How to optimise blogs for SEO

As a business, you are likely to understand the importance of blogs on your website but do you know the marketing advantage potential that blogs can have for your business? If you run a successful business blog it can help you to rank higher for a multitude of different keywords and so getting you more exposure. To run a successful blog it is not all about writing one after the other and posting them, you need to spend some time optimising them for SEO so that you can benefit from them long-term. Here are some tips on how to make sure your blogs are well optimised for SEO:

The Importance of Keywords

Keywords are the gold dust of SEO and they are still very important when it comes to blog content and optimising. If you are writing valuable content then the chances are that you will already be using valuable keywords in the content of your blogs. You should always look at what related keywords you could include as well, there are tools that you can use to find related keywords and also look at what keywords your competitors are targeting in their blogs. One Example is Google Adwords Keyword Tool. 

Keywords need to be included in the content of your blog but you need to avoid keyword stuffing, this is when the keyword is overused. Keyword stuffing will decrease the readability of your readers and annoy them and Google will penalise your search results ranking for over plugging your keyword.

1. You should aim to have your focus keyword in the following places:

Title
Headings
Introduction
Last Paragraph
Link text
Meta details 

2. Optimising images

If you have images in your blog you need to make sure that they are optimised for SEO. Make sure that each image has relevant alt text with your focus keyword In them.

3.  Link References

If you mention another blog in your content or used their information you should link to them in the content. This is a general rule of thumb in blogging and could also mean that you get a link back from them. Having a link back from a credible source will benefit the posts SEO ranking as Google will see this as a heads up that the blog is worthy. Backlinks are very important in SEO and are a huge part of any marketing plan. Read a blog here on why backlinking is important.

4. Social Media

Once your blog is written and posted you should use your social media channels to promote the blog. This will get the blog more exposure and drive traffic towards it.

5. Post Title

The title of your blog Is also very important, this is the first chance you get to communicate what your blog is about and get people to click through to it. You should try to use your focus keyword in the title but it still needs to make sense.

Blog writing is not as straightforward as you might think and getting the most out of having a blog on your website can be quite difficult to keep on top of. To discuss how we could help with blog management pop us a message or give us a call!