In the realm of digital marketing, everyone will tell you one thing, you need to incorporate SEO into your strategy or find an expert who will help you optimise your website. Having said that, if the content of your blog post is properly researched, informative and high-quality, is SEO essential for it to truly succeed in the digital world?
An SEO-Friendly Blog: An Effective Marketing Strategy
Having a separate blog section is an underestimated gem when it comes to the successful optimisation of your website. Consistent publishing of the content, informing your readership on recent trends and new products, or answering their questions in relation to your niche can have an immense impact on your online presence, traffic and conversions.
While writing an eye-catching blog post can certainly be rewarding and beneficial, creating it using effective SEO strategies can take it to the next level. Optimising your blog posts in order to make them more SEO-friendly puts you in the user-oriented mindset without losing your focus on the data-based knowledge, and intention of your content.
NET-A-PORTER is a fantastic example of an e-commerce site that implements blog posts as a part of its marketing strategy, and effectively succeeds in making great use of blogging. Posts published on NET-A-PORTER editorial range from helpful how-to content, to pop culture references and lifestyle hacks. They are usually enriched by high-quality images and internal links to other products from the website.
On top of that, the accumulated number of blog posts enabled NET-A-PORTER to create topic-related categories and subcategories within its blog section such as beauty, hair & makeup or skin, strengthening their position as an authority in the particular field and broadening their opportunities for ranking in SERP (Search Engine Results Page) for a variety of keywords.
The benefits of having a well-developed blog can greatly increase traffic to your website. You can see this reflected by visibility increase over the last year in the top 10 ranking keywords.
According to the ahrefs.com tool, in the yearly comparison, between March 2021 and March 2022, the number of keywords in the #1-3 positions increased by 460 phrases, and in the range #4-10 by 568. It’s important to highlight the current traffic value of these organic implementations is $4,380. This is the estimated cost of a potential paid campaign if NET-A-PORTER wanted to accomplish the same results as it currently achieves using organic search.
Another important element to point out is that in the list of the top 5 organic keywords, NET-A-PORTER achieved 1st position for the phrase ‘what does a face roller do’. By creating an article about the topic that is trending and relevant to their audience, NET-A-PORTER was able to succeed in SERP rankings for an informational keyword with extremely high potential.
Why You Should Optimise Your Blog Posts for SEO?
Now that you understand what an SEO-friendly blog post truly represents, it is time to dig deeper into why it is important (and definitely worth it) for you to optimise your old and future blog posts using SEO strategies.
1. SEO-Friendly Blog Posts Will Help You Grow Your Online Presence
Regardless of your niche and the type of business you have, blog posts are a fantastic tool for increasing the awareness, visibility and authority of your website. An SEO-friendly blog post will help you convey your message more effectively and establish your position as an expert in your field.
Gradually, SEO optimisation will also build your topical authority communicating to search engines that your content answers the most pressing queries of your target audience. It will aim to increase the exposure of your posts so that more people can find them. You will notice the outcomes of your efforts in the growing percentage of traffic and conversions.
2. Using SEO Strategies to Optimise Your Blog Posts Will Gain You Valuable Information About Your Audience
As Wendy Piersall famously said, “Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.” This reflects exactly what SEO really means. In order for you to create an SEO-friendly and valuable blog post, you need to know your audience; who they are, their needs and expectations. Successful SEO implementation involves performing an analysis that will help you answer these questions.
There are plenty of tools on the market that collects data about the behaviour of the users. Such analyses can help you understand, for instance, what is stopping your customers from making a purchase, or what makes it difficult for your audience to understand a particular topic. With that expansive, data-based knowledge, you will be able to create a blog post that evokes a desired emotional response within your readers and helps you create an engaging, long-lasting and authentic relationship with them.
3. Writing an SEO-Friendly Blog Post Will Help You Incorporate Long-Tail Keywords Into Your Strategy
In the simplest terms, long-tail keywords are phrases that are quite long and specific, have a relatively low search volume, and target a narrow range of users with a particular goal in mind. Used effectively, the strength of such keywords lies in their power to make it easier for you to increase the conversion rate on your website.
Incorporating long-tail keywords into your SEO optimisation is a fantastic way to construct a topic for your blog post around the precise queries of your target audience, paying particular attention to how your title is formulated and the thematic sections your content should be divided.
4. Optimising Your Content Using SEO Tactics Will Improve Your Search Engine Ranking
If one of your key objectives is to rank higher in SERP, making your blog post SEO-friendly is inevitably a crucial step to achieve it. Be sure to make great use of your target keywords, choose the right title, properly format your text, add aesthetically pleasing images and/or video content (with correct alt text), when needed, and last but not least, add a few useful internal links.
Appearing higher in SERP rankings has a lot of benefits. It is not only able to positively impact your branding and business goals, but also increase your exposure to your target audience. Remember, search engines reward platforms that are working to the advantage of their users.
5. Proper Formatting Is a Great Way to Increase Readability of Your Blog Post
As already mentioned above, an SEO-friendly blog post needs appropriate formatting. Increased readability not only boils down to the language that should be fairly easy to understand but also a clear structure with a proper introduction and sections separated by subheadings. Another useful practice is to implement bullet points and lists to present the most important information in a digestible manner.
Remember, your main goal is to make your blog informative, concise and visually appealing. That way, you encourage your readers to stay on your website and actively engage with your content. It will also send a positive message to users that it’s beneficial to come back to you for future blog posts.
6. Internal Linking Will Facilitate Your Website Navigation
While optimising any content using SEO strategies, it is necessary to embed a few internal links from your website within the text. An SEO-friendly blog post with an expanded internal link-building strategy helps your readers navigate your website and makes it easier for them to find other topic-related posts.
Using SEO optimisation as a part of your content marketing strategy can also yield long-term results. Gradually, you will be able to create expansive topic clusters and pillar pages, connecting your older content with new content and even increasing your chances to appear in Google featured snippets as an expert in your industry.
7. SEO-Friendly Blog Posts Will Boost the Engagement of Your Users
Creating a dedicated space for comments and discussions as a part of your SEO marketing strategy strengthens your blog post by making it more interactive. You enable your readers to communicate with you directly and give feedback on your content.
On top of that, direct communication between you and your users forecasts what needs to be published, altered or clarified within your potential content in the future. Comments from your audience serve as the most precise complementation of the data collected from the performed analyses.
8. Optimising the Content for Rich Snippets Makes Your Result More Attractive to Search Engine Users
Using Structured Data enriches your search engine results and increases your click-through-rate. Thanks to the SEO optimisation of your blog post such as adding a comment section or visual content with alt text, you create the informational foundation for your chosen type of rich snippet.
That way, your target audience gains valuable information about your blog post including product images, ratings or reviews. Such strategies do not only improve the online presence of your website, but also help you stand out from other competitors and strengthen the quality of your content, as you can see in the example above.
Conclusion
Search engine optimisation remains an important part of an effective digital marketing strategy. Optimising your blog post using SEO tactics can definitely help you grow your online presence, improve your search engine ranking and make great use of highly searched keywords. Creating an SEO-friendly blog post is also a great opportunity to get to know your audience which will help you construct the perfect blueprint for a successful website, specifically tailored to the needs of its users. Most importantly, SEO will transform reading your text into an incredibly pleasing experience, ensuring that your readers will keep returning to your website as the source of valuable information and the highest level of expertise.
If you need professional help in creating a perfect SEO strategy for your content, don’t hesitate to contact our fantastic team of experts at GA Agency.
