In this Surge Session we talk about how to use your blog as a marketing tool. We are joined by Joe Hassun (Director of Marketing), Ohad Yarel (Marketing Specialist), Jennifer Garcia (Copywriter), and Dahlia Ferrer (Copywriter).
We discuss different strategies for leveraging your blog as well as the benefits of doing so and the most common mistakes we see from clients that come to us for help.
Blog SEO: How to Choose a Topic
We all know the importance of content when it comes to SEO and driving traffic. In Part 1 we begin to discuss how you can leverage your blog to reach your goals.
It all begins with selecting a topic to write about. You need to select a topic that serves a purpose so first you need to define your objective and truly understand who your target audience is. Your content needs to be valuable to your target audience, to your potential consumers.
We discuss different tools we leverage to carry out our topic research, such as Google Trends, based on keywords and what people are searching for. You need to pinpoint what people are actively searching for in relation to your industry, business, and/or service.
We also cover how you can use your blog to track results and determine what topics and information are driving traffic to your site, which pieces of content are actively bringing people to your site.
What Makes Great Blog Content?
In Part 2 we move on to the next steps you should take once you have selected an effective and relevant topic. The main thing you need to keep in mind when developing the content based on your topic is the user’s intent. You need to understand what the user wants to achieve by seeking out this content.
Your content must be relevant. The content of the blog post must be relevant to the topic and the post as a whole must be relevant to the user. When it comes to creating supporting content for a topic, the most important thing is relevance.
Your content must also be engaging. Just because your industry might not be exciting, does not mean your content cannot be exciting. You can always leverage images and video to help you make your content more interesting and engaging. If a user is engaged with your content, they are much more likely to stay on your site and seek more content on your site.
Effective content will keep a user on your site and direct them to other sections of your site with the goal of inciting some sort of action from the user, whether that is purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter, or simply contacting you for more information. The true goal of content, beyond SEO, is to generate conversions by getting people on your site.
Blogging Mistakes Most Beginners Make
In Part 3 we begin by discussing some of the most common mistakes we see once the content has already been created. The most common mistakes we see are not updating your blog enough, updating your blog with irrelevant content, and thin content, meaning short and ineffective content.
In recent years, the average length of blog posts ranking high on Google search results has greatly increased. 500 words was once an acceptable length for a blog post but that is not the case anymore. We are now seeing blog posts with at least 1800 words becoming the norm.
As competition has grown so have the standards of content. You now have to create thicker and heavier content with true value. Word stuffing and fluff sentences are no longer acceptable. Content must be relevant and provide value while meeting the now-standard higher word counts. Sometimes 800 words is not enough anymore.
Another mistake we discuss is creating incredible, in-depth, engaging content that provides true value, but you attach it to a title that is not effective, that does not reflect what people are actually searching for. A bad title can make all the time and effort you put into developing this incredible content go to complete waste.
We also discuss the importance of including a call to action at the end of every blog article. This call to action must be in-line with your objective and be relevant to the target audience.
How to Plan and Schedule Your Blog Posts
In the last part of this Surge Session we cover the importance of planning ahead, which is very relevant now that we are in the middle of the holiday season.
The content you produce and put out there does not get indexed or begin ranking anytime soon. It takes a good amount of time for your content to do so.
So if you want to publish a piece of content that is specific to a time of year, such as Black Friday or Christmas, you have to think in advance. You need to put that content out there ahead of time so that it is indexed and ranking by the time that specific time of year comes and people can actually find it.
Ask the experts at Optimum 7 any questions you have regarding the topics we covered in this Surge Session. If you need help in creating and implementing a content strategy for your blog to generate leads or increase conversions, do not hesitate in reaching out to us. Contact us today.
