When trying to optimize content and boost rankings on search engines, many marketing pros look to search engine optimization (SEO) as their north star. These three magic words (and letters) help teams measure and increase general brand awareness and engagement with target audiences. By investing in SEO, businesses interconnect their marketing efforts with the architecture of their website so that all content produced, and shared aids in increasing the visibility of their website. When a company makes it easier for key audiences to access content, they can drive more traffic to the website, and as a result, create greater opportunities for new business.
SEO can be a daunting area to fully master. As with any communication objectives and accompanying strategies, it is critical to identify and track metrics that will help marketing teams measure the success of such efforts. There are many metrics a company can use to track SEO performance such as organic traffic and clicks, time on a page, Domain Authority or keyword ranking. Google Analytics and Moz’s proprietary authority metrics offer insights that can help companies measure their SEO efforts. For specific guidance on metrics and how to track them, consider reviewing Moz’s Tracking SEO Performance page.
Just as there are many metrics to help track SEO performance, there are also several ways to boost SEO. Updating content such as website copy, images, URLs, navigation panes (and location of this content) on a company website can help improve efforts. For example, updating website copy to include keywords that your target audiences are using to search for businesses or solutions can help optimize the website. A couple of other best practices are to make the URL friendly to search and share, and to add a physical address on the website pages so that the company comes up in local searches. Listing a business’ address on the website can drive local traffic and generate business leads.
In addition to website architecture, a promising way to boost SEO is through blogging. According to SEO leader, HubSpot, “Blogging helps boost SEO quality by positioning your website as a relevant answer to your customers’ questions. Blog posts that specifically use a variety of on-page SEO tactics can give you more opportunities to rank in search engines and get customers to visit your site.” This means that there is an opportunity to improve an SEO score in each blog post and web page.
Below are a few intuitive yet impactful ways to boost SEO efforts through developing and distributing content on a company blog.
- Set editorial guidelines. When kicking off blogging efforts or revisiting the overall blogging process to ensure it supports a company’s SEO strategy, teams should first set guidelines for all future posts. This includes the length and quality of the blog post title, the meta title and description, article tags, blog word count, images and other elements that involve the content structure. By considering these elements, companies make their blog post more attractive and digestible to readers, which can increase the frequency they visit the blog and the time they stay on each post, which are both factors that calculate into search engine ranking. For helpful elements to consider when setting your blogging guidelines, visit HubSpot’s article, “The Anatomy of a Perfect Blog Post.”
- Don’t forget the keywords and phrases. Remember, it’s quality over quantity here. In addition to setting and following editorial guidelines for blogging, it is critical to integrate keywords and phrases. These words and phrases are the terms that target audiences are using to search to locate relevant businesses or solutions. With that said, quality is chief over quantity. Just because a blog has 50 ranking keywords, does not mean it will be a valuable blog post for SEO. Instead, the keywords should be specific to the target audience and relevant to the blog topic at hand. Teams can improve these efforts by creating target customer personas and ensuring the phrases they include in posts meet the needs and interests of those individuals.
- Include links to external and internal pages. Adding links from other blogs or websites can help increase the likelihood of receiving a link back. Backlinks from other websites to your homepage can help increase page rank as well as drive traffic and trust. In addition to including external links to drive backlinks, companies should also include links to other pages on the website in their blog posts. Internal linking can improve usability and inform how audiences navigate the site (i.e. by directing users throughout the website). This can also help increase page views and site conversion rate, as audiences and prospect customers read travel throughout the website.
- Review traffic and engagement with blog posts. Make changes as needed. As the number of blog posts increases, it is important to review the data behind these articles in line with the previously determined metrics. If the team sees a blog performing exceptionally well, they can share it on social media or replicate similar efforts on other existing posts and remove old content or content that is under performing. Additionally, taking time to update or repurpose content on the blog or other company channels can help attract viewers and increase searchability.
SEO is a long-term, multifaceted strategy. It requires commitment and consistency to ensure all content checks the relevant boxes to be considered “optimized”. As companies evaluate how to improve their SEO ranking, blogging is a great strategy to explore. Not only can blog content strengthen a company’s SEO investments, but blogging can also reinforce a company’s thought leadership and topic authority, which will build trust and credibility among target audiences. For more on this topic, visit Communique PR’s growing library of SEO related blogs.