Publishing relevant content…
You might have heard copywriters or digital marketing teams banging on about how important blogs are on your website. And you might have told yourself a thousand times that you’ll write one tomorrow. And then tomorrow just doesn’t go to plan. Sound familiar?
Here’s the thing. Blogs are a great way to boost your SEO. Your industry or profession will have certain keywords and terms associated with it that search engines will pick up on. The more of them you use, the more likely you are to get exposure (there is of course the phenomenon known as over-optimisation, but that’s a whole other blog…). This is what’s known in the biz ‘keyword research’). If you’re someone who’s posting the latest and greatest from your industry using these key terms in the right places (headers and subheaders etc), the more likely you are to appear when someone searches these words in a search engine.
…and publishing it regularly.
This is the key thing here. It’s one thing to build up a bank of blogs and other content, but if you’re not updating your site on a regular basis, the time you spend writing them is pretty futile. The more regularly your site is updated, the more a search engine believes your site is relevant. Regular content demonstrates that you’re clearly keeping your finger on the pulse of your industry.
Updating your content frequently will also help you when it comes to auditing later on. If you’ve kept to a disciplined schedule, you’ll have a much more accurate portrayal of what worked and what didn’t, enabling you to make changes accordingly when it comes to your next strategy.
Size matters.
Search engines are constantly prioritising content based on a number of factors. The length of your articles, believe it or not will play a part in this. Generally speaking, blogs of about 500 words will do. If you’re diving deep into a topic, 1000 words might be more suitable. But what’s important is that it has flow, is concise and uses appropriate subheaders to break it up. No one wants to read a giant block of text, trust us!
Make your site as linkable as possible.
Putting links in your site is a game of give and take. Search engines love backlinks (see what we did there?) Using interesting links in your content is a great way of using your key search terms but also helps the reputation of the site you’re linking too. Everyone wins! You’ll also be adding additional value to your readers by providing them with extra resources.
Using alt-tags.
When you’re using visual or video content, a useful SEO hack is to include alt-tags (alternative text descriptions). The back end of your site will usually display an option to add these. This is yet another opportunity for you to use those crucial keywords so that search engines will have an easier time locating you.
But there’s an added bonus too. Alt-tags actually make your content more accessible to those who may use screen readers or text only browsers.
Ultimately, improving (and maintaining) a solid ranking takes some serious grafting, but it can (and should) be done. However, time is often not on your side and this is where outsourcing can be your best kept secret. Copywriters, digital marketers and SEO specialists are on hand to do the hard work, so you don’t have to. And let’s face it, if this is the kind of success you can have as par the course, imagine the return you’re going to get on your investment if you bring in the experts?
At Bobble Digital, we can work with you to make sure your SEO truly helps you stand out from the crowd. For more information, please feel free to get in touch with us.
