Blogs are a terrific way to continuously engage with your audience and keep them interested in your company. The ideas are endless, but you may not be reaching out to your full potential if you have been disregarding any crucial blogging components. Understanding more about what SEO is and how it works is important when marketing and creating content.

What is the purpose of SEO?

SEO, or more technically known as search engine optimization, is essentially free advertising that attracts both new and existing customers and followers. Similar to how appealing context increases engagement on Facebook, SEO determines words and phrases that make your content stand out on SERPs (search engine result pages). Crawlers, spiders and robots often refer to tools that search engines, such as Google and Yahoo!, use to display their results. These technical applications may seem daunting, but the right keywords can significantly affect those algorithms and page rankings.

Specific, relevant keywords

Think of keywords as part of your marketing conversation to the consumer. Let’s use handmade soaps as an example. Instead of only referring to them that way, also use long tail keywords that are more specific — fragrance-free, vegan, goat’s milk, rose petal, charcoal or glittery. Include your business name, the city or market where they’re crafted or available as well as words that can further describe certain designs, ingredients or types (San Diego farmers market bunny-shaped bar soaps).

Whatever phrase you choose, work them into your content organically, so that it doesn’t sound scripted or forced.

Furthermore, make sure that the keywords are relevant. If you create a post that’s off-topic it’s better that you apply search terms accordingly, or not include any at all, rather than put them in just for the sake of it.  

Remember to also keep applicable keywords for the following:

• Anchor text: words that lead to internal links (backlinks to other content you’ve created) and to external links (links to content from outside sources).
• Meta descriptions: the short text that appears with links in search engine results.
• Page URLs: www.businessname.com/lavender-unicorn-bar-soap vs. www.businessname.com/soap-399
• Alt attributes: the descriptive text used for images which search engines crawl instead of the actual visual.

Off-page Appeal

As you learn more about SEO, pay attention to off-page sources. These are the ways that others mention your company’s services or products through comments and social media interaction, as well as how you engage with your audience. The more customer reviews you get the more brand recognition you can receive. This opens up the possibilities for influencers to include you in their own heavily followed pages and videos. It is important to consider this potential when you create anything online.

We’re here to help you navigate the ever-changing SEO algorithms. Find out how our SEO services are the digital strategies you need for success!

Alex Wilks

Alex Wilks has been working as a copywriter and digital marketing strategist since 2018, with added specialties in social media and email marketing. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Communication, she is a natural content writer with the ability to connect well with her target audience.