This is a guest post by Mark Johnson.
Anybody writing blogs for business purposes will be keen to build a sizeable readership and achieve higher rankings in the major search engines. However, given the amount of online competition it will take some time and effort to realize both of these goals. The tips outlined in this article should give you a head-start when it comes to the online marketing of your valuable content.
Photo Credit: Matthew Hodgson on Flickr.
Focus On The Long Tail
You may well have heard that it’s important to deploy keywords in any written pieces that you produce. It may be tempting to use the first terms that come to mind. However it is actually worth concentrating on those relevant phrases which have relatively low rates of competition and search frequency. By sprinkling these keywords moderately throughout your blogs, it is possible to achieve a rapid search engine and web traffic boost. Online tools such as the Google Keyword Tool and Uber Suggest will prove helpful when it comes to the compilation of a comprehensive list. This should be referred to whenever you are generating blog posts in the future.
Optimize For Search Engines And Human Readers
After taking the time to identify a group of suitable keywords you’ll be ready to move on to the writing phase. Although you may be eager to use the industry buzz words, it is essential that you create pieces that read naturally. Keep to one or two of the key-phrases per blog post and employ them moderately in the meta tags and body copy. Anybody who fails to heed this advice is running the risk of search engine penalization and negative reception by the online community.
Top bloggers will take the time to check their posts for grammatical errors and factual inconsistencies before clicking on the ‘publish’ button. They will also create a unique description, including just enough information to capture the interest of potential readers. And it is also advisable to publish posts under specific categories for the purpose of indexing by the search engines.
Use WordPress Plugins
Although there are a large number of blogging platforms, it is highly likely that you will be using WordPress for your business website. This highly effective package comes with a number of features, designed to aid in the process of optimization. The All In One SEO Pack is a fine example which allows you to enhance a post with special tags and titles. You are also encouraged to make use of plug-ins, such as the SEO rank reporter, which enables the tracking of any keywords that you have employed. The SEO Content Control add-on may also prove helpful in the identification of website areas that aren’t fully optimized.
Embrace The Ethos Of Sharing
If you’ve written an absolutely cracking blog crammed with up to the minute information then you’ll want people to read it. You could sit back and wait for loyal return visitors to pay a visit. On the other hand you may harness the immense power of social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook. Write a short message that generates interest in your post and encourage re-tweets and ‘via’ attributions, for top results.
Switched-on marketers will also use LinkedIn and Google + to publicize their content. These networks are quite business oriented at the moment, and so are ideal for blogs and articles about industry developments. Remember that by using a large number of networking sites you will be able to generate a great amount of link juice. You will also be increasing the chances of online click-through!
Use Pings And Bookmarks To Full Effect
It is likely that you are uploading blogs as a means of increasing the search engine ranking of your website. However, it can take a good deal of time for the Google Bot to make a visit and identify any updates that have been made. Fortunately content curators can alert the search engines to each new post by using a pinging service. However, it is worth installing a special ping optimizer to ensure that Google doesn’t penalize you for making contact each time a post update is made.
In order to increase the exposure of your blog it is also a good idea to make use of bookmarking websites such as Blog Engage, BizSugar, Delicious, and similar networks. These sites will accept all of your submissions, provided they are made in moderation. And if fellow members of the blogging community notice that your posts are being dug, they may well establish one-way website links, which are extremely good for SEO.