Whether you’re trying to get more sales for your business or running a niche website, it’s important to use a blog to get hits. Content is king in today’s digital media landscape, and if you want your website to get hits, you’ll need to utilize SEO to attract more views to your blog.
SEO refers to search engine optimization – a series of practices you can use to make your website more visible on Google. There are many simple ways you can tweak your blogs to boost your search engine ranking and ultimately get more clicks, more viewers, and ultimately more sales. Here are some simple SEO hacks that can have a huge impact.
1. Use the Most Impactful SEO Keywords
Keyword research is the most important skill for anyone focusing on content marketing. By finding out what people are searching on Google, you can target them and draw them in with enticing content.
Using tools like Google Trends, Google Adwords Keyword Planner, and Soovle can help you find highly. But don’t just go for the low hanging fruit; using more specific keywords is a smart strategy. For instance, let’s say you’re selling car insurance.
For instance, if you’re selling car insurance, create blogs targeting search terms like “car insurance accident statistics” or “how to get cheaper car insurance at 20.” You’re much more likely to climb the rankings for these keywords than simply “cheap car insurance.”
It’s also important to use keywords naturally in your blogs. If you try to use too many or if they seem out of place, Google’s algorithm is likely to catch you out and this can negatively impact your search rankings.
2. Make Your Titles and Headers Stand Out
The title of your blog is arguably the most important aspect when it comes to search engine optimization. Even if you aren’t the number one result for a keyword on Google, a title that makes people want to read will win you those all-important clicks.
The best strategy is to make an eye-catching title of 60 characters or less. That way, your title won’t be cut off on Google’s search engine and you can draw readers in. A title like “Guarantee the Cheapest Car Insurance with These 5 Tips!” is bound to stand out more than “5 Methods That Could Possibly Get You A Cheaper Rate on Your Car Insurance.”
The headers in your blog are also important. These are the bolded titles for each section of your blog. It’s useful to base your headers on keywords people are searching for. If people can scan through your blog and get their specific questions answered instantly, you’re on the right track.
3. Catch People’s Attention with a Meta Description
Along with your title, readers can often be drawn in by the description they see on Google. Usually, this will be the first few sentences of your blog, but you can change this manually.
You can create a meta description either using HTML or via handy plug-ins for WordPress and other content management systems. Google users can see around the first 290 characters of your description – but mobile users will only see around 155. Use a few sentences to get your point across and give viewers a reason to read.
You can also add meta keywords through simple HTML tags. These aren’t considered as important in 2020, but it still doesn’t hurt to do everything you can to make your blog SEO-friendly.
4. Focus on Informative and Relevant Content
High-quality content is important when you’re trying to get hits. You should always focus on entertaining or educating your readers. One of the greatest content strategies is to answer frequently asked questions through your blog. Loan companies might aim blogs at questions like “what is the quickest way to borrow money” or “how can I take out a loan with minimum interest.”
It also helps to make your content relevant to current times. A finance blog would be well served by making a blog about summer sales right now. Come winter, they can create content based around saving money for Christmas. You can even tie blogs to current events. For instance, finding an angle to connect your business to upcoming sports events can result in fun and entertaining content that people will want to read.
5. Keep Your Content Fresh
Keeping existing blog posts up to date is essential. You don’t want visitors to land on your website and find information that is no longer valid. They will hit the back button and leave forever. Additionally, Google considers “freshness” as a ranking signal and gives newer content more prominence on the results pages.
You should regularly go through your blog and keep an eye out for information that is no longer relevant or outdated. If possible, update those posts with new facts and images. Also, run your website through a 404 checker to find and fix broken links in your blog posts.
6. Work on Link Building
Link building is a vital part of building your search engine ranking. Your site might be full of top-notch content, but unless other sites are linking to it, you won’t be too visible on Google.
There are many strategies to build links back to your site. One way is to create guest posts for other blogs. A company selling fitness products might want to create SEO-friendly blogs for other fitness sites that link to their products. Using search terms in your link text will help you build your ranking for these keywords.
Sharing content across social media is another useful method. The more people retweet your content or post it in other places, the more links you build. It helps to link your blogs to each other when relevant. Not only will you build more inbound links, but you can also keep readers on your page for longer. It’s a simple trick that can have a huge impact, so work on your link building as much as you can.
Conclusion
Search engine optimization can be tough, especially with the constantly changing rules and algorithms. It might take a fair amount of time and effort before you see those first-page Google rankings. However, these simple SEO hacks have stood the test of time and consistently help sites appeal to new visitors.
Businesses can use these SEO hacks to attract potential customers to their blog and ultimately increase their sales. Bloggers can use them to build a loyal viewership. No matter what kind of website you run, keep working on improving your content for SEO purposes and watch your site evolve on Google’s search pages.
