What is blog writing for SEO?
Blog writing for SEO is the process of writing content that will rank on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) such as Google. This entails researching keywords, writing high-quality content that matches user intent, and optimizing your content, headers, and images for easy page crawling.
7 Steps to Blog Writing for SEO
1. Blog Writing for SEO – Identify and Set Goals
Identifying and setting goals is the first step in all marketing projects. It is no different with blog writing for SEO. I have outlined some common goals below for blog posts.
- Educate your audience
- Grow your brand’s audience
- Increase website traffic
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate sales or leads
2. Blog Writing for SEO – Define Your Target Audience
Knowing who you are writing to and for will help you when it comes time to plan your blog content. Developing personas of your target audience can help you to really understand the audience for your blog content. Important information to identify includes:
- What are people searching for?
- Who is doing the search?
- When are they searching? (Seasons, Trends)
- What platforms are they using to search?
- Why are they searching? (Motivation)
- What problem are they looking to solve? (Challenges)
- What are their interests?
- Where are they located?
3. Blog Writing for SEO – Complete Keyword Research
Understanding the keywords that searchers are using to find information is key to writing a blog post that will be found in SERPs. Also, knowing how competitive the keywords are will determine whether your content will have an opportunity to rank. Selecting keywords that will drive the right traffic and rank will determine the success of your blog article.
Free Keyword Research Tools
- Google Keyword Planner – https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
- Google Trends – https://www.google.com/trends/
- Keyword Tool.io – http://keywordtool.io/
4. Blog Writing for SEO – Plan Your Blog Content
Planning blog content can get a little complicated with all these SEO guidelines. Remember that you are writing the content to answer the searcher’s questions and to provide value.
The best way for you to improve your chances of ranking is by writing high-quality blog posts with user intent in mind that offer a solution to the questions being asked.
What does that look like?
- Thorough answers
- Scannable sections
- Organized subheadings
- Visual aids
Remember the target audience profile you created. Keep your buyer personas, and their motivations, challenges, and interests in mind. Choosing topics that interest your target audience and that offer solutions to their questions make a successful blog post.
5. Blog Writing for SEO – Optimize the Content and Images
This is one of the most important steps in blog article writing. The keywords that you want to be found for should be used in the article and optimized for important sections of the content.
- Make sure that the keywords are used in headings multiple times. Use the keyword in your h1. Then use it again in H2s, H3s and H4s to break up the content.
- Use the keyword in the first paragraph of the blog content.
- Include keywords in your meta title and description.
- Add keyword rich alt tags to all of your images (and make sure your images are compressed for fast loading).
- Link to high-authority websites.
- Plan for longer posts that can be scanned.
- Link to other posts on your website.
- Optimize content for featured snippets (answer the question thoroughly and succinctly).
6. Blog Writing for SEO – Distribute and Promote Your Content
Refer to your target audience profile again. This will help you to determine where best to distribute your content.
- Social media is a great way to push new blog content out as it is free to post. The channels that we recommend posting on include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google Profile, and Twitter.
- Adding your blog content to your corporate newsletter is a great way to distribute to your existing client base.
- If the goal of the campaign is to drive traffic to the website, you may want to consider a paid campaign to drive traffic to the blog post.
7. Blog Writing for SEO – Measure Your Success
Finally, you will want to measure the success of your blog article. The measurement strategy will be determined by the goal that you set. Google analytics is a great way to measure traffic that has reached your blog article.
https://analytics.google.com/analytics/web/
Finding out your best performing blog posts will help you to determine what your readers are most drawn to and what they are engaging with. This will help you to determine what future blog posts will be useful to your audience.
Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)took effect on July 1, 2014. Under this law, individuals and businesses are required to gain Express or Implied consent from recipients prior to sending email, text, or social media messages, and keep proof of this consent.
Express Consent – A clear and voluntary indication of preference that is given specifically, either verbally or in writing.
Implied Consent – An assumption of permission which is not expressly granted, but rather inferred by actions.
When CASL was first implemented, the legislation provided Canadian’s with a transition period of July 1, 2014 – July 1, 2017. During the transition period, you were permitted to send messages to recipients who had “implied consent”, unless they unsubscribe. This is about to change. As we enter the final month of this transition period, what changes will take effect and what will this mean for your business?
New CASL Rules 2017
After July 1, 2017, you can only contact someone if they have:
- Provided you with express consent
- Made a purchase from you within the last 2 years
- Made an inquiry to you within the last 6 months
Prior to July, you will need to ensure your company has a process in place to evaluate your implied consent subscribers and remove them prior to the deadline.
How to Evaluate Subscribers
It is crucial to understand the difference between implied consent and express consent. Follow these steps to ensure your marketing campaigns comply with CASL.
- Access your list and determine who has given implied consent. This is a great opportunity to clean out your list, and assess who is active and who is inactive.
- Request express consent from your implied consent contacts. We recommend sending a CASL opt-in email.
- You must remove implied consent contacts who do not respond to your express consent request by July 1, 2017.
- Keep and maintain all records of express consent.
