How to Effectively use SEO in Blog Posts

Introduction

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, can be an overwhelming topic when it comes to marketing your business. There is much to learn on just this aspect of digital marketing. But with a few tips and tricks, and some SEO strategy, you can become an SEO pro! 

SEO is the (not so) secret sauce that drives traffic to your website via search engines like Google. Search engines use SEO to determine the validity of your website. SEO also helps you appear higher in search results on those search engines. One way to do this is to effectively use SEO in blog posts.

Whether you have a blog, are planning a blog, or are just thinking about maybe starting a blog, one crucial thing to remember is how to effectively use SEO in blog posts. You might know that SEO is essential to your digital marketing strategy, particularly when looking at your website content. Your blog can, and should, be an integral part of that content. Let’s look at how you can effectively use SEO in blog posts and help boost quality traffic to your website!

How is SEO Used in Blog Posts?

More than 90% of internet searches are completed on Google. Because of this, all SEO is designed with Google optimization in mind. In learning how to effectively use SEO in blog posts, it’s important to remember that Google reads text. The most basic function of SEO and a really effective way to optimize your website is to create text-based content. A blog is perfect for this! And while it sounds really simple, there are several key steps to remember to effectively use SEO in blog posts.

Identify the intent of your ideal client.

You will need to understand your ideal client and the intent behind their search. Search intent, also called user intent, is a person’s main goal when searching for something online. Understanding these goals and how your ideal client uses them can help you identify user intent and more effectively use SEO in blog posts.

Search intent can be broken down into three main types:

Navigational Intent: This person is trying to find a particular site.

Informational Intent: This is someone trying to learn more about a topic.

Transactional Intent: This user is looking to purchase a product or service.

It’s important to understand why your ideal client would visit your website and what you can offer to fulfill that need. Blog posts will fall under “Informational Intent”. You will want to consider the information you can provide to your user, meet their need, and establish yourself as an authority on the topics closely related to your product or service. This will keep your ideal clients coming back to you and, eventually, lead to sales.

Research your keywords

Including a bunch of random keywords with a high click rate in your post will get you a ton of immediate traffic. However, that traffic will not lead to sales and will eventually hurt your SEO. It’s better to use specific keywords that directly relate to your area of expertise and that your target audience will search. This will help draw in quality traffic and, over time, will show Google that yours is the right website to send that quality traffic to.

How to use keywords in your blog posts. 

Obviously, including your keywords in your blog post is important. But where do you put them so it doesn’t look like you’re just filling your posts with keywords? These four specific areas should include your keywords:

• Title Tag: this is the HTML code tag that allows you to give your blog post a title. It appears on the search engine results page (SERP) and in the browser bar. Using keywords in your title tag is very important since they are vital to organic SEO ranking.
• Headers and Body: using your keywords in the text of your blog post and in the headers tells Google what is important within your blog. As Google “reads” your text, it will see the headers as important text. Then Google will correlate the keywords in the body of your text as supporting evidence of the header’s importance.
• URL: A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the location of each unique piece of information on the internet. Search engines use the URL to help determine the page content. Creating your own URL using keywords keeps your URL short and to the point. This helps boost your SEO just because you kept it simple!
• Meta Description: Also known as a snippet, a meta description is a short description of the content on the page you are creating. It appears under your title tag and helps readers determine whether the page you offer will meet their needs. The content for a meta tag is limited, so it’s essential to be clear and concise with your meta descriptions.

Optimizing these four areas for SEO can set you up to effectively use SEO in blog posts. 

Upgrade your blog posts

You may or may not remember the early days of blogging. Posts were typically all text and looked like essays required in high school English class. Those are not the blogs of today. (Thank goodness!) While there were some great blog posts, they were not fun to look at, sometimes hard to read, and were quickly outdated. Keeping your blog fresh and easy to read is key to effectively using SEO in your blog. Here are some tips to make your blog post look professional, engaging, and easy to read.

• Add visuals. You need great photos or graphics that are relevant to your content. Visuals help break up the text, which makes it easier to read. They also draw the eye to encourage the user to continue reading. Bonus: tags and image titles are another place to add your keywords!
• Use everyday language. To establish yourself as an expert, you need to be able to explain what you offer. Using everyday language lets the reader know that you understand your product or service in a way that is meaningful to them. Sure, you know all the technical jargon associated with your offering. But your customer likely doesn’t. Make them feel welcome and understood by using the words and phrases they would use when learning about your product or service.
• Include a “Call To Action”. Whether you’re offering a freebie, selling a product, or just sharing information, adding a call to action button or link can be really useful. For example, if you want to offer a downloadable freebie to your customers, your call to action would be where they can get that download. You can invite them to schedule an appointment if you are selling a service.
• Write a catchy title using your keywords. By doing this, you are accomplishing two things: You are writing your title tag, and you are engaging your audience – win/win!

Update your old blog posts

There is a big push for new content when trying to effectively use SEO in blog posts. But Google also counts old, refreshed blog posts as current and relevant. Here are a few ways to refresh your old content:

• Review the keywords. Check to see which keywords the post is already ranking for, then use those keywords to update the URL. You’ll also want to see if there are any secondary (less competitive) keywords in your post.
• Check your links. Make sure any links within your posts still work. Links are tested by Google bots and are not “neutral” in SEO. Keeping the links active helps your SEO. Broken links harm your SEO.
• Refresh your content. Check your content for outdated information and update anything that makes sense. Rewriting content to improve or refresh it will also help with SEO.

So now you have some new tools to effectively use SEO in blog posts. You are ready to grab your laptop and get to work! If you need assistance with your website, SEO, or digital marketing, we’d be happy to discuss how we can help.