Keep it POSH by Blogging for SEO

7 March 2016

The world of internet blogging grows every day. Blogging is far from being a dead art form – in fact, more and more are being created every day! This is because blogs are a great way to bring people onto your website by giving them information on topics that interest them. And the key to people finding this relevant information on your pages is to make sure you get ranked highly on Google or Bing search results. 

Blogs are a way to continually update your site and keep it fresh with new content. This is because:

  1. It assures people that your business is active and you are working hard to keep it up to date
  2. It lets Google know that you offer a current and up to date service for its customers and so you are more likely to turn up in search results. 

Turning up high in Google’s search result list is absolutely one of the most important (and free!) ways to promote your business to customers. But there are ways you can help ensure this happens and try to get as close to the top of the search results as possible. 

Search Engine Optimisation

There could be millions of people all vying for a spot at the top of search engines for specific topics. But the question is: how do they plan on getting there? The answer to that is that they’ll be blogging for Search Engine Optimisation, or simply SEO. 

What is SEO, though? The answer to that question starts with Google. Let’s imagine you are lucky enough to be going on holiday. You will probably want to search for a hotel and you will probably use Google for doing so (most people do). Google displays links to the pages that it considers the most relevant and authoritative in relation to your chosen query. It will give you a list of hotels. 

But you will want to search for something more specific than just “a hotel to stay in”. You will want to stay in a hotel in, for example. Inverness. That will give you a slightly different and more precise set of search results. Again, you might want a hotel in Inverness that is dog friendly. So that will give you even more specific results. 

SEO has been called the ‘quality control for websites’ before. In some way it’s true, web pages have the chance to rank high on Google as long as they are written well, use the keywords that people use to search, and have other quality web pages link to them in turn. 

But how do we make sure that we appear in the search results? Let’s talk a bit more about how to make keywords work for you.

a man kneels at a projection of keywords search bar on the floorKeywords

One of the flat-out best methods of attracting viewers to your site is through the hard-to-master art of keywords. Think of these as the words and phrases that people use when searching for something online.

For example, if you have a hotel in Inverness, you will want to use that exact phrase, as well as other phrases people might look for when deciding on an Inverness hotel. Are you dog friendly? Close to shops? Are you a good wedding venue? All of these are important keywords which when used throughout your blog make it clear to Google what you are, where you are and who you are selling to. 

Keywords are often used multiple times throughout a single blog (see if you can spot ours!). Entire bodies of content can be based around them. They can be well hidden, or only appear a few times throughout a piece, though they’ll always make up part of the title.

There’s a lot to consider when making sure a blog is both quality content, and fully search engine optimised. So it’s important to never let the desire to plug in plenty of keywords detract from a well written blog. The aim is to write a clear, easy to read blog that incorporates a few keywords. This is the start of your SEO strategy to bring more customers to your website through search engines.

a search box with SEO strategy inside, with the image of a man holding a coffee sup and his phone behind.

Links and You

Blogs are the perfect platform for websites wanting to build up their traffic and reputation with new, relevant content. They also give you, the writer, the chance to add a link to one of your other pages. This will boost its rank on Google. It’s a little cheeky, but every little helps and you’d hardly be the first, or the last! It also means that people who visit your site begin to see it as an authority on a subject as you hold all the information they are seeking. This is great user experience because they don’t have to keep typing search terms into Google.

As your site (or blog page) grows in popularity, other reputable sites might see fit to include relevant links back to it in turn. This will further boost it in the cut-throat world of Google Ranks. There are a number of detailed guides online that can explain exactly how and why linking becomes so important – especially when it comes to attracting viewers.

Where to start?

The basics of writing a good blog isn’t black magic. Anyone can do it! But not everyone can do it well. A good blog should be entertaining, informative and easy to read. Try to avoid using industry jargon, especially if your target audience won’t understand your acronyms. 

If you are looking to find keywords for your industry, check out sites like Google Ads. And remember to link your site up to an analytical account like Google Analytics. This is one of the best ways to see which blogs are working well. This could be those which attract customers to your site and drive sales. You can also see the ones which are perhaps not performing to expectations, and so you can update them accordingly.

If all this sounds like too much for you, and you just want blogs that work and drive people to your website, then get in touch with us today. We’ll be happy to take a look at your site and help you out!