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6 Powerful Steps for SEO Blog Writing

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SEO Blog Writing

The goal of this article is to provide an overview of SEO blog writing and how it fits into WSI Connect’s content creation process and SEO strategies. It illustrates how we tailor the content to deliver significant value to the reader while at the same time optimizing it to perform well in search engines.

Throughout this article we will use a blog post from one of our clients, Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC), and highlight changes that we would recommend based on our SEO blog writing best practices.

Example: https://www.hercjobs.org/what-is-imposter-syndrome-and-how-can-you-overcome-it/

Seo blog writing - screen shot of the blog example

Here are the most important steps for SEO blog writing

Step 1: Start with the concept

Establish your concept. Focus the content on this one key concept and think about how you are going to deliver value to the reader. This helps begin the formulation of the structure of the blog content.

Example Concept: Imposter Syndrome

In this example, we pulled the concept from the existing content. If we were creating new content, we would spend time brainstorming a concept, what our readers need to know about it, and how we could help.

The structure and formulation of the content will continue to change and be revised throughout the entire development process.

Step 2: Keyword Research

Once we identify the concept of the blog, we dive into keyword research. This helps to better understand the keywords that our potential audience uses to search for the content that we are going to create. This also helps us improve our SEO blog writing by focusing the content on the best search terms.

Our favorite tool is Google’s Keyword Planner, but that requires an active Google Ads account to access accurate data. A good alternative is a free tool, Ubersuggest.

In this step, we look for the keyword that aligns with our concept and has a significant amount of people searching for it. The column titled “VOL” shows the average number of monthly searches for each keyword.

blog SEO keyword research example ubersuggest

In our example we recommend the keyword, “overcoming imposter syndrome”.

This keyword aligns because it clearly defines the content of the blog post. Also, it averages 390 monthly searches so a well written blog post that ranks well in Google has the potential to be a valuable long term asset.

Step 3: Identify Related Topics

Identifying related topics is a useful way to build out content and add more depth. Answer the public (https://answerthepublic.com/) is our favorite tool for this process. Input the target keyword and it will produce a wide range of related topics.

answer the public screen shot example

At this point we pull out the topics that are important to the target audience and begin developing them as subtopics within the blog post.

Here are a few examples that we thought were interesting in relation to imposter syndrome.

Interesting topics to cover:

  • How to overcome imposter syndrome?
  • What is imposter syndrome?
  • What causes imposter syndrome?
  • Is imposter syndrome good?
  • Is imposter syndrome bad?

Step 4: Competitive Research

This is the most important, easiest, yet most often overlooked step. Take the target keyword, pop it into Google, and review the first 4-5 articles that appear. Take notes on the commonalities such as total word count, content structure, inclusion of images, and/or videos.

Example Google Search Result:

google-search-results-screen-shot

Interesting Note: In this specific search result there is only organic result appearing above the fold. This article, in particular, is currently capturing the majority of the traffic related to “overcoming imposter syndrome”.

Below are the top results that we reviewed. Keep in mind that your results will vary. Google uses information such as your browsing history when determining which content to show in your search results. If you’ve visited the blog post before, it will show up higher than it would for someone who hadn’t already viewed the content.

Commonalities in the search results:

  • Long form content
  • Bulleted and/or numbered lists
  • Use of videos and images
  • Multiple internal links
  • Multiple external links (open in a new window)
  • Referencing related articles
  • Titles start with a number (this typically improves click-through rates)

After reviewing the content that Google currently believes is the best content related to the search query, there is a very important question to ask:

How do we create a better resource than already exists?

We know that if we cannot create something that is better than what already exists, then the chance of developing a blog that will be a valuable long term resource is very low. The commonalities help us uncover useful ways to improve our content and create something that is overall a better resource.

In this example we would recommend that HERC develop more content (step 3 can help with this), break up the content with subtitles and bulleted/numbered lists, reference authoritative resources, link to related internal content, and adjust the title to include a number.

Google’s blog post, What webmasters should know about Google’s core updates, provides a good outline for evaluating content for quality.

Step 5: SEO blog writing best practices

There are key elements that have been measured to show strong SEO correlations with the content that captures significant traffic from search engines. In this step we review the content and make adjustments to ensure that as many of them as possible are included within the blog content.

Many of these elements are very helpful to the visitor as well. The majority of readers skim content rather than reading every detail, thus content needs to be adjusted so that the reader can quickly find the content that they are most interested in.

