Simple Tips To Ensure That A Blog Gets Better SEO Results

Every company worth its salt runs a blog today. But only a few of them go beyond using the blog to disseminate information and opinions. Very few companies actually use their blog as a tool for search engine optimization. Here are a few ways in which a blog run by a company can be used to increase the traffic to that company’s website.

What’s In A Name!!

This is not true for a blog, and an interesting and engaging name for a blog will bring in several advantages. The visitor would be attracted to the blog, and if imaginatively titled, that blog could also help SEO by incorporating SEO keywords.

The webmaster should be asking the following questions which can give correct leads for naming the blog appropriately –

i) who are the target audience for the blog?

ii) What is the broad theme for the blog?

iii) which important keywords can be used to create a title for the blog?

A blog can draw organic traffic because of the varied topics discussed on it. Two examples for this are widely quoted. Interior designers which have a advantage of Interior designing  where several work related topics are discussed, like improving productivity at the workplace, and safety measures at the workplace. The blog on the website of Electronic stores that contains blogs detailing reviews of specific electronics products e.g Fridge, Washing machine etc and write ups on which products goes well.

If the blog title doesn’t contain the targeted keywords, then at least the page title of the blog can be built in such a way that the keywords feature there.

Target Specific Blogs

Every blog might not be interesting for every reader, therefore instead of trying to attract everyone with all blog posts, it is a better idea to write each blog directed towards a specific part of the audience. That would enable each blog to have specific content that contains keywords that are optimized for specific types of customers. For example, if the website sells t shirt, then ideas for blogs on the website could be new materials used to manufacture t shirt, cultural significance of different types of t shirt etc.

Useful URL Structure

The correct naming convention for crafting the URL of a website can be useful to marketers and visitors alike.

Easy Reporting of Results – If the blog has an URL syntax that does not include “/blog/”, then tracking the effectiveness of the blog might be difficult.

Simple And Easy To Understand – The blog URL should be adequately descriptive without becoming too long. If a blog contains advice about 3 useful tips regarding the right time to send email newsletters then ‘/email-newsletter-tips-sending-right-time’ would be a much better URL extension than ‘/3-tips-for-sending-your-email-newsletter-at-the-right-time’.

Recycle and Refresh

While new blogs are always welcome, it is also true that SEO improvements can also be effected by updating existing blog content. Here are some of the ways in which existing blogs can be made more SEO friendly, to save precious resources and time :

• If some fresh content has been added to other pages, then internal links to those contents can be added.
• New images which are optimized can be added to existing blogs, or old images can be further optimized.
• Other related blogs can be linked to existing blogs
• Updates can be made to the meta descriptions and title tags to include better matching keywords.

Identify Gaps and Fill Them

There could be some better SEO phrases and keywords which are missing from the current content. New blogs containing such keywords can be added to the website. These new blogs can also be used to ensure continuity with earlier blog content.

Optimize Video and Images

Video and images can significantly add value to specific blogs and to the overall website as well. The value added is not only from the point of view of the visitor but also from the SEO point of view. Descriptive alt-tags must be used to optimize newly added videos and images, and if those can contain keywords, that’s even better.

Structured Data Markup

These are added to the HTML of a website to provide information regarding the webpage, segregate and classify the content, and result in giving a better view of the webpage in search engine results pages. Schema markup can be used while writing HTML code, and headlines, images, editor, genre, word count, publisher, company name, company logo etc. can be included in the markup code.

Go Social!

Blog posts can be shared on social media to get the following immediate advantages –

1. The social media profiles stay updated and relevant, and encourage traffic back to the website.
2. Social media encourages two way conversations unlike most parts of a website, helping visitors stay more engaged.
3. Social media interactions always catch the attention of search engines, so the blog shared on social media profiles can improve the SERP ranks of the webpage can improve.

While sharing a blog on social media, a couple of introductory lines always help, because many visitors like to skim the first few lines to see if the blog would be interesting enough. Keywords can be tactfully added to these introductory lines.

Summary

The above eight steps can help get the full potential of a blog from the point of view of search engine optimization. A good title for the blog, tailor made blogs for specific audience segments, user friendly URLs, smart use of videos and images, use of structured markup, and the frequent use of social media for spreading word about the blog – all of these can help the blog to enhance the attractiveness of the website, and help to get better ranks.