How to Optimize Your Blog for SEO

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So many companies have a blog today. It’s no surprise given how important everyone says it is for SEO and what a great way it is to generate traffic.

But not every website understands the huge potential of blogging. A lot of companies don’t give blogging the attention it deserves. They either outsource the entire process and don’t check up on quality or they write a handful of words, hit publish and forget about it.

 

But that’s not you, is it? You want to make your blog a powerful SEO tool and here’s how you can do it:

  1. Target a specific audience

Whenever you write a blog post you should be writing to a specific part of your audience. That way you can make sure the content is as targeted and personal as possible.

 

Let’s say you sell financial planning, for instance. You should only speak to individuals in some blog posts and then only to companies in other blog posts.

 

By blogging in this way, you can make your content hyper-targeted, hyper-relevant and ensure you only use the most relevant keywords.

 

  1. Have a great blog name

Your blog doesn’t have to be called your blog. Some of the greatest blogs in the world have standalone names that readers recognize all by themselves.

 

You don’t have to have a witty name, either. If you don’t like clever names or don’t think you can come up with one, you can use keywords instead. For instance, your blog about car windshields might be called The AutoGlass Blog.

 

  1. Make sure content is optimized

Going forward I’m sure all of your content is going to be optimized as much as possible. But what about your old content? Don’t forget to do a content audit, go back through all of your old pieces and optimize the best ones.

 

This should be an ongoing process, too. Never forget to look for opportunities to add internal links to posts, for instance.

  1. Optimize URLS

Whatever you do, don’t create URLs that end /post-23456. These are terrible for readers, terrible for search engines and terrible for your business.

 

URLs should be short, simple and descriptive. Using the autoglass example from before, a URL could end /new-autoglass-pros-cons. Straightaway users will be able to tell that the post is about the pros and cons of having new autoglass installed.

 

Remember, you don’t have to use the same title as the post in your URLs. Try to shorten it where possible.

  1. Always add images

Blogs without images don’t look great. We humans are visual creatures and images make something much more appealing to read. Think about it, would you rather read a wall of text or a nice looking piece broken up by beautiful images? It’s a no brainer, right?

 

Adding images into your content is an absolute must so don’t forget to use free stock photo websites to add some images to your content. And don’t forget to use keywords in the image’s alt tags either for even more SEO optimization.