Key Elements of On-page SEO:

  1. Keyword in URL
  2. Keyword page title
  3. Keyword in <h1>
  4. Keyword in the first sentence of the blog
  5. Include keyword within name of an image file
  6. Keyword in the meta description
  7. Keyword in the last sentence of the blog
  8. Break up content with bullets, numbered lists, quotes, sub headers (h2,h3,h4,h5), images, bolded text, embedded videos
  9. Include relevant internal links
  10. Include relevant external links (open in a new window)
  11. Text length should be comparable to the top results, although longer is generally better
  12. The content of the post needs to tie back to your core mission.
  13. Relevant categories and tags (try to avoid redundancy)
  14. Referencing authoritative 3rd parties
  15. Citing sources

Examples of how we recommend modifying this post for SEO:

Keyword: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Existing URL: https://www.hercjobs.org/what-is-imposter-syndrome-and-how-can-you-overcome-it/

Recommended URL: https://www.hercjobs.org/4-strategies-overcome-imposter-syndrome

Current title: What is Imposter Syndrome and how can you overcome it?

Recommended title: 4 Strategies to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

Step 6: Guide them to a next step. Use a call-to-action (CTA)

When someone visits our website and consumes our content, we need to do our best to drive that visitor to some type of action (conversion). This significantly increases the chance that the visitor will become a customer sometime in the future.

To drive them towards a conversion we use a call-to-action (CTA). The action needs to be consistent with the content of the page. If this was a product or service page, we would drive them to purchase or a consultation.

In the example, it is an informational page so we recommended using a newsletter signup for the CTA at the end of the blog post. This would allow HERC to capture the visitor’s email address and continue the communication. HERC offers ebooks in their right column, which is also a great way to drive conversions.

This step doesn’t improve your SEO blog writing, but it is essential in order to get the most value out of your content.

Conclusion to 6 Powerful Steps for SEO Blog Writing

Creating great blog content takes effort. It requires in-depth knowledge of the target audience and how they search for the concept that the blog is about. It has to provide the reader with value and it has to be better than the content that already exists.

If you need help with content creation, schedule a free consultation. We will discuss your goals in-depth, help you develop valuable content assets and reach your audience through powerful SEO blog writing.

Click for a FREE Consultation
(and discover why you should work with WSI Connect!)

4 Things You Need to Fix On Your Google Ads Accounts Right Now

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Google ad campaigns are quite effective at attracting leads and nurturing them into loyal, repeat customers. You can even customize your Google Ads to target a specific audience, drive more traffic to your website, and get better returns on your ad spend.

However, it’s very common for companies to waste a lot of money when using Google Ads.

When a user clicks on your ad, they trust the ad to solve a problem or address an underlying need. But if you haven’t set up the post effectively with the right content, targeted keywords, titles, images, and description, more clicks will not translate into sales for your business.

Here are the four things to fix in your Google ads account right now.

1. Keyword strategies 

Are you using the correct keyword strategy? Our approach is to segment keywords into two categories:

  • informational keywords vs. buying intent keywords.

When conducting an audit we often find companies spending the bulk of their budget on informational keywords.  For example, a landscaping company wouldn’t want to use informational keywords such as “landscaping DIY” or “landscaping ideas”.  They are much less likely to convert into a paying customer than someone that is searching using a buying intent keyword such as “landscaper near me”.

Prioritize keywords that imply buying intent for your Google ads.  Target informational keywords in your blog content.

The match type of keywords matters immensely. Broad matching, for instance, makes your ad display regardless of the order of the keywords. This might have potential, but it also brings in irrelevant traffic to your website that may not convert as well as exact match keywords. Exact-match keywords display your ads when users search for the exact term you’re targeting.

4-Things-Fix-Google-Ads-Account-Now-Infographic-1

2. A/B test your ads

A/B testing is very easy to do with Google Ads. It is an important method to improve click-through rates and improve your ad quality score. Improving these areas allows you to get more value out of your ad spend.

For each ad group you should have at least 3 ad variations running at a time. This way, you’re essentially A/B testing your ad by using different headlines and descriptions that approach the user differently.

A/B testing your Google Ads is crucial if you want to see the sweet spot between ad spend and ROI. It  takes a lot of testing and tweaking the ads to find the right combo. It’s uncommon for even seasoned marketers to create a top performing ad on their first try.

Keep experimenting to find out which one performs better. Track click-though rates and conversions to help measure the effectiveness of your ads.

3. Linking your ads to your home page

The only times you should link your ads to your home page is if:

  • you offer a single type of product or service, or
  • for very generic searches.

For the vast majority of your ad groups, it will be much more effective to link to a specific product or service page.

Example #1.  If you are a car dealer that is bidding on the keyword “car dealership near me” it makes sense to send the visitor to the home page because we don’t have any additional context about what they are looking for.  

