So you want to add a blog to your company website. Congratulations! You’ve made the first step in adding some seriously powerful SEO juice to your web presence! Maybe you already have a blog, but it’s fallen by the wayside, or you’re just not sure what to do with it anymore. That’s ok too. We’ve put together some great tips to put you on the right path to managing a company blog that kicks major you-know-what.
First and foremost, know your keywords. We perform thorough keyword analyses for many of our clients to find highly relevant targets for which we are confident they can compete in search results. This is a fundamental step for any SEO strategy, and we’re glad to help you accomplish it. Got your keywords? Good. Let’s blog!
1. Juice your permalink and title.
Both human visitors to your site and search engine robots like to know exactly what your blog post is about even before they click the link to read it. Make sure you include a keyword in the title of your blog post and that the permalink includes the post title as well. You may need to edit the permalink structure in your settings to make this happen. So, if your main keyword is “dinosaur food,” your blog title should read something like, “Best Dinosaur Food Recipes,” and your permalink would be “http://www.companywebsite.com/best-dinosaur-food-recipes”.
2. Use keywords early and use ‘em often.
Another thing humans have in common with search engine robots is that they like to find what they’re looking for quickly. Placing your main idea and/or keyword early in the content of your blog post helps to grab the attention of both human and robot visitors to your blog.
Search engines also like a certain degree of repetition, but not too much. Use your keyword a few times in your blog post, but don’t “stuff” keywords. This magic balance is called “keyword density.” Your keyword density should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 3% to 5% (but see below… this isn’t a strict rule). Here’s how we calculate this figure:
- Total words in your keyword phrase: 2 (dinosaur food)
- Total occurrence of keyword phrase: 5
- Total words in your blog post: 300
- Keyword density = (2*5)/300 = 3%
If your keyword phrase seems to be sticking out like a sore thumb, scale back your density in the post. This can happen from time to time, especially if your keyword phrase is long or awkwardly worded.
Too much repetition is bad. So you can vary the way you use your keywords, so they aren’t so repetitive. You could say “dinosaur food,” “dinosaurs love food,” and “the best food for your dinosaur is,” and avoid repeating your keyword word-for word.
Lastly, don’t get too caught up on keyword density. As long as it doesn’t look like “keyword stuffing,” you should be OK. Our rule-of-thumb is never more than 5%, because this is where our content begins to look over-optimized and spammy.
3. Avoid duplicate content.
Avoid duplicate content. Avoid duplicate content. Come on, say it with me: avoid duplicate content. When I get déjà vu, I feel a little odd for a moment, then it passes. When a search engine gets the feeling it’s read the content on in your blog post somewhere before, you get penalized. Obviously you should never plagiarize another writer’s work, but try to avoid direct quotes taken from other places, too. Suppose you want to mention an article you read on someone else’s blog or website. It’s better to broadly paraphrase the concept and link back to that article rather than quoting a chunk of the article on your own blog post.
4. Optimize text links within your blog post.
When possible, link the first mention of your keyword to other appropriate content on your website. For instance, your home page, or perhaps a products page that lists all the different kinds of dinosaur food you have to offer. Include your keyword in the alt text of your link as well. If you’re not familiar with alt text, it’s the text that screen readers (for visually impaired visitors) use to understand links. It also helps search engines understand the context of your link’s destination.
5. Link to other posts and pages on your site.
In addition to linking keyword phrases in your blog post, you should also give visitors in-text opportunities to learn more about what your company does, or to read other posts related to your topic. Include “read more” links in each of your blog posts to help visitors find more information, when appropriate.
This list includes some of the simplest ways you can pack SEO power into your WordPress blog posts. We also made a “how to” video recently for one of our clients, the American Institute of Minimally Invasive Surgery, which includes these tips and a basic guide for how to create new blog posts in WordPress. Take a look!
Part 1
Part 2
We hope you find these tips helpful. Our parting word of wisdom is this:
Remember that the user is king.
Notice which kind of visitor appears first in the title of this post. For a long time, people in the know have said “content is king.” Since earlier this year, the search engines have really started favoring user experience in their algorithms. So, if you keep the above in mind, write to your human audience, and treat them like the kings and queens they are once they’re on your site, you’ll be well on your way!
For more about how to improve SEO for your blog or website, click “contact us” on the right side of this page, and we’ll get right back to you.
Photo by Charles Taylor/Shutterstock.com
