Optimising your blog to improve your search ranking
A good website can help generate more leads and help your sales team convert more. But a website can only do that if your customers can find it.
How will your potential customers know you exist if they can’t find you? This is where search engine optimisation can come into play.
Get traffic without worrying about ad spending.
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Why is being SEO-optimised and ranking organically important?
Investing in your SEO organic marketing is a long-term goal but one that will yield worthwhile results.
1. Ranking well organically builds trust.
If potential customers see you ranking well organically, they are more likely to consider your brand credible.
You’ve earned that spot, not just paid to appear there. It conveys a sense of longevity and staying power that Google Ads just can’t capture.
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2. Target people who avoid clicking on ads.
A study into customer ad behaviour identified that over a third of people avoid clicking ads.
So if you’re not SEO-optimised, you could be waving goodbye to 34.8% of search traffic.
3. Rich content engages visitors more.
Having an SEO-optimised blog that’s written on subjects that genuinely interest your audience helps keep them engaged.
It also adds an incentive to draw customers back to the blog to learn more.
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4. Ability to target a variety of keywords.
The ability to target multiple keywords means you can target the whole sales lifecycle. You can look to target people before they even know they need your product or service. This means that when they are ready to buy or convert, they’re more likely to think of your brand.
Google Ad campaigns tend to focus more on transactional or commercial keywords. These are words that indicate they’re either ready to buy or convert. This is great, but it means you’re missing out on most of the marketing funnel.
5. It is often more cost-effective in the long term.
Depending on industry competition, Google Ads can be expensive. Especially if campaigns are not fully optimised.
Although it’s important to note that building an SEO-optimised strategy isn’t free. It often takes time, dedication, and investment. However, in the long term, it can generate a higher ROI (return on investment) in the long run.
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6. Qualify your leads before they even reach your sales team!
With a rich bank of content addressing a range of different keyword types, you’re more likely to answer their questions before they get to your sales team.
It takes, on average 8 touchpoints before a customer will convert. So having a library of SEO-optimised content goes a long way.
A website visitor might see the blog organically, receive a marketing email promoting it, or see it on social media.
How to make your blog SEO-optimised
Sadly, there is no winning overnight strategy. However, using search engine optimisation tactics long-term will pay off.
1. Do keyword research.
The biggest mistake you can make is not conducting keyword research first. Using a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner can make this task easier!
Before you start writing your content, you should know what keyword you’re focusing on.
Ideally, these should be keywords that have lots of search volume and not much competition.
2. Use helpful SEO tools like YOAST.
Although SEO tools like YOAST aren’t perfect, they’re a good place to get an indication of how SEO-optimised your content is.
Pay special attention to your readability and SEO score if you opt to use YOAST. They’ll often provide suggestions on how to improve each score.
Please remember that it’s an automatic indication and not a bible. You might find that if you’re writing a scientific or legal blog piece that it’s difficult to get ‘green’ for readability, and that’s ok!
3. Write genuinely engaging content.
Don’t just write for the search engines. Remember, you’re writing to get website visitors to read your content.
You should be providing a range of SEO-optimised content that people genuinely want to read. Implementing this strategy helps encourage backlinking, which is great for SEO.
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4. Always write with a purpose.
Think carefully about why you’re writing on that topic. And yes, try to think beyond ‘I want to rank for this keyword’.
Are you trying to inform your audience? To make sure they understand a topic related to your offerings.
Or are you writing a blog to convince website visitors that you offer the solution to their problem?
5. Make sure blogs are accessible.
It’s important not to alienate website users using assistive technologies. So, make sure to use heading tags and alt text correctly.
Making your blog screen-reader friendly also makes it Google crawling robot friendly. Which in turn means your website will rank better.
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6. Use SEO-optimised images.
When including images in your blogs, there are a few SEO tactics that you can implement. Always name your image something relevant. For example, in this blog, I might call an image ‘Ways images can be SEO-optimised’.
Always enter alt text for your images. Always. Without exceptions! This not only allows a screen reader to understand what the image is about but Google too.
It means your photo is more likely to show up when a user searches for that term.
How Copper Bay Digital can help your website rank better!
We work with customers in a variety of ways to produce SEO-optimised blogs that help their websites rank better organically.
Working with them to deliver on their goals. Whether that’s ranking higher for certain keywords, improving their bounce rates, or increasing their volume of organic traffic.