Example #2.  A car dealership that is targeting the key word “used Honda Accord for sale”, should link to a page that shows their current inventory of used Honda Accords.  We know what the person is searching for, so we should make it as easy as possible to help them find the information that they want.

4. Not targeting ads locally

Google Ads offers a number of options for geographic targeting such as by city, zip code, and by radius.  Targeting should be prioritized according to where you customers come from.

Example:  Customers of self-storage businesses typically come from a 6 mile radius.  The closer they are to the storage facility, the more likely they are to convert.  In this example we would target a 6 mile radius and a 3 mile radius, increasing the bid amount for the 3 mile radius target.

Choosing the right targeting option requires in depth analysis of your customers and target markets.

Schedule a PPC Audit Consultation

Contact us for any PPC ad questions and to schedule a PPC Audit consultation today.

How to Amp Up 2020 with Digital Marketing Goals

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The start of a new year is a great time to set goals for your business and create a solid plan for achieving them. As you gather your team and discuss what you want to do this year, don’t forget to make a few resolutions for your business’s digital marketing strategy. Choose whether you want to improve on 2019’s strategy or go in a new direction.

Here are 5 digital marketing goals that any business can do:

1. Audit your current strategy

Before you can make headway on any other resolutions, you should first take a step back and assess what is and isn’t working. A digital marketing audit should review these components of your strategy:

  • Spend – Did the amount of money that you spent in 2019 produce a positive ROI? 
  • Campaigns – Which were your most valuable marketing campaigns and can those be increased in 2020?
  • Waste – Which marketing and sales activities did you lose money on in 2019 and can those be eliminated or improved in 2020?
  • Target Audience – Do you have clearly defined your buyer persona’s to ensure that you are targeting your potential buyers and influencers? 
  • Channels – What were your most valuable marketing channels?
  • Reach – How effectively did you engage your target audience across your digital channels?
  • Content – Did your 2019 content development strategy help build your marketing assets? 
  • Conversion – How well did your conversion perform and do they need more attention this year?
  • Integration – Are all your marketing channels, digital and offline, cross-linked and integrated?
  • Analytics – Are your marketing analytics telling you what you want to know? Are your current analytics even able to help you easily conduct this audit?

Each year your marketing strategy should continue to evolve and improve. 

2. Update your SEO strategy

As Google’s ranking algorithms are always changing so it’s important to keep pace in your SEO strategy. If you’re wondering where to start, here a few SEO tactics to meet the shifting trends:

  • Instead of writing for your keywords, write for your customers.
  • Integrate buyer personas, customer feedback, and marketing analytics into your strategy.
  • Optimize your content for the way people search: voice searches and question-based queries.
  • Don’t forget the technical details: make your website is fast, mobile-friendly, and structured to reflect the buyer’s journey.
  • Strengthen your expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Bring offline credentials, certifications, and customer resources online.
  • Develop content that is easy for users to read and Google to crawl, like FAQ’s and How To’s.

3. Dive into content marketing

If content marketing isn’t already a part of your digital marketing strategy, 2020 can be your year. Many businesses avoid content marketing because they believe it is too time consuming. Or they are not sure how to develop and execute a worthwhile strategy. Depending on the business and their marketing team, those can be fair concerns. But if you consider these benefits of content marketing, it may be time to reconsider:

  • Great content can attract and keep great customers when it’s developed with them in mind.
  • A variety of short- and long-form content can grease your conversion funnel.
  • Most digital content doesn’t cost a thing to publish. It can help you reach more potential customers across many channels.
  • High-quality content elevates your trustworthiness and establishes your authority in your industry. This is something your customers will value and Google rewards in their rankings.

For a few tips see: 6 Powerful Steps for SEO Blog Writing

All those things considered, if your marketing team doesn’t have the bandwidth or expertise to pursue a successful content marketing strategy it may still seem out of reach. Yet, that is where professionals like WSI Connect can help. Leverage the expertise of your marketing partners. Reap the benefits of content marketing without overwhelming your workload.

4. Secure your data

With all the data your digital marketing team has worked hard to gather, and the increasing popularity of cloud-based software to store and manage it, data security is of the utmost importance. A breach can damage your reputation and wreak havoc on your systems. Resources and protocols should be in place to combat WordPress hackers, malware, and/or bots. Better securing your data is a worthy – and necessary – resolution.

For WordPress users: Important WordPress Security Tips to Consider

5. Take advantage of automation

Marketing automation software can transform not only how your marketing team spends their day, but also how they think. When the repetitive, time-consuming tasks of digital marketing are automated, your team can devote their time and creativity to the bigger picture. For many businesses, the impact of this shift is hard to overstate.

