What are your goals for the fourth fiscal quarter? With only a couple of months left in 2019, it’s an opportune time to ramp up your productivity, secure more sales, and restrategize your digital marketing.
If you have a website, chances are you’ve optimized it and laid out a functional space for your web readers. But search engines are ever-changing, and right now, quality content is the key to pulling in more web traffic.
Creating a blog can pump your website with the fresh content you need to appeal to the search engines. But how do you optimize your blog content and still ensure you’re turning traffic into leads?
If you’re ready to kick-start a blog as one of your fourth-quarter goals, we’ve got the lowdown on all you need to know when it comes to writing effective, optimized blog content.
Write for Your Audience; Not the Search Engines.
Up until a few years ago, search engine algorithms didn’t quite understand the ways we use language naturally. To rank, pages had to match keywords verbatim, and content generally sounded clunkier, fluffier, and lacked quality, useful information.
But long gone are the days of churning out keyword-stuffed content. As voice search grows more prominent in the digital marketing sphere, search engines are understanding natural, conversational language better through the use of semantic search.
With semantic search, algorithms look to the context and intent behind search engine queries. This allows them to pull up relevant, personalized search engine results pages (SERPs). When compiling SERPs, Google factors in a user’s location, search history, spelling variations, and lots of other components.
The bottom line: Use simple, conversational, everyday language. Focus on providing new and accurate information that helps your readers. If a keyword is contextual to what you’re saying, sprinkle it in – but don’t fluff up your writing for the sake of squeezing it in.
Publish Fresh & Frequent Blog Content
The Internet is brimming with data, but site indexing makes it possible for search engines to sift through all that information and provide users with the freshest content on the web.
What does this mean for smaller websites and independent businesses looking to establish an online presence?
With the push for high-quality content across the board, search engines are looking to freshness and frequency more than ever. Because of the Google Caffeine update, for example, frequently-published content continues to attract web crawlers to sites. And because of Google Freshness, new content carries more weight than outdated content.
Appealing to both of these algorithm updates can certainly boost your SEO ranking, but it can also make you stand out from a customer or reader’s perspective. As consumers, we gravitate towards what’s new and exciting. Producing new content may not seem all that important depending on the nature of your business. But from a consumer’s standpoint, your dedication to contributing new and useful information establishes trust and interest in your brand.
So, how do you create a buzzworthy blog and publish fresh content on a consistent basis? Let’s explore some ideas.
Create Topics That Target Searcher Intent
Instead of writing content around hot, rankable keywords, create content about the topics that interest your audience.
First, identify which queries are leading readers to your website. If you own a business, your readers are likely searching for your services or products. But in addition to these, what else can you provide for your audience?
Think about the types of questions your ideal reader or customer would ask (and even enter into a search engine.) Research which keywords and topics are trending in your industry, and create content that offers new and expert knowledge to your readers.
When providing answers, be concise and straight to the point. You can always elaborate further, but it’s essential to answer the important, juicy questions first. This will also help you optimize your blog content for voice search.
The bottom line: By providing your readers with purposeful content that’s easy and enjoyable to read, they’ll stay on your page longer and continually come back for more. In the end, this all leads to a lower bounce rate, and ultimately, as higher quality content in the eyes of the search engines.
Understanding How to Optimize Your Blog Content
There’s always a new algorithm update or shift waiting to happen in the world of digital marketing. When it comes to improving your online presence for the rest of 2019 and going into 2020, it’s all about moving away from old school SEO tactics and creating valuable, first-rate content for audiences. And if there’s one website feature that can make this possible, it’s a blog.
If you’re ready to take your brand to new heights, we can help you establish, write, and optimize your blog content for optimal results. Discover how our blogging services can build your brand and help your website perform better.
