How To Create An SEO Friendly And Appealing Blog

This article is written and published by MuchGames

According to one study, there are over 152 million blogs on the internet. That is a virtual country all by itself and like any 'country' it has its own dynamics to offer. Joining the world of bloggers is an easy and interesting thing to do. Business organizations go the blog way in order to enjoy multiple benefits. So the trick is in knowing how to make a blog effective which meets a few critical goals.

What should a blog do?

It is good to keep in mind that people look for blogs in order to:

Help in decision making before purchasing products.

Discover brands, products, services.

Get support for their queries and answers for their doubts.

Connect with local communities to discover more about a service.

But the very first stepping stone to blogging success is the creation of the right kind of blog and in this context, the 'right kind' of blog is defined by two things:

Its ability to be found in terms of search engine rankings and

Its ability to be effective in attracting people and appealing to their thought process.

Create an appealing blog

You have to start with the knowledge that a blog is the best representation of your writing skills. Therefore, it has to reflect:

High quality.

Relevant language.

Timely publishing.

Expertise.

What you want your brand to stand for.

Think of it as an interesting story that will appeal to your readers.

Invest time

Blogging is not an afterthought. If you want your blog to contribute to the growth of your business then you must invest time and thought and effort into the same. Content is everything as far as a blog is concerned. So think of what you want to say.

You can make your blog interesting by:

Using different content - text, images, video, infographics and so on.

Socialize the blog across different social media networking sites.

Including links to external content and not just your website alone.

Publishing articles regularly because statistics also show that blog traffic generation increases by upto 30% when you have created between 21 and 54 posts.

Focus on the right things

There are a few critical elements that need very sharp focus. Some of these elements are:

Your topic - make it specific to the content you write.

Your audience - every article should be crafted with the target audience in mind. This focus will, in turn result in the use of the right tone, words, images etc.

Create 'list posts' which are all about lists of various things 'Top 10', 'Best 6' and so on.

You should also focus on the end goal in sight. Blogs can be educational, inspirational, descriptive, light-hearted, persuasive, analytical and so on. Writing should vary according to these central themes.

This does not mean that all your articles have to follow only one theme but for sure, you need to define the path for each article before you create it. Your blog will then carry your signature style and place you as an expert in a niche.

And now the SEO part...

After having invested so much time, thought, effort, resources into your blog, you would like it to be visible isn't it? The whole point is for your blog to be read by a large number of people who, in turn, directly and indirectly, will contribute to your customer base and sales.

Start with keyword research

Your blog has to incorporate the keywords that will act as breadcrumbs to lead people to your website/products/brand/business. For instance, if your product is 'USB car charger' you will have to find out how people look for these products. Is it 'car charger' or is it 'USB charger' or even 'USB car chargers'. Or maybe your content will have all three combinations in it. One thing for sure, your keywords or key phrases will have to be grammatically correct. And stay away from stuffing your content with key words. You will compromise on quality and that is something that you do not want.

Choose your titles with care

Your titles should have the keywords of course but they should also be interesting and gripping. For instance, if you are talking about an article that has a recipe for peach cobbler, would you like it to read 'Recipe for peach cobbler' or 'Perfect peach cobbler in 20 minutesâ'?

The strength of your title will determine its readability and interest.

Links

Links work both ways - outbound and inbound. Incorporate links to other high-quality blogs within your article. You can choose your outbound links with care. It is also good to choose to link to content that is:

A complement to your own offerings.

High-ranking in search engine results.

Known for its high number of followers.

Constantly being refreshed.

Inbound links can, potentially, come from virtually anywhere. So it is up to you to check the source of the same and ensure that your inbound links are also originating from high-quality blogs and websites.

Broken links are very off-putting so do scan your content very regularly to check the health of all your links. So, if you have included a link in your peach cobbler recipe that is supposed to take the reader to a variation of the dish and to another website, then follow the link to see that it is actually landing there.

Be generous - share

Every article that you publish in the online domain is a potential marketing tool so allow your readers to share and re-use content. When you give them easy links to share then you ensure that your voice gets heard on social media, through emails or even take on a presence in online forums dedicated to your business. It also gives people a chance to connect with your brand even more. Steadily then you become what is known as an industry expert and gather more followers and this is a surefire way to rank higher.

Finally, do keep in mind that blog SEO is a continuous process. Research on keywords, planning the structure of your blog, on-site optimization, analyzing traffic and rankings should lead once more to research on keywords and the entire cycle.