Your content need to rank on the first page of Google’s search results. You receive tons of organic traffic to your site every month if it does. And your engagement and conversion rates should go up. This could turn into a reality with the help of some blog optimisation.
By optimising your blog posts, you take an ordinary piece of content and enhance it so Google starts to love what you put out. Google’s more inclined to show content to folks if you get your posts SEO-ready.
It might sound like a lot of time-consuming work, but it’s not as daunting as it seems. And with the ROI you’re likely to see, the time spent is worth it. You still might be wondering what blog optimisation is. In this guide, you’ll learn techniques that are essential to optimising your blog posts so you can increase the organic traffic to your site.
Step 1: Conduct Keyword Research
Thorough keyword research illuminates the terminology and questions your target audiences are asking about your products, services, and areas of expertise. This data allows you to create content tailored to address user needs and search intent.
Keyword tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, and SurferSEO allow you to see statistics such as:
- Monthly search volumes indicating content demand
- Keyword difficulty scores assessing competition to rank
- Top-ranked pages and content length analysis
- Related terminology and questions around broader topics
You can use this info to identify keyword groupings around search intent as well as address early-funnel informational queries. For example, a catering company could target the commercial phrase “corporate event catering menu ideas” while also focusing on less competitive long-tail questions such as “How much food for 100 birthday party guests?” put together by yourself or SEO blog writing services.
Prioritise target keywords by potential traffic, alignment to products and services, relevancy to blog formats, and difficulty scores. Include one primary keyword in titles and summaries. Weave secondary keyword phrases throughout on-page content to deepen contextual signalling.
Assign target objectives for each post, such as rankings, traffic volume, and lead generation conversions based on keyword intent type and metrics. Revisit keyword reports monthly to adjust strategies based on the latest competitor content and search trends.
Step 2: Craft Compelling Titles & Meta Descriptions
Your blog headline is the very first touchpoint searchers see on results pages and social shares. Thus, titles are one of the most important factors that affect click-through rates. An effective SEO title should:
- Incorporate your primary keyword naturally
- Establish topical relevance in language familiar to the searcher
- Promise value around the benefits of engaging further
- Evoke emotion to get people to click
For example, “12 Unique Appetisers & Bites Your Guests Will Rave Over” sets specific expectations around finding tasty menu inspiration for professional occasions. It speaks directly to event planners’ interests more than a generic like “Company Party Food Ideas.”
Support SEO titles by including click-worthy adjective-heavy meta descriptions. These snippets display underneath headlines on search engine results pages. Summarise key details such as the number of delicious menu items revealed inside. Include a call to action when possible to drive clicks while maintaining keyword focus.
Step 3: Structure Content for On-Page Optimisation
Optimising key on-page elements signals search engines your content offers substantive depth on the promised topic worthy of displaying to searchers. Core structural optimisation best practices include:
- Feature your primary keyword in the first 100 words of body content
- Break up lengthy sections into readable paragraph spacing
- Use specific keyword-focused subheadings to introduce new but related concepts
- Embed authoritative external links to reference materials with keyword anchor text
- Interlink contextual internal pages from your other website content pages
- Insert well-labelled related images, charts, or multimedia plus as Alt-Tags
These technical signals help search crawlers better grasp your content’s core focus and page hierarchy. Such structural optimisations establish topical relevance and expertise compared to thin articles lacking topic depth.
Step 4: Format Header Tags
Proper header tag markup provides another structural layer signifying descending topic importance, relationships, and organisation flow through your content.
Apply header tags H1 through H6 methodically:
H1: Primary topic/keyword (Only once per page in the opening paragraph)
H2: Main subtopic categories
H3: Details expanding on each subtopic area
H4-H6: Additional nuanced nested subsections
These formatted visual headers optimise content hierarchy for search engines and readers. Differentiated section labels help with the readability for people trying to zero in on their key interests quickly.
Step 5: Upgrade Visual Media
Visually engaging photos, infographics, charts, videos, and other media make blog posts much more captivating and digestible while boosting amplification. Ensure all embedded visuals optimise technical and experiential factors.
- Concise keyword-centric alt-text descriptions
- Descriptive captions amplifying blog context
- Attribution links to creators and authoritative sources
When using web copywriting services in the UK, they’ll properly optimise visual elements and introduce supplemental terminology for search engines that are associated with surrounding blog content. Images, graphics, and videos break up lengthy text for easier reader skimming. Or you can create the visuals yourself with custom graphics using tools like Canva.
