4 Steps to Increase Your Website’s SEO Through Blogging
Photo by Christina Jones Photography
If you’re a business owner with a website, chances are you’ve heard of SEO (search engine optimization) come up in conversation or in research for digital marketing strategies. I’m Lauren Taylor of Lauren Taylar Design & SEO!
Although it sounds daunting, I promise that SEO is not as scary as it might sound. It’s simply the process of making your website visible in search engines like Google.
In this post, I’m breaking down a four-step process you can use to increase your website’s SEO through your blog.
Before I dive in, I want to explain the importance of having a blog to drive traffic and leads from Google. When you publish content on your website that demonstrates your expertise around closely related topics, Google will deem your website as an authoritative and trustworthy source of information for its users.
Therefore, the more content you have on your website, the easier it is to rank for different words and phrases your ideal clients are searching for. For simplicity’s sake, I’m only referring to on-page SEO. However, off-page SEO tactics like link building will be amplified by the efforts you’re putting forth on your website with your blog.
Now on to the juicy part…
Photo by ColorJoy Stock
1. Brainstorm content topics that provide a solution for your ideal clients
What questions do you get asked most?
What are the common struggles your clients are facing?
What topics can you speak on that directly relate to your services or products?
Grab a piece of paper or open an empty document on your laptop and do a full brain dump of various topics you can write about on your blog.
Think about all the pieces of advice you’ve accumulated throughout your business journey.
Don’t be afraid to reference other pieces of content you’ve created for inspiration - live videos, captions, reels, etc.
2. Validate your ideas with keyword research
Keyword research is simply the process of identifying the exact words and phrases that people are searching for on Google.
With the content ideas you’ve brainstormed, now it’s time to validate them before putting in the effort to write full blog posts around that topic.
This is an important step because it ensures that you’re writing content around specific topics and questions people want answers to.
My favorite tools are Keywords Everywhere and Ubersuggest. They provide both the search volume and competition.
Search volume refers to the number of searches for that keyword each month.
Competition (also known as search difficulty) represents how difficult it is to rank for that keyword, typically on a scale from 1 to 100.
These are both important date metrics to keep in mind because you want to focus on keywords that have a search volume higher than 100 and competition lower than 30 when first starting your blog.
When identifying the right keywords, focus on long-tail keywords, which consist of three words or more.
An example for a business coach could be “how to find clients.”
Photo by ColorJoy Stock
3. Start creating long-form, educational content
Once you’ve done your keyword research, start to write content based off of individual keywords as the main focus.
Going back to the “how to find clients” example, a blog post title from that keyword could be 5 Ways to Find Clients for Your Online Business.
Note: each keyword represents a different blog post topic
Start with an idea for the title, then break it down into the main points (or subheadings) to create a general outline. From there, you can start filling out the rest.
Google’s goal is to showcase the best quality content to its users. Therefore, it’s beneficial to write an in-depth resource on the topic you’re addressing.
I always recommend at least 1,000 words for each post, but it’s not damaging to have a couple shorter posts if you can’t reach that threshold.
Don’t worry about giving away too much to your readers. The goal here is to provide advice, a win, or a solution to a problem your ideal client is facing through your blog content.
When you create dozens of posts on your blog around one or two main concepts, you become an expert not only to Google, but also to your ideal client. They’re much more likely to invest in your services since you’ve helped them for free.
4. Optimize your blog post
Once you’ve got your target keyword identified, now it’s time to check the content and technical SEO elements so you can set your post up for success.
I always tell clients to focus on writing the content first, then making the strategic adjustments later on so that you don’t overthink it.
Before hitting publish, you want to insert your keyword in various areas of your blog post. Here are some examples using the “how to find clients” keyword…
Title: 5 Ways to Find Clients for Your Online Business
URL: /how-to-find-clients-online-business
Content: Make sure you’ve included your keyword a few times throughout your post, only where it sounds natural. For a 1,000 word blog post, I’d recommend using your keyword 3-5 times - in the opening paragraph, a couple times in the middle, and in the conclusion.
Meta description: Looking for advice on how to find clients for your online business? In this post, I break down my top 5 tips.
Image file name: how to find clients - [describe image]
Also be sure to resize any images below 500 KB so the page loads fast.
There you have it! Those are the four steps to increase your website’s SEO through your blog.
Keep in mind that SEO is a long-term strategy so you won’t see results overnight. However, you’ll find that your website will rank for various keywords faster if you stick with it since your website’s authority will increase with each post you publish.
Happy blogging! Also, find more SEO resources and tips on my blog here and keep in touch with me on Instagram.
Disclaimer: The business owner featured in this blog is a member of Babe Crafted (at the time of publishing).