Marketing automation software is designed to capture leads, develop relationships, and assist moving potential customers through your conversion funnel. This essential marketing tool can have a range of capabilities such as:

  • Email marketing with segmented campaigns, behavior trigger emails, and A/B testing
  • Lead nurturing with a lead database, drip campaigns, automated alerts, and lead scoring
  • Social media management with a single interface, post scheduling, and messaging
  • Analytics and reporting with multi-channel analytics, conversion rates, and ROI

And these are just a few of the tasks most software can take on. With a humming marketing automation system in place, when innovative marketing ideas come along, instead of asking “How will we find the bandwidth?” your team will ask, “When can we start?”

6. Analyze your efforts

An essential part of any marketing strategy is the ability to track campaigns, the amount of effort and money invested and measure ROI.

  • Identify which marketing campaigns are driving new leads and new customers
  • Look at website activity in Google Analytics to understand content performance
  • Utilize the information you gather to improve, expand, or eliminate campaigns

More about Google Analytics: Understanding Google Analytics: Key Metrics

Need advice on your 2020 marketing strategy? 

Click for a FREE Consultation
(and discover why you should work with WSI Connect!)

Team Building Venue Hires WSI Connect to Develop Digital Marketing Strategy

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With two fully-equipped, custom-built teaching and event kitchens located in Berkeley and Oakland, Kitchen on Fire has hosted and taught many individuals and groups in their private cooking classes. Kitchen on Fire offers a unique culinary experience for those looking for a hands-on, educational activity that can bring groups together around making and sharing food.

The areas of focus of this campaign will be promoting team building cooking classes and large group cooking classes.

team-building-seo

The professional chef instructors lead birthday and anniversary parties as well as business community groups through the preparation of various menus until it is time for participants to enjoy their finished dishes. Kitchen on Fire also offers 12-week courses, nutrition classes, and camps for youth. Previous customers have included groups from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Pinterest, and Pixar.

Kitchen on Fire is partnering with WSI Connect, a member of one of the nation’s largest digital marketing networks and a Google Partner, to expand their visibility online and generate and convert new leads. WSI Connect began with learning about Kitchen on Fire’s business and the audience they want to grow in order to understand the digital marketing strategies that will best fit their needs.

WSI Connect will develop a tailored SEO program beginning with a website audit as one of the first steps for SEO optimization. This SEO optimization process includes an extensive competitive and keyword analysis, as well as developing an SEO page level strategy and page development. Kitchen on Fire’s SEO optimization will also entail link building through on and off-site content creation with the development of two onsite blogs and two offsite blogs. The offsite blogs will be shared on a lifestyle blog and wellness blog.

As an ongoing component of their strategy, the SEO program will focus on the development and syndication of original and engaging content relevant to Kitchen on Fire’s audience, including SEO optimized blog posts and social media updates. With this digital marketing strategy, WSI Connect expects to increase Kitchen on Fire’s visibility in SERPs and grow their audience.

Click for a FREE Consultation
(and discover why you should work with WSI Connect!)

WSI Connect helps Winnetka Montessori school  grow online presence

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Little Wonders Montessori One (LWM1) is a dynamic Montessori preschool in Winnetka, CA for children aged two through five years. Guided by the Montessori Philosophy, LWM1’s mission is to preserve and enhance the educational journey of a child in order to develop confident, competent, self-disciplined, and driven individuals, who can work cooperatively for the benefit of society. As part of their Montessori program, LWM1 encourages students to approach education as a lifetime adventure. Using the Montessori method of education, classrooms are carefully prepared to allow every student the opportunity to develop at their own pace, while preserving and heightening children’s natural love of learning.

new-montessori-website-little-wonders-montessori-1

Looking to reach parents who are interested in exploring the benefits of the Montessori method and finding a local preschool program that uses this approach to education, Little Wonders Montessori One has partnered with the SEO experts at WSI Connect to enhance their internet presence through high-quality, SEO-focused content development.

As a part of their SEO services, WSI Connect conducted keyword research to understand content areas that are relevant to prospective parents, competitive analysis to understand what works and what doesn’t for competitor’s digital marketing strategies, and a web audit to understand opportunities for website improvement. This lead to the development of an SEO program for LWM1 that includes an SEO-minded and mobile-friendly website highlighting their programs for prospective students and three offsite blogs with original content. This off-page SEO program will incorporate link building into the blog development, and will be published on Blogspot, Weebly, and WordPress to increase LWM1’s online presence.

The ongoing offsite SEO program will focus on creating high-quality and engaging content about LWM1’s programs and the Montessori method. WSI Connect is looking forward to helping LWM1 achieve a greater internet presence so they can reach prospective Montessori parents and students and assist them in fostering the educational success and social development of children from preschool onward.

Schedule a quick call to discuss Montessori Web Design