Step 6: Mobile Optimization
With nearly 60% of all searches now on mobile devices, an accessible, mobile-friendly responsive website is mandatory for ranking highly. Thoroughly test previewing your published blogs across varying device sizes. Make sure they:
- Page layout reflows readably without awkward scrolling
- Fonts resize smoothly without looking oddly disproportionate
- Call-to-action buttons and links remain visible and functional
- Embedded media like videos, graphics, and data tables render properly
Quickly preview your mobile experience using Google Search Console’s mobile-friendly tool. Frictionless mobile usability ensures no technical difficulties hinder user experience or accessibility among website visitors. Resolution-responsive imagery also enables faster loading.
Step 7: Interlink Relevant Materials
Contextually relevant internal links help readers explore your broader expertise while technically fuelling the discoverability of related on-site content. Link to:
- Category landing pages around associated products or service lines
- Archive pages indexing all your blogs by theme
- Contact, About Us, and Pricing pages where appropriate
Strategically choose internal anchor text incorporating secondary target keywords. These supplementary search phrases introduce web visitors to terminology also relevant to your brand across contexts.
Externally linking reputable third-party resources also builds subject matter authority around blog topics. You should externally link to other websites for reasons such as:
- Reference industry research reports or statistics from analysts
- Link recognised experts in surrounding paragraphs
- Source claims to trustworthy and authoritative sites
Choose descriptive anchor text like “Industry Research” or “Clinical Studies” when embedding outbound links. Cite reference materials visually through quotes, pull-outs, and charts/graphs. High-quality sites interlinking signals search bots about more valuable page authorities on a topic worth attention.
Step 8: Promote New Content
An integrated promotion strategy expands the reach and impact of your content. Fresh blogs need amplification across discovery channels where your audiences actively engage. You can do this through:
- Sharing natively via brand social channels like Twitter and LinkedIn
- Send email alerts to blog subscribers and customer segments
- Embed promotion modules into site homepages and category landers
- Pitch guest posting placements on carefully vetted industry influencer sites
Curate social highlights into snackable quotes, key statistics, and eye-catching infographics. Adapt long posts into video explainers under 2 minutes optimised for mobile.
Monitor performance with Google Analytics to trace high-level visitor traffic sources and behavioural flows — track email subscribers, content downloads, and conversions by post over time. This allows you to create more content around posts that perform well. You can also refine your top-performing blogs as Google prioritises new content that is up to date.
Step 9: Expand Idea Depth
Revisit existing blog posts attracting low organic traffic with a high bounce rate. This metric indicates content failing to engage visitors once clicked. Consider strengthening posts with additional multimedia sections layered, such as:
- Changing intro sections for clearer relevance
- Enhance skimming ability
- Include interactive elements
- Expand deeper into additional subtopics
- Diversify links to other reputable material
These changes add substantive meat to the bones of low-performing posts to compel visitors to stick around. Inserting newer examples, statistics, and images keeps blogs from appearing dated over time.
Step 10: Redirect Underperforming URLs
Blog domains accrue SEO ‘juice’ known as domain authority over time from continually attracting visitors and quality inbound links as trusted resources. However, some pages just never gain much traction despite your best efforts.
To retain site equity, seamlessly redirect lower traffic URLs to better-optimised conversion funnels instead of fully deleting pages. For example, redirect an outdated post on startup accounting tips driving little engagement to a popular guide for small business bookkeeping basics.
Redirecting pages more clearly matching searcher intent often achieves higher click-through rates. Consolidate multiple articles on subjects, making them into comprehensive long-form guides.
Step 11: Track Keyword Rankings Over Time
Continually tracking target keyword rankings illuminates how your optimisation efforts are working over months. Revisit your keyword research tools to monitor progress across blog posts.
- Which newly published pages now rank page 1 for target phrases?
- How have search visibility and authority metrics for your domain changed over time?
Update internal links pointing visitors to pages accruing higher authority and engagement. Repurpose visuals, snippets, or supplemental research from high-value blogs into fresh related pieces.
Doubling down on proven evergreen winners sustains momentum across your expanding content ecosystem. Visitors bookmark your site, returning directly more often and seeking your insights as an industry thought leader they trust.
Conclusion
Producing technically optimised content internally at the pace and consistency demanded across digital channels today remains challenging for most brands. Consider augmenting in-house efforts through outsourced content services purpose-built around SEO.
Understanding SEO best practices or hiring some freelance copywriting services in the UK sustains blog content discoverability and relevance over time. Continually realigning blogs to shifting searcher needs allows your website to drive measurable results. Treat blogs as cornerstones to content marketing success rather than one-off vanity projects.
If you need help building an optimised blog to grow your leads and sales, I offer a free 30-minute consultation. Book a meeting with me to explore customised solutions for your business goals.
