Increasing Organic Traffic with a Blog
There are numerous compelling reasons for businesses to blog, but one, in particular, stands out: improving keyword ranks and organic search traffic.
The amount of terms a website can rank for is proportional to its size. That is, more indexed pages equals more ranking opportunities. The number of pages on a website before it becomes bloated and difficult to navigate is somewhat limited for small and medium-sized businesses. It’s time to get serious about developing blog content once you’ve reached your maximum pages for services, products, case studies, and so on.
A blog is frequently the difference between a 50-page website and a 500-page website. As a result, blogging is an important technique for SEO and traffic generation.
When I bring up the concept of blogging, the most common objection I get is, “What am I going to write about?” Quite simply, you should write about your niche’ using keywords. Because you’ll be writing about your sector on your blog, it’ll be a great fit for creating content around the long-tail keywords you want to rank for.
In this article, we'll go through how to use a blog to increase your organic traffic.
1. Know who you’re trying to reach.
You’ve probably heard the expression, “you catch bees with honey.” Honey is a favorite food of bees. Consider trying to sell oranges to a consumer who is looking for apples. Are you able to sell them a couple of oranges? Yes. Is it going to be more difficult? Definitely, understanding your customer’s wants puts you in an excellent position to close a deal or build a connection. Give apples to customers who are looking for them. It wouldn’t be a leap to present them with apple-based products like juices and pies.
To create material that your audience wants, you must first understand them. Establishing your buyer persona is the first step. As you go further into the process, a buyer persona will represent your ideal consumer and will shape and steer your strategy. A buyer persona can be created using a combination of market research and data from existing consumers. In essence, like bees with honey, you’re finding your target audience and knowing their desires and requirements in order to better attract them.
Keep in mind that your target audience is likely to alter and evolve over time. Make sure you review your target audience on a regular basis so you can better tailor your material to them.
2. Make a list of keywords.
Let’s be honest. You won’t be able to take the top search engine result for the term “blog” very soon unless you’re Blogger, Wikipedia, or WordPress. And that’s perfectly fine. You may still get creative and capture a significant portion of traffic by considering how people search.
The majority of seasoned Google users understand that utilizing broad phrases will not bring them where they want to go. Instead, users usually look for keyword phrases like “how to use a blog.” If you use a keyword research tool to compare “blog” and “how to utilize a blog,” you’ll notice that the former has more difficulties ranking than the latter.
Simply said, this indicates that the keyword phrase “how to use a blog” has a better probability of ranking. Although your chosen keyword may not have a lot of search volume, if you can rank for ten or fifteen long-tail keyword phrases linked to the term “blog,” you’ll get a lot of traffic.
Long-tail keyword phrases can help you rank higher in search engines, but how do you know which ones to use? Bloggers and marketers are familiar with Keyword Explorer. These programs take a seed term, usually one or two words, and generate a list of long-tail keywords that are relevant to it. A Google Keyword Planner search for “blog” returns results such as “beginning a blog,” “best blogging platform,” and “blog post ideas,” for example.
Consider the following factors when choosing keywords.
Volume of Searches
Evaluate search volume to get a clear picture of how many people type your keyword into a search engine. This statistic, also known as Monthly Search Volume (MSV), can help you determine how much traffic is accessible; nonetheless, it is insufficient to predict the future success of your phrase.
Difficulty
Keyword difficulty is determined by keyword research tools like Ahrefs, which tells you how difficult it is to rank on the top page for a specific keyword in the search. The higher the difficulty level, the more difficult it is to rank in the search results. Examine keyword difficulty in relation to search volume.
Intent
What motivates people to look for specific keywords? Knowing why someone is looking for something can help you pick which keywords to use. It’s impossible to tell the exact intent behind a search as broad as “blog.” At the very least, Google guesses the person is looking for a definition or a blogging platform. The distinction between “blog” and “how to use a blog” clarifies the search purpose and provides you with a greater chance of solving it. The man or woman who is doing the search is looking for a solution to a problem they’ve recognized; therefore, the information, resources, and tools made available to them will be more appealing.
3. Create a post that revolves around your keyword. You must optimize your post around your desired keyword once you get it.
