Every blog needs Seo. But some of you might not know how to get started with it. That’s what this post is all about. This is the first in a series where I’ll go over important elements of basic Seo in a way that every level blogger can benefit from.
In this article, I will discuss the absolute basics of SEO. If you are new to this I recommend using this as a guide while learning your way around search engine optimization. Now, let’s get started.
Basic SEO is a term used when your page has achieved a good level of optimization. You can use this article to check what you should be doing to keep your page ranking in the top 10. Google’s algorithm has become more complex, and using simple Black Hat techniques will not get you anywhere near the top anymore.
Basic Seo
Who do I create content for?
Before you can move forward with your SEO plan, you must first know exactly for whom are you are writing. This means breaking down your target customers into customer personas. These categories will help you understand the pain points and needs of your unique audience so that you can tailor the material to engage them.
You can begin to build your target personas by examining and your current and past customers. You want to understand what they wanted to see from a business and what brought them to you.
You can also use market research to supplement your findings. It is also important to know exactly when a prospective client will be engaging with your content. Reports, such as white papers or case studies, tend to serve customers who are further down the buyer’s journey, while blog posts about the industry are often explored by those in the beginning Awareness stage.
The type of content as well as the material you cover should all be tailored to meet the needs of particular customers at certain points in their buyer’s journey.
SEO Basics 2: What kind of content do people want to read?
Once you know who you are writing for, the next part is understanding exactly what they want to read. This is keyword research. By doing keyword research you can examine factors, such as the traffic and level of competition for a particular keyword. This can help you pinpoint concepts that your targeted personas are likely to be searching for, improving your chances of attracting a strong audience.
Using a platform like BrightEdge will also allow you to go one step further. Once you have selected a keyword to be tested, you can also check the top 10 domains ranked for the keyword. This will not only help you see if the keyword is worth pursuing, but it will also give you added insight into the types of content and information that have already been well-ranked for this topic. This is a shot of the BrightEdge Recommendations capability which provides actionable on-page and off-page insights.
SEO Basics 3: How do I write content that is easy to digest?
Armed with your topic and the understanding of the ideal audience, you now need to create fresh content. As you develop your material, the customer should be the center focus. Make sure the content adds something of value for your readers. Use your professional expertise to offer them unique insight. This value will not only improve engagement, but it will also help to cast you as the helpful professional to whom they should return when they have more questions about your industry.
Remember that in online marketing, this is often the opportunity to begin to build a relationship with your prospect, so you want to get off to a strong start. When considering your content, it is also important to think about your format. Customers have ever-decreasing attention spans with the average now down to around 8 seconds. Using features such as bullets, lists, headings and short paragraphs all make your content easier to scan and digest. This will help people retain your material and better understand the depth of the information you can provide.
SEO Basics 4: How can I help people find my content?
Once you have your high-value content prepared, you need to find a way to get that content in front of the targeted customers. People do not magically find quality content, you need to engage in a few best practices to improve the visibility of your material. To begin, make sure you have included your keyword 5-10 times throughout the content, depending on length.
This includes the H1, at least one H2 and naturally a few times in the body of your content. Remember as you begin this step, however, that keyword stuffing is frowned upon both by readers and by the algorithms. Google has taken great care to downgrade the sites that use stuffing techniques to try and make their thin content seem relevant despite its lack of depth. Instead, your focus should be to naturally incorporate your targeted keyword in your material. Remember that this includes semantically related keywords. Google continues to push towards semantic search with their updates such as Hummingbird and RankBrain.
In other words, they work to understand the context and intent behind a query. Including related keywords naturally in your material will help to further establish your relevance to the search algorithm. Keep in mind that your efforts to get your content in front of the right people at the right time also includes distribution.
Your plan should include your social media platforms as well as email lists (learn more about social media metrics). Delivering your content to the people who are the most likely to appreciate it can help boost your traffic and engagement rates, both of which are considered by search engines when determining the position of the article on the SERPs.
SEO Basics 5: How to I create a pleasant user experience?
Once you get people on your website, you want to make the entire experience pleasant for them. This means features, such as fast load times and using images. Customers quickly grow impatient and annoyed when a website takes too long to load. One study found that an increase of just 1 second in load time can decrease conversions by 7 percent. You can improve your load times by taking steps, such as:
- Only using the most necessary plugins
- Enabling browser caching
- Optimize images that are too heavy
While it is important to use appropriately-sized images, the visuals themselves can also help improve the user experience. Unique images, particularly those that directly involve your company, such as personnel or your products and services, tend to be great. Most people are very visual, and adding images helps you tap into that power to make your material seem more interesting. Using these two steps will help to increase engagement and will decrease bounce rates.