attention to the keywords in each, or you can erode the chances to rank. Keyword cannibalization happens when you have several articles that can rank for the same key phrases. If a search engine cannot determine which should rank for specific keywords, both articles will lose rank.

Conclusion

Blogging is fantastic! Regardless of the kind of site you have, eCommerce, a corporate site, or a portfolio. A blog can improve your sites’ ranking in Google and acts as an effective and important marketing tool. For the best results, make sure to do your keyword research, lay out a strategy, and keep posting.

If you are not sure where to start, Aronson Hecht Agency works with several copywriters that can do this for you economically, just ask us about it.