Anatomy of a Powerful SEO Blog
The online space continues to drive revenues for businesses across the board, helping to equalize opportunities among small and large brands. Having a strong presence online does more than just showcase your products or services — it also:
Helps build brand credibility
Establishes trust with your target audience
Positions your brand as a thought leader in your industry
Creates social proof for your business
Provides greater visibility
The caveat is, however, that your business must show up in online searches. And for best results, you must show up on the first page of results. If your target audience can’t find you easily when they search, they’ll opt for the next best thing — the company that leads the pack in Google results. Fortunately, positioning your brand on that much-lauded first page is simple, if you know how to write a good SEO blog post.
Creating a SEO Blog That Drives Traffic — and Revenue
An SEO blog post — also known as on-page SEO — is critical for increased online traffic because it represents the bare minimum you must do to drive results. For example, content that is more informative — and longer — will rank higher in search results. And since generating website traffic is job one for most businesses, 78% of businesses have tagged growing their SEO as their top priority.
On-page SEO helps you control and optimize parts of your website using tools such as keyword strategies, quality content, and metadata. Off-page SEO can dovetail nicely with your traffic building strategy by focusing on link-building.
Why Keywords Matter for Good SEO
Keywords are at the crux of any robust SEO strategy. They are what search engines use to find websites that match search queries. To increase the chances of your audience finding your content, you’ll want to make sure there are keywords on your pages that are relevant to typical searches. Keywords drive organic traffic to your website through search engine results pages (SERPs), so you’ll need to understand how your target audiences search — and what their needs are.
In general, there are two types of keywords — short and long-tail keywords. While short keywords such as “dog collars” might have high search results, there is often too much competition to rank high for this kind of general information. Instead, use a long-tail keyword such as “best collars for a puppy” or “nylon dog collars” will bring you more — and better — traffic.
For best results, you can use keyword identifying software to choose keywords that fit your business and industry. Then put your keywords — and variations of them — throughout your blog post. Include them in the headers, subheadings, and text of your content. Also add your keywords as tags to any relevant images. If you can, use keyword phrases to add links into your article or blog post.
Linking for Better Google Ranking
Links are a critical part of any good SEO strategy. When you write a blog and link to an authority website, a process known as “backlinking”, you help improve your own site’s credibility and ranking. In addition, when you produce high-quality, informative content, other brands will link to your posts, increasing your visibility and ranking. Certain types of posts such as “how-tos,” lists, and infographic posts get more backlinks than standard blog entries, so you should be sure to include these types of posts in your content strategy. A good linking strategy will:
Help increase your brand’s credibility
Improve your SEO impact
Creates connections with other businesses
Provides more value for readers
With backlinks being one of the top three factors that Google considers when ranking websites, you must manage your backlinks appropriately. is critical to good SEO. Bad or “toxic” backlinks can negatively impact your rankings — and your revenues. A quality link is one that comes from a trusted source where the topic relates to your website’s content. A toxic backlink, on the other hand, can come from low-quality sites that are created just for the purpose of linking out. Other things to remember when linking include:
Making sure links open in a different tab so readers can keep their place on your site while exploring your linked resources
Not linking to competing businesses
Using your anchor text appropriately
To further illuminate that last bullet point, anchor text refers to the text that is highlighted once you add a link. Here’s an example of what to — and not to — do when creating anchor text:
WRONG: To find out more about how to improve your backlinking strategy, click here.
RIGHT: To find out more about backlinking, check out our blog post on how to create quality backlinks in your blog posts.
See how that second example gives Google and other search engines explicit directions on the topic of your content? That’s good SEO!
Headers Help Create Powerful Content
Don’t underestimate the value and impact of headers — they are as important as the rest of your content. Typically, a blog post will have the following structure:
H1 Tag — this is the title of your post and the primary heading on your webpage
H2 Tag — this is one of the main points of your post, used to break up content to make it scannable
H3 Tag — this is a subcategory beneath one of your main points, to further break up the post and make it easier to read.
Heading tags not only break up text and add structure to your content, but also make it more user-friendly, which Google will reward you for by ranking your post higher. When creating headers for your post, consider both short and long-tail keywords. When deciding which keywords to use in your headers, however, think of your user first and Google second. Make sure the words you choose make sense in context of your post and make it easier for visitors to glean high-quality information from your content.
CopyScripted — Putting SEO Within Reach
Writing a blog post that drives traffic to your website takes more than just subject knowledge. Great content that accomplishes all that you need it to — establishing brand’s position as a thought leader, creating trust and loyalty, and most importantly, growing your revenue — requires deep knowledge of current SEO standards and techniques.
At CopyScripted, we employ a team of writers that are also experts at SEO strategy. Our writers have the in-depth knowledge need to create robust content for specific industries from manufacturing and procurement to education, wellness, finance, and more. In addition, they understand how to define and refine proper keywords for each piece of content, develop powerful linking strategies, and create headings that increase readability and rankings. If you’re tired of struggling with poor-performing content and lagging Google ranking results, try some of the tips in this article. But, if you find yourself stuck on strategy or creation, contact us today and let us help you create content that performs!
