It’s important for ALL businesses and brands to have a blog on their website but you have to do it right.
Follow these SEO best practices when business blogging:
1. Create strong Headings
Headings help Google’s web crawlers understand your blog post and the sections within it.
Think of the crawlers as readers who are skimming your blog. They want an overview of what your article will cover, that’s your H1 (there should only be ONE H1 per page). Then your H2s, H3s, H4s break down the subtopics within the piece.
So, your sub headers should reflect the content in the body and include high-intent keywords When you use the right keywords, meaning the ones your target audience is using, you have a much higher chance of ranking on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
2. Consider frequency
For strong SEO, it’s important to be consistent – down to your posts going live the same day of the week and time of day. Active blogs engage readers better, which also translates into better search engine rankings. With this in mind, makes business blogging a priority at least once per week. Research has shown that at least 3 per week will have the most impact on your ranking – however, it has to be quality content, so if you struggle to find something to write about, once a week should be the minimum.
3. Incorporate keywords
Once you have your keywords, sprinkle them throughout the post in places where it seems natural (at least every 100 words or so). To get the most out of your keywords, make sure you include keywords in these areas of your post:
- The title
- Sub-heads/section headers
- Photo captions
- Image file names
- The URL of the post
- The meta-description
- The first sentence
- The last paragraph
4… BUT, Resist the urge to keyword stuff
The goal is to make your page fully optimised, not overbearing. Find natural fits for keyword additions, but don’t force them to the point where your content is illegible.
5. Think about length
- Title: 50-60 characters, or about 6-13 words.
- Body of Post: The most recent research is showing longer posts perform better (1500+ words), however there’s value in quality over quantity
- Meta description (the quick summary that shows up under the title): 150-160 characters, or about 1-2 sentences.
6. Aim for scannable, longer posts.
In an age of short attention spans, you would think shorter blog posts are the way to go. But in fact, search engines like Google actually prefer longer, in-depth blog posts.
Think about it: the more content on the page, the more clues search engines have to figure out what your blog is about.
7. Write for humans, not search engines.
With all these SEO guidelines, it can be easy to forget that when a user searches on Google, they are looking for an answer. The best way for you to improve your chances of ranking is by writing high-quality blog posts.
What does that look like? Thorough answers, scannable sections, organised sub headers, and visual aids.
Keep your potential customers, their motivations, challenges, and interests in mind. It’s also important to choose topics that will resonate with your potential customers and address their pain points.
8. Compress images for fast page load speed
Google rewards pages with fast loading speeds as it improves the user experience (a major consideration in SEO).
One of the leading culprits of page lag is large, heavy images. If you have several images in your post and each one is over 100KB, that can drastically impact your page speed.
Luckily, there are free apps, like Squoosh.app, that compress images without sacrificing quality.
9. Add alt text to images
With any image you add to your post – featured or body images – you’ll want to add alt text – this is a description you give the image in WordPress. Make it a keyphrase, like ‘Diving holiday Australia’.. (if it’s a diving image).
Alt text describes what’s happening in the photo and it helps Google (as well as those who are visually impaired) understand why the photo is in your post.
10. Add links to your post content
Within your blog content remember to add links to other parts of your website. Make the links relevant to the blog post though, for example, if you’re talking about a product, link to it’s page on your online shop or a page that has further info.
External links: where possible, add an external link or two to a relevant external website – just make sure that link opens up in a new window / page though.
11. Track your blogs performance
You won’t know how successful your business blogging efforts are unless you track the data. Using Google Analytics with your website and blog post is the best way to review the data and see what’s working and what isn’t.
How to Promote Your Posts when Business Blogging
- Share it on all your social media platforms. It’s important that your blog and social media pages work together. When you post a blog on your website, share a summary on your social accounts and make sure it links back to the blog post on your website. Customise each update for the followers on that specific site. For example, when you share it on Facebook, make the update more casual than when you share it on LinkedIn. Images are obviously more dominant on Instagram. Also, depending on which networks you use, add a few relevant hashtags to make it more visible.
- Promote your post through social media. Give your post a boost with the social media advertising options.
- Dedicate a portion of your newsletter to your blog posts. Let your subscribers know about your new blog post with a concise but enticing summary. Use an eye-grabbing image – but make sure it’s optimised first.
Coast Creative offers SEO strategies and digital marketing (including content creation) for businesses of all sizes. If you would like a free, no-obligation consulation get in touch.