The following is where your keyword should appear:
- URL Meta Description
- SEO Title Tag
- Article Titles, Subheadings, Image Titles, and Alt Text
- Tags for SEO Titles
The SEO Title Tag is generally the first thing observed when your content shows on a search engine results page (SERP). The title tag shows the webpage’s name and can be clicked to go to the link’s destination. Its length is unrestricted; nevertheless, Google only displays up to 70 characters in its SERPs. If your SEO title tag is more than 70 characters, rewrite it such that the keyword appears first.
URL
Although the URL is not the most important area for keywords, it is one of the first locations where they appear. It serves as another indicator of your content’s subject to Google and your blog’s readers. The URL not only appears in the address bar at the top of a webpage, but it also appears beneath the SEO Title Tag on SERPs.
Description of Metadata
The meta description should include your chosen keyword. The meta description is the text that appears beneath the URL on SERPs. It combines the use of the term with tempting your viewers with a click-worthy description.
Title of the Article
The article title is the title of the page that appears after readers click through to your content. Attempt to use your term as casually as possible in this section.
Subheadings
A reader will scan through a webpage before committing to all of the content. It is easier to digest information in a short length of time when subheadings are used. Subheadings with keywords can help visitors determine how relevant your content is to them.
Alt Text & Image Titles
Keyword-optimized images are extremely valuable. Traffic comes to your website in a variety of ways, including through photographs. When you use keywords in the title for your blog entries, it’s one more practice that, over time, will help significantly. The slug or alt-text is another way to employ your keyword on your images. Alt text gives descriptive insight into your image and is intended to help individuals with disabilities. Your alt text should include a keyword, but it should also be descriptive so that in the event that your image is not viewable, the person still knows the reason for the photo.
Body Composition
The times you make use of your keyword are often expressed as a percentage, which is known as keyword density. There is no specific figure to aim towards. Instead, think about your reader as well as your keyword when writing your content. After that, go back over your material and see if you can incorporate your term naturally without keyword stuffing. Use your keyword every 100-200.
4. Produce fresh, high-quality content.
It’s all about competition when it comes to search engine rankings. “How can I rank higher?” you might wonder, but the true question is, “how do I rank higher than others?” You can stand out from competitors, by appealing to your target audience and optimizing your post while providing exceptional content.
On the internet nowadays, hundreds, if not thousands, of ideas are rehashed. The issue isn’t so much the concept as it is the implementation. It’s not difficult to write content on “how to utilize a blog,” but making it look like every other blog article is. Fresh, high-quality content is prioritized by search engines. Write something new after coming up with a few blog ideas. Bring new ideas and insights to the issue if it isn’t brand new.
5. Use links to improve the quality and credibility of your material.
The appropriate use of links can help your content rank higher in the SERPs and increase your authority as a resource. Pay attention to interlinks and backlinks when developing content.
Interlinks
Consider creating content as if you were drawing a map. You point your readers in the right direction. Interlinks can be used to guide them. As you link to other pages or posts on your site, this is known as interlinking. The most significant advantage is that visitors will stay on your website for longer. It also improves the quality of your website by giving readers additional resources and information.
Pay attention to the anchor link text when creating interlinks. It displays as clickable text with a link highlighted. Using the same wording for a certain inbound link on your site could have a negative impact on your SEO. When interlinking to the same webpage, utilize a variety of words and phrases.
Backlinks
Backlinks increase trustworthiness. A backlink is a link from another website to yours, and the more quality backlinks your website has, the more trustworthy it is to other people and to search engines. If your article includes a connection to another website, you’ve created a backlink for that company. You have a backlink from another website if it links to your content.
How do you get backlinks to your website? Make material that can be linked to. There will always be a need to link to high-quality material, which may be anything from a blog post to an infographic or a video.
6. Consistently publish.
Finally, make your post public. It could take a few days or longer for your pages to get indexed and appear in a Google search, depending on how regularly Google and other search engines examine your site. Publish more frequently is a simple strategy for getting your sites into search engines faster. When Google observes that a site is updated on a daily basis, it will scan it more frequently.
Are you ready to grow?
The organic growth of a blog does not happen overnight. One blog article will not make you a thought leader in your field, but consistency will. Applying the best practices stated above on a regular basis will deepen your relationship with your target audience, increase your credibility as an online resource, and improve your site’s SEO – all of which will lead to an increase in organic traffic to your blog.
In Closing
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Thank you for stopping by today! If you enjoyed this post, you may also like: SEO Content Writing; Getting to the Top of the SERP
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