- Regularly audit your subscription list to ensure you are compliant with CASL.
Update
While the transition period for the CASL deadline has now passed, one key thing did not happen on
July 1, 2017. The Private Right of Action provisions under CASL have been delayed indefinitely by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.
“Canadians deserve to be protected from spam and other electronic threats so that they can have confidence in digital technology. At the same time, businesses, charities, and other non-profit groups should have reasonable ways to communicate electronically with Canadians. We have listened to the concerns of stakeholders and are committed to striking the right balance.”
– Navdeep Bains, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development
What does this mean for your business? Essentially, you should only be contacting those who you have Express Consent from. But, if you continue to contact your Implied Consent contacts, no legal action can be taken against your company.
Click here if you have any questions or concerns about the new CASL Rules 2017.
Email Scams: What To Look Out For
At Longevity Graphics, we regularly receive emails and messages from less than reputable sources. As convincing as these emails appear, there are some clear, tell-tale signs that the communication is a scam. In this blog post, we will discuss some common email scams that we have received and how you can avoid falling victim to them.
In order for these scammers to gather personal information quickly, they create a sense of urgency. In their message, they will say:
- Your account is being threatened
- You need to provide them with access
- They will provide you with a link to a legitimate looking website
- The will ask you to input your login credentials
After they have your personal information, they can then use it as they please.
How can you spot these scam emails?
Here are some things to look out for when you receive an email or message from an unknown source.
- Spelling errors
- Poor grammar
- Lack of capitalization
- Mention of another country
- Offers that are too good to be true
Sales Email Scams
A common scam that we have received are emails from internet marketing companies saying that we have inquired about their services. They structure the email in such a way that it appears as through we have contacted them and requested information about their services.
They will include re: in the subject line of the email. This makes the email appear as though it is a reply. When in fact, it is not.
In the body of the email, they will say:
- Thank you for reaching out to us…
- Thank you for inquiring about our services…
- As requested, here is more information about…
- We can provide your company with…
The email will contain links to “further information”. Ultimately, they will make claims about their product or service that are just too good to be true.
Phishing Email Scams
Phishing scams are emails or messages from someone pretending to be from a reputable source with the goal to gain access to your personal information. The cyber criminal will attempt to trick you into giving them access to your account.
The most common information they are looking for are your passwords for:
- Bank Accounts
- Social Media Platforms
- Work Accounts
- Cloud Storage
- Personal Information
In order to appear more convincing, these messages appear to be from a reputable source such as your bank or other financial institution.
Have you ever received an email or call claiming to be from Google Adwords? Google has made it very clear that they will “never send you an unsolicited message asking you to provide your password or other sensitive information by email or through a link.”
Greeting Card Email Scams
As the name suggests, a greeting card scam is an email you receive containing a link to an e-card. The email itself appears to be from a friend, but if you open the email and click on the link, malicious software will begin to download and install onto your computer.
Since the beginning of the twenty first century, technology continues to connect us to each other as never has before. Society has experienced many positive advancements from technology; however, it has also opened our lives to the threat of cyber criminals. By using your best judgement and following the tips above, you will be better equipped to navigate through the digital era.
Longevity Graphics is a leading web marketing agency that helps business owners grow their business. Since 2001, we have been been building successful web site designs and implementing internet marketing strategies, by providing across-the-board internet services to businesses looking to take advantage of their online marketing potential.
We used to do a ton of email marketing quite successfully for some our clients in specific markets certain times of the year.We have achieved great receive rates, open rates and click through rates for our clients.
We have noticed, however, that over the years businesses are experiencing less success with their email marketing. efforts. There are a couple of different reasons that can be directly associated with these decreases.
1. Spam filters are getting better
2. People are tired of being bombarded with marketing emails
3. Trust and credibility of email marketing is decreasing still
In order to run a successful email marketing campaign, here are a couple of tips that will help to improve results.
1. Choose a reliable list. It seems pretty straight forward but this is an area that I see businesses fail with frequently. Make sure the list is up to date. Sending emails to old email addresses that people do not check is pretty useless. Also, sending to emails like [email protected] and [email protected] are also a waste of time as they are not directed at specific people and may not even get read.
2. Choose a targeted list. Make sure the list you are using is targeted to your demographic. An in-house mailing list to your current customer list is the most effective. When you buy a list, make sure that the list is up to date and is specific to the audience that you are aiming to reach.
3. Run your email through multiple spam filters before you hit send. A lot of email programs now have spam filter checks built in. I suggest running your email through more than one. This will help to get your email through more spam filters.
4. Do a test run to multiple mail servers. We all have multiple email addresses from different email providers. I recommend sending the email to as many different mail servers that you have access to before sending the actual email. This will allow you to ensure your email is being delivered and not being caught by a spam filter.
5. The subject line is key. A great subject line will make the difference between a successful email marketing campaign and a dud! Super important. Make sure you take a look at this resource for spam trigger words when writing your subject line. Be creative! There are lots of ways to entice people without getting blocked by spam filters.
If you are really stuck, hire a professional!