Get Ranked on Google with Blog Posts

Expand your website’s content and keywords

We’ve talked about guest blogging in the past, but what about writing your own content? More and more in recent years, Google has been favoring long-form content like blogs and articles over the more marketing-focused landing pages. Starting a blog doesn’t have to be overwhelming – even an article or two a month can be the start to a solid base of content. A blog is a gradual process, not an overnight boost. But that process pays big when you have a varied collection of posts that can show up in a variety of Google search results. This is a great way to not only provide useful content to your users, but also provide a gateway to the rest of your website.

Why do blogs rank so well?

Before diving into more of the process, it’s good to know why blogs rank so well. One element that makes Google rank blogs better is the average time spent on the page. While a landing page can be scrolled through pretty quickly, most blogs take several minutes or more to read and grasp. This longer time spent on the page by users tells Google that there is valuable information there, so it ends up ranking higher.

Blogs are also a natural way to fit a lot of related keywords into one page. While your prominent keywords from research or Google Ads may end up spread around on your website, a blog tends to inherently have numerous, related, repeated keywords on a topic.

Finally, due to titles being generally descriptive, a user knows what they’re getting before they even hit the page. This doesn’t always happen with home pages or landing pages, since there’s only so much information you can fit into the meta fields to describe your entire website or business. But a blog post is limited to one topic, so the meta-information can clearly outline what’s contained on the page. This means that other key statistics, such as bounce rate, are skewed favorably as well. Plus, if your blog post is well-written and relevant, it can often lead to a user exploring the rest of your site, which Google notices too.

Content Guidelines

Now that you know why blog posts are useful, we’ll go through some general tips for blog writing. These aren’t hard and fast specifics, but some pointers meant to give you a general idea of what performs well when writing blogs.

• Make your articles long, at least 1000 words, but ideally closer to 1500. Not only does this keep your users on the page longer, but it gives you ample space to explore whatever topic you choose to write about. Shorter than 1000 words can seem more like an overview than an actual exploration of the topic, and you want to provide your readers with as much useful information as possible.
• Do a quick Google search of your own, and try to write about trends and hot topics. Even if there are other blog posts out there, you can carve out your own niche with unique perspectives or your own twist on the subject.
• Keep the blog post related to your content or service. If you run a website selling vacuums, a blog post about cleaning tips or air quality or carpet replacement are great. But try not to focus too much on unrelated things – this will only confuse your users who move on to explore your website, and probably confuse Google too.
• …but don’t make all your posts about your product or service. A post about ‘Why (blank) Vacuum is Better than the Rest’ is an obvious sales pitch, and would only provide information that’s already present on your website. A little plug at the end of the article is perfectly fine, but don’t sing your own praises throughout the post.
• Incorporate lots of links! Both backlinks (links to your own content) and external links (links to studies or other people’s content) are both recommended, as it shows Google that you’re trying to provide evidence and sources. To your users, it shows you’re confident in your own service, enough to provide links to previous content and that you’re not afraid to show them something that’s not your own. Make sure to set the link target to _blank with external links though, so your own website stays open in another tab.

Incorporate those excess keywords

A few posts ago, we talked about researching tons of keywords for your Search Engine Optimization. However, you probably ended up using only a small portion of that list. Blog posts are a great way to put those keywords to use! At the start, they can help you brainstorm relevant topics to write articles about. Then, during the writing process, you can incorporate the keywords themselves that didn’t work in other places on your website. Blogs are a great way to expand your keyword horizons, and utilize good keyword finds that wouldn’t otherwise fit into your website.

Support your blog through external platforms

Google isn’t the only place your blogs can show up. If you have any kind of social presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or any others, share your new blog posts on these platforms! Especially if your content is relevant and useful to your user’s interests, this can be a great way to build both brand trust and brand awareness. No need to beg for clicks or shares – a short post with a brief teaser and a link are all that’s needed. You’ll be providing helpful content to those who want it, and stay unobtrusive to those who don’t.

Track your performance!

Just like with SEO and Google Ads, it’s important to watch the performance of your blog posts. You don’t want to write ten posts, and then look back and find your formula isn’t working. Keep track of the dates you publish your posts, and then come back in a few weeks to see how they’re doing. You can see the performance of specific pages in Google Analytics, and more than that, you can see what search terms brought users to those pages. When you find a post that works well, take a good look at it to take notes for the style and topics of future posts. If you end up with a bust, try to think of any style or topic reasons why that might be the case. Like we said earlier, this is a process!

Need some help getting a blog started, or just improving your overall SEO health? Mr. WPress is here to help! Don’t hesitate to reach out to us for a free quote to find out how you can rank better on Google.