Deciding to invest in writing and creating a blog is a great idea to present the solutions that a company’s products and services can offer to solve the problems of customers and potential customers.
In addition to creating relevant and informative content, you need to think about the reach of the blog articles to readers. Therefore, applying the various SEO strategies to your company’s blog content is an excellent way to rank in search engines, such as Google, and make your page attract more visitors.
This is because the set of search engine optimization techniques, better known by the acronym SEO, leverages the positioning and relevance of a blog’s content to solve problems and provide answers to users’ questions in internet search engines.
In this article, Seo Company Dubai will explain better what they are and how to apply SEO strategies so that your blog is more attractive and performs better on Google and other search engines.
What you will read about SEO for blogs:
What is SEO?
First of all, do you know what SEO is? People explain. SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization. It is a set of techniques that generate more visibility and make a page, landing page, website or blog rank and appear on the results page of searches made in search engines such as Google.
One of the main goals when applying SEO techniques on an online page is to increase the chances that it will be displayed in the first positions of search engines and, thus, increase organic traffic (that is, free and spontaneous traffic), the number of clicks and, consequently, the number of visitors.
How to apply SEO techniques on blogs?
Now that you’ve familiarized yourself a little more with the subject, learn about 6 SEO techniques to leverage traffic, improve the experience and increase the time visitors stay on a blog, which is one of the factors considered by Google to evaluate the value content and ranking on the search page.
1. Use keywords
When creating blog posts, search and use keywords related to the topic of the article, the company’s area of activity and the brand’s products and services, in addition to inserting words that address the problems faced by your target audience throughout of the text, which should not be too long or too superficial.
But, be careful, use these keywords naturally and coherently with the text. Otherwise, the search engine will understand your action as keyword stuffing, that is, keywords in excess and without context, and your link may be penalized and lose relevance among the results.
Also bet on long-tail keywords, that is, a set of three or more words. This is because long keywords are understood by search engines as more elaborate explanations and solutions for user searches. For example, a user might search for “sneakers”, but could also do a more detailed search for “shoes with cushioned running”.
In addition, users who search using long-tail keywords are more likely to read the full content of the post, as they show a greater and more specific interest in the subject. This type of visitor is also a lead with a lot of potential for demonstrating that they are more advanced in their purchase journey and sales funnel.
2. Organize post topics
When preparing a blog post, create a table of contents with the title of each topic that will be covered in the article text. You can put this index right after the post’s introduction. In this way, you help the search engine to identify more quickly and in detail what subjects are being addressed on your blog.
An index also provides a better experience for readers as they can quickly see what they will find in the blog post and jump right to the topic that is most relevant to solving their problems or questions.
You can use Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to classify the content and make it easier for both the search engine and the visitors to read. In general, these tags are used as follows: H1 for the title, H2 for the subtitles and H3 to classify and list eventual topics within subtitles.
This also contributes to the display of article excerpts in featured snippets, which are small previews taken from the post by the search engine to answer a specific question from users and which are displayed prominently on the search page.
3. Pay attention to page speed
Some elements can affect the page load speed and cause visitors to give up quickly. Some examples of items to keep an eye on and prevent the blog from slowing down are visual elements, unnecessary programming code and a large amount of installed plugins.
Therefore, ensure that programming codes are simplified and objective and survey blog plugins. Uninstall the ones that are not relevant to prevent the frontend and blog loading speed from being impacted.
4. Be mobile friendly
Remember that, with the great popularity and number of mobile devices sold and used by users, a considerable part of your blog traffic will come, for example, from smartphones and tablets.
Nowadays, optimizing a page for mobile devices means prioritizing simplicity. Most of the pre-made themes of platforms for creating websites and blogs are already friendly and responsive to these types of devices.
Thus, the content font, page size and Call to Action (CTA) buttons, among other items, are adapted to the screen size of these devices.
5. Create a URL
The URL is one of the first items analyzed by search page robots to identify what the blog post is about. The URL for this article, for example, is seo-to-blog, as you can see in your browser’s address bar.
So, be sure to apply the most relevant keyword in the link URL to increase your chances of ranking on the search engine. Also, try not to use more than 5 words in the post URL, using only lowercase letters, without accents and with a hyphen to separate them.
6. Apply Link Building
To generate authority before the audience, it is recommended to use links from other blog articles in the post you are preparing, as long as the subjects are related in some way. This type of link is called an internal link and it takes visitors to other blog posts, as well as demonstrating the company’s level of knowledge in the area.
Be careful, however, not to overdo the amount of internal links throughout the text. Otherwise, the perception of visitors may be that the central intention is only to generate clicks and not to inform the target audience.
It is also interesting to use external links, that is, links that take the visitor to other pages and sites. This strategy is important to cite sources and references and prove data and facts mentioned throughout the post and, thus, give more credibility to the content and authority to the company’s blog.
How to do SEO on WordPress blogs?
WordPress is a very popular content management platform because it is very intuitive and does not require a lot of technical knowledge to use.
Many websites and blogs are created and managed through this user-friendly platform because it offers a variety of themes and plugins that make blog post development easy.
Here are 3 on-page SEO elements to increase the performance of your blog posts on WordPress:
1. Meta Title
The meta title is the first contact visitors have with a blog article. In a matter of seconds, they will decide whether to click on the link and continue reading or move on to the next results on the subject searched for in the search engine.
That’s why it’s essential to focus on the title of the post, using elements such as data, asking questions, arousing curiosity, etc. In addition, it is recommended to use the relevant keywords in the titles of the texts.
Another tip is to think of meta titles with up to 60 characters so that the search engine displays them uncut on the results page. If you want or need a longer meta title, try inserting your keywords between the first words of the sentence.
2. Meta Description
The meta description works as a brief summary of the post content for both users and search engines. So, don’t forget about keywords and create attractive text to catch the audience’s attention and motivate them to click on the link and read the full content.
When creating the meta description of the post, create texts with up to 160 characters so that the search engine displays the content in its entirety on the search results page. An effective meta description provides a basis for search engine users to assess whether your blog has what they are looking for.
3. Alt Text in Images
To prevent the text of the post from becoming tedious and visually tiring, it is recommended to include images that help explain the content between the paragraphs of the post.
When scanning online content, search engine robots do not search for images unless they contain an alt text, that is, a phrase with a caption function of about 125 characters.
This will help post images rank on the search engine image results page. In addition, the alt text improves the readers’ experience and demonstrates concern about the accessibility of the blog’s content, since, without an alt text, the image receives a generic caption and unrelated to the content created for the post.