What business doesn’t want to get found when people search online for what they do? And if you want to get found online you must get found on Google. Nothing new and exciting about that, is there?
But here’s something you may not have thought about: You’re not trying to get your whole website ranked. You’re trying to get individual pages on your website ranked.
And let me tell you, you have a much better chance of getting a single page ranked than the entire website. Why? Because that’s how the search engines work. They rank pages, not websites. And every time you publish a blog post you create a new page.
So, to stay in their good graces, when you're looking for blog post ideas you must:
- Be relevant.
- Optimize each post for a single topic.
- Write often.
Be Relevant
What burning question can you answer? What’s the hot topic in your industry? What’s trending on social media that you can tie in with your product or service?
There are a couple of reasons you want to ask these kinds of questions when you’re looking for something to write about:
- First, you want to provide valuable information about something that’s on the mind of your target audience.
- Second, you want to put something out there that they’ll want to share.
Search engines notice when lots of people visit your page and stick around for a while. And their antennae really perk up when people share that page with their social networks. Double down with these two things and Google knows this page is relevant — and that will move your page up in the rankings.
Optimize for a Single Topic
When you write a blog post, make it about one thing. Then optimize it for one (or maybe two) keywords.
Don’t forget that you’re writing for humans, though. You don’t want to stuff keywords because that will get a big black mark next to your page by the search engines. And, really, SEO is less and less about specific keywords and more and more about how engaged people are when they visit your website.
Write Often
You want to know what the real secret sauce is for getting found on Google these days? Fresh content. The more often you publish, the better off you’ll be — as long as you keep the quality and relevancy there.
We recommend that you blog at least once a week, but you absolutely can’t publish too often.
So, go for it! Figure out what keywords people are using when they search for what you do. Make a list of the top 10 or so, and then plan content around those topics. Just be sure you only cover one topic at a time. The possibilities are endless, and you’ll have a steady stream of great content to share with your audience. Before you know it, you’ll have more and more pages ranking higher and higher with the search engines. And that’s how you get found online.
Deborah is a reformed tennis bum and inbound marketing strategist whose main professional purpose is to support local business owners, experts and entrepreneurs by helping them understand the impact and importance of online marketing. She is one happy camper when she can help clients be more visible on the Internet, increase their own customer base and become more profitable. How can she help you?