Arguably, Search Engine Optimization is the most important aspect of funneling traffic to your website/blog. Inarguably, Search Engine Optimization offers the biggest ROI compared to paid advertising or sponsored social media posts because the investment is minimal-to-non-existent.
Whether hiring an SEO writer or taking the time to read articles like this one and implementing what you learn into your blog, getting your website on top of Google is a proven way to get many eyes to your blog.
Write for Real People
Even though there is a naturally competitive existence between web writers and the minds behind the Google algorithms that decide what sites rank the highest, most web writers would agree that the folks at Google seem to be doing what they’re doing for the good of the web users. Kudos, Google. With that in mind, writing to a legitimate audience is essential when it comes to SEO. Think about what your potential customers may be “Googling,” and write engaging content to those people.
Google also ranks based on how long people stay on your page, so don’t think that writing a paragraph to your potential audience followed by a bunch of e-commerce jargon will improve your chances. As soon as the readers give up, Google notes it and, if it were a quick departure, your site would lose ranking points.
Before and After
Whether you choose to create your own content, or hire a writer, ensuring your time/money is well spent is an important factor in deciding whether to continue doing any part of a business. Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google that allows domain owners to view a wide breadth of statistics and trends related to their websites. It may seem a bit intimidating, but it’s actually quite user-friendly, as is the Google Analytics App.
In addition to total visitors, the amount of time those visitors spent on your page(s), and other numeric reports, Google Analytics also shows the website owner’s geographical data regarding their visitors. One of the hundreds of examples of a practical implementation of something related to geographic analytics would be writing more about local events if your web traffic was not coming from areas near your business (this would be moot for an online company, of course).
Compromise… but Don’t Get Compromised.
Protecting your website is just as important as providing digestible content because a website that can’t ensure that any information a visitor shares will be secure is a website that is sure to fail, especially when dealing with financial information, as many e-commerce sites do.
Akin to the steps needed when choosing to write your own SEO content, there are steps to ensure you have a secure website. With each employee hired, there is a greater risk for a security breach, so as your company grows, so should your investment regarding cybersecurity.
Make Sure You’ve Got Your Foundational SEO Elements.
A good SEO strategy is a blend of great content and technical SEO. You want to make sure you’ve got your basic foundational SEO elements in places such as page speed and crawlability. Ahrefs makes a great SEO checklist that is worth exploring and implementing on your own site.
Make sure all of your content has an optimized URL slug and optimized headers and sub-headers. Your keyword should be very apparent in all of those elements. The best practice is to have your keyword at the beginning of the slug and header so that Google reads it first.
Don’t keyword stuff your content, but sporadically place it throughout the piece. The most important thing to keep in mind, and what Google deems more important, is the reader experience. Make sure your content provides value to your reader.
Beyond the Text
Though solid content is paramount for optimization, there are other tactics that you should research and master if choosing to write your own content. There are many things that search engines do to ensure the content they provide their users is the best available for a given search. Updating your content for web crawling, for instance, makes sure your new content is different enough from your old content for Google to re-evaluate.
Many other instances “beyond the text” will help you continue to better your blog’s SEO. Ultimately, if you have a secure website and provide a steady flow of new, engaging content written with your audience in mind, bettering your skills in back-end SEO will come naturally with a little bit of periodic research.
