The demand for search engine optimization (SEO) services is increasing. Every online business needs traffic. And for traffic, you need a detailed content marketing strategy — which requires time and research. With more than 600 million blogs live today, it’s never been this difficult to beat the competition and stand out on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Fortunately, the basics of SEO services are still the same. And by executing search engine optimization or SEO basics, you can optimize your blog content for higher rankings on search engines.
The following tips will help you optimize your blog content, boost traffic and get sustainable results with your content marketing efforts.
1. Before Writing a Single Word, Complete Your Keyword Research
Keyword research is the first step of blogging or content marketing. But how can you prepare rank-able content if you don’t even know what people are searching for and the intent behind every query?
Unfortunately, a lot of writers and marketing professionals take keyword research as secondary to the content development process. Once a blog post is ready, they will sprinkle a few keywords here and there.
This approach rarely works because you neither have a clear objective behind a post nor any respect for the flow of a post.
During the keyword research phase, create a list of high-volume keywords and a few supportive keywords, which may not have a high volume, but you are sure you can rank against these in a little time.
2. Separate the Commercial and Informational Keywords
Once you have a list of keywords, you can decide which keywords are worth pursuing and which might be a long shot, given that your blog is still new.
Likewise, separate the commercial and informational keywords so you can use them in relevant posts and positions to answer user queries clearly and concisely.
When penning down a post, set up a clear objective behind it. Your objective might be to attract new people, educate prospects, answer a question, or promote a product or service.
3. Select the Best Format for Your Blog Post
Just like it’s important to set up the right intent while writing a post, it’s equally important to choose the right format for it. A typical blog post can be a product review, opinion, how-to-guide, or comparison post.
If all the articles ranked against a certain keyword on Google are long-form posts or how-to guides, you will have to follow the same format because that’s what users are looking for.
For example, if you want to rank your blog post for the keyword “Best Men’s Watches,” you will mostly find product review blogs or product pages.
4. Create a Powerful Title, Without Stuffing Keywords!
Ask a writer how difficult it is to craft an interesting title. Sometimes it takes hours to finally reach one that sounds interesting and matches the intent behind the post.
And, of course, it would be a bonus if you could add your main keyword in the title. If not, you must be able to fit in its variation at least. But remember, while it’s important to add your keywords in the title, forcibly stuffing keywords into it will ruin the click-through rate (CTR).
If your blog post’s title is clickbait or sounds spammy, nobody would open it, irrespective of the content quality inside. And, of course, this will be a big red flag for Google, which means it will, more than likely, not rank.
5. Add the Most Updated Surveys, Statistics and Research
Don’t think a post ranked on Google will remain at the top forever. No matter how compelling, well-researched and comprehensive your content is, as soon as it gets outdated, a new blog post will replace it.
But that doesn’t mean you need to write a new blog post on the same topic every year. On the contrary, if you update one of your existing blog posts with new facts, research and surveys that may be relevant, your post will be forever helpful for the readers.
So, while writing a new blog post or updating an existing one, make sure you add a lot of authentic sources, white papers, surveys, etc.
6. Focus on Creating Comprehensive Content
Backlinko recently analyzed 11.8 million Google search results, and the average word count of the first page results on Google was found to be 1,447 words.
Data compiled by HubSpot suggests the ideal word count for a blog post is between 2,250-2,500 words.
While the experts argue over the ideal word count for an SEO-optimized blog post, every SEO company in the USA agrees that the longer a blog post the more likely it will be ranked on Google.
Google loves detailed posts, given that they are well-structured and easily readable. So instead of creating shallow content or content that only covers surface-level knowledge, dig deep and answer every possible query a reader may have while reading your post.
7. Link With Other Posts on Your Blog
Creating a detailed blog strategy, including naming every blog post, is essential to draw a relationship between them. Eventually, once you have prepared those blog posts, you will be in a better position to link them.
Internal linking is also a key part of every SEO company’s search engine optimization strategy in the USA. When your blog posts are linked to each other, each answering a different yet somehow relevant question to the other, it gives Google the signal that your website is an authority in a particular niche.
Besides that, this internal linking will increase the time people spend on your website. If one of your posts is ranked on Google, it will boost others by directing the upcoming traffic.
8. Treat Your Meta Description Like a Web Copy or a Long-Form Headline
SEO professionals and writers often see a meta description as a place to stuff a few dozen keywords to boost the rankings of posts. But that’s not how you encourage your target audience to read your content.
Ideally, your meta description should invoke curiosity and a desire to read the piece. In clear and understandable terms, it should convey what the content is about and who should read it.
But if you end up creating a keyword-heavy meta description that lacks clarity and feels spammy, the majority wouldn’t click on your content, even if it’s on the first page of Google.
9. Build High-Quality Backlinks From Relevant Websites
Even in 2023, backlinks will hold significant importance. A backlink is like a vote on Google from other websites, indicating to Google that your website is a credible source. So the more votes you acquire, the more Google trusts your website.
According to Backlinko, the top result in Google has an average of 3.8 times more backlinks than the websites/pages below it. And numerous other studies suggest the same thing: the more backlinks you get, the better your website performs in organic search.
But remember, building backlinks isn’t about quantity but quality. You need backlinks from relevant and trustworthy sites. Disown the backlinks you unintentionally got from spammy or irrelevant websites to maintain your reputation on Google.
10. Stick to Your Niche, Don’t Deviate to Diversify Your Traffic
When you are not getting the results with the existing content, you might be tempted to try your luck in another niche; or diversify your niche a bit. But this strategy will never work if you move away from your original niche.
Say your website is about laptops. The domain name has the word “laptop” in it, and you have prepared dozens of blog posts on laptops. Now when you face the problem of little or no traffic, you start writing about smartphones and other gadgets.
This digression won’t work because, for Google, if your website is about everything, it’s actually credible for nothing.
Instead, you should narrow down your niche and topics. Find out the untapped content opportunities. See how you can fill the vacant content areas on Google. Write on specific topics, no matter how small they feel. This way, you will gradually build authority and get sustainable traffic from organic search.