Search engine optimisation (SEO) is incredibly important for businesses and marketers. When your webpages are optimised, it makes your website more visible for users who are making search queries with the keywords that are associated with your products or services. Blog posts help boost the quality of your SEO by positioning your website as an authority that answers user’s questions.
This gives you more opportunities to rank on Google for the keywords that matter the most to your business. However, Google’s continuous algorithm updates can make this a little bit tricky. So, when it comes to SEO, search engine marketing and your blog, how do you know what is important and what isn’t? Let’s take a look now.
Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Responsive
Did you know that in the modern-day more people use Google on their mobile devices than they do on a desktop? Because of this, Google displays mobile-friendly content first. So, you must ensure that your website and blog posts are mobile responsive. It helps your blog post’s SEO because the inbound links that come back to you won’t be divided into separate URLs.
Use 1 or 2 Long-tail Keywords
Optimising your content with keywords is not about, including as many you possibly can. In fact, this can harm your SEO because Google considers this as keyword stuffing. A general rule of thumb is to focus on one or two keywords in a single blog post. This is to ensure that you are answering the intent of a user’s queries without the content reading in a way that seems forced.
Use Image Alt-Text to Optimise Your Images
Blog posts should never contain just text; they must include images that are relevant to the content. However, Google doesn’t just look out for images; they look for images that contain alt-text. This means that to ensure your images benefit your blog’s ranking factor, you need to include image alt-text. It needs to be written in such a way that is descriptive and helpful, meaning it should provide Google with the context of the image. And, how it is related to the blog post it is placed in.
Use Internal Links Where Possible
Using internal links within your content will help it show Google its validity. The same applies when linking to other pages on your website. If you have created content that is directly or indirectly relevant to other pages, then the best practice in terms of SEO is to link to that page. Not only does internal linking keep users on your blog posts, but it also helps your other pages rank better on Google.
Publish Evergreen Content on a Regular Basis
When planning and creating your blog posts, always make sure that the content is evergreen. What this means is ensuring that it will remain relevant and valuable over a long period of time. Doing so means that it will contribute a steady amount of traffic coming to your website long after the date it was published.
Optimise The Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions give users the information they need to determine whether your content is exactly what they are looking for. It ultimately helps them decide whether to click through to your content or not. The length of a meta description is quite limiting, so it needs to be compelling and reader-friendly and include the keyword you are trying to rank for.
Repurpose Your Old Content
When it comes to SEO, you may think that you need to create fresh blog content in order to improve your site’s overall ranking. However, while this is true in some way, you should also put a lot of effort into your existing content. Not only will your updated content rank in a better position on Google, but, it also takes less time updating an existing blog rather than creating a brand new one.
Always Use Google Search Console to Plan Your Content
Using Google Search Console is extremely useful when planning your blog content. It allows you to determine which keywords users are entering to find content. After all, without knowing what keywords are being used, you will never know that your blog is optimised enough to rank until it’s been published.