SEO is critical to any business with an internet presence in 2021, and SEO has become a common term in the previous ten years. Most companies know about SEO, and some companies focus on SEO, but not every business has the most suitable SEO strategy.
You need to optimize your blogs and web pages if you want to build your customer base, web presence, and authority on the internet. This article will show you how!
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search engine optimization — often referred to as SEO — is one of the most excellent tools at a marketer’s disposal. When a business, blogger, or individual optimizes web pages, their website becomes more visible to people on Google. Therefore, if you have a service or product on your website — people will see it when they find you on Google.
Blogging is one of the most important ways to rank your website on Google. You’ll need valuable, insightful, and powerful content that’s well-written and adds value to the reader. You’ll also need to add various SEO tricks to your posts.
Here are some statistics on the importance of optimization and blogging:
- 77 percent of internet users read blogs
- Companies that have blog content on their websites enjoy 97 percent more links to their website
- 72 percent of digital marketers say content creation — such as blogs — is their most excellent SEO tactic
- Companies that write blogs have twice as much email traffic as those without blogs
- In any month, 409 million people will read over 20 billion pages on the internet.
Whichever statistic you look at and whatever way you think — optimizing your blogs and webpages is essential to your business.
How To Optimize A Blog/Webpage In 2021
1. Research What’s Currently Ranking on Google
Every website needs an SEO strategy. You can’t just start writing content and expect it to rank on Google straight away. Research is imperative.
But first, you need to understand your expertise and what your business offers. For example, if you have a hedge fund business, you shouldn’t write about dogs and cats. Alternatively, if you have a sports business, there’s no point in writing about local nightclubs in your area.
Google wants to know your expertise and what you’re offering to people, and that’s where you need to start your keyword research. You could use tools like Ubersuggest, etc.
These tools will allow you to gain an insight into the types of content you should write about. You’ll witness the terms that people will search for, and examples in hair care may include:
- How to make my hair curlier?
- How to straighten my hair without straighteners?
- How important is a haircare routine?
Once you know what people are searching for — you can obtain your keywords and check out your competition. You should type your keywords into Google and see what ranks on the first page. Then, you can observe the length of the content, the topics they discuss, and what domain they’re using.
Finally, you can write content that attracts readers to your website.
2. Create Informative Content
Do you love or hate writing? Many people loathe the nation of spending hours writing blogs. If you’re in that category, you could always hire a freelance writer or digital marketing agency.
An excellent blog post or piece of content should:
- Answer a question
- Entertain, inform and engage readers
- Address pain points, common issues and provide insight
That’s why you must conduct deep research. If you know what people want, you can create content that people want. However, Google likes bloggers to write content in a certain way. The writer needs to format the content properly, and it must be readable.
Here are some other tips:
Original Content
Google despises plagiarism and will punish your website for it. So, ensure that you create unique content and use tools like Copyscape to ensure your content is 100 percent unique.
Create Awesome Headlines
You need catchy headlines to bring people onto the blog. Without excellent headlines, why would anyone bother to click on your content?
Make the Content Actionable
You should ensure you make the content actionable so the reader can read the blog and improve their lives.
Provide Answers
Readers don’t tend to come to blogs for entertainment. Although fun writing is essential, people want solutions to their problems.
Use Excellent Sources
Google and readers love content with great references. If you have any statistics, you should have relevant sources.
Don’t Write Fluff
Fluff is a common phrase in the digital marketing world. It means writing that doesn’t help the reader, otherwise known as pointless writing to make a word count. Don’t use it.
Use Images and Videos
You might be the most excellent writer in the world, but you’ll still need some excellent imagery on your blog posts to keep people entertained.
If you create consistent content that ticks all the adobe boxes, your business is in an excellent place.
3. Use Backlinks
Google loves backlinks. It’s as simple as that. Google likes to see who’s backing up what you’re saying. It does this by analyzing your link profile. For example, imagine you’re talking about stocks and shares with someone in your local pub.
You suggest that you should invest in Tesla because it’s the future of cars. Your friend — who’s an artist — chimes in and suggests your claims are true. Your friend might be a smart guy, and their opinion might carry some weight.
Then, Warren Buffet is in the pub, overhears you, comes into the conversion, and agrees with you. Now, your friend is genuinely going to believe your claims because the greatest investor of all time has supported your claims.
Therefore, you should get backlinks from the best possible sources. Google will trust your information if you have excellent backlinks from credible websites. For example, getting a backlink from the Lonely Planet website is superb if you run a travel blog. The same goes for any industry.
4. Optimize for On-Page SEO
You’ll need to structure every webpage and blog effectively to boost your chances of ranking. But, unfortunately, Google isn’t human, and it doesn’t interpret blogging content like humans. Instead, it has its own language, and you have to speak that language.
Frustratingly, the algorithm constantly changes, and you have to stay in tune with the algorithm. That said, Google is now excellent at understanding semantics, but you still need to include the following things:
- Headers
- Meta descriptions
- Image files
- Alt text
- Page content
- URL
Although these are important, remember, your reader comes first. Keyword stuffing — although prevalent — isn’t the best option anymore. In fact, Google dislikes blogs that the writer has stuffed with crazy amounts of keywords.
Don’t put the reader off because you’re desperate to rank on Google. There should be a balance, and you need to find that balance. Here are some other things that you should do:
- Optimize your images
- Break down your page into readable sections
- Use small paragraphs
- Highlight important words for people that will skim read (there’s always some.)
You can write good content, and Google loves good content. But you need to optimize your content using the above tips and tricks. For example, you could write the most outstanding, most in-depth blog on Google about soccer. But it doesn’t matter if you don’t use correct SEO tactics.
5. Use Internal Links
Backlinks are essential and external links are essential. However, internal links are just as important. Internal links are where you link existing pages on your website in your blog article. Many blogs will use three or more internal links per blog post. In addition, many companies will add a section at the bottom which links various blog posts.
That’s why it’s essential to create multiple blog posts. Unfortunately, many bloggers and businesses will write five articles and stop. Firstly, the website will lack relevant external links. Secondly, Google will not rank you because you haven’t proven yourself to be an expert yet.
Internal links show Google that you have a broad website that adds value to readers. Internal links also tell Google which pages are the most important on your website, and internal links give Google an idea of your website’s structure.
Optimize Your Website with IMP Digital
Many people wonder just how important SEO is. But, unfortunately, many companies don’t have an effective SEO strategy, or they just do it wrong. The results from an effective optimization strategy can genuinely transform your business. SEO will give your website credibility and bring potential customers to your page.
Even if customers don’t purchase your product and service, they might come back to your website for more help and information. Eventually, you’ll see your customer base grow, and your website begins to rank over your competitors. As the world continues to become more digital — and the pandemic certainly pushed that forward — digital marketing has never been so important.
IMP Digital has 25 years of digital marketing experience and will handle all your blog posts and web page optimization. Therefore, you can concentrate on your business while we grow your web presence. Book a discovery call with us and learn more about our services.
