Mediaboss Marketing

Got a solid blogging strategy? Im here to challenge it.

Dont have one? Keep reading.

Developing the right blogging strategy and optimizing it regularly is essential.

Heres why: You need a strategy for efficiency. But when the strategy overruns creativity, the value is lost.

If youre consumed by looking for keyword synonyms, perfecting keyword placement, and choosing the optimal anchor text for internal links, your blog will turn into a word game (read: boring).

What you should be focusing on instead is user intent and providing valuable answers to the questions your audience is asking.

Thats where the beauty of quality SEO content comes in. When you do it right, everyone benefits search engines, your target audience, and of course you.

Lets start with the factors that are an absolute must for your blog SEO.

I call these blog busters because any one of them can make or break your blog.

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Open up your to-do checklist.

More than 50% of search traffic comes from mobile devices.

Blog readers expect mobile-responsive blogs, and Google knows that. Thats why being mobile-friendly is a ranking factor.

A blog should provide an exceptional user experience for readers on desktop and mobile not one at the expense of the other.

Its a perfect example of how pleasing readers and search engines go hand-in-hand.

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Readers have short attention spans and if the page doesnt load near-instantly, you can expect them to bounce.

Moving on to the next runner-up on the SERP is less frustrating than waiting.

Make sure your visual elements dont slow down page speed.

Remove anything from the page that may interfere with loading such as unnecessary code, overused plugins, and other extra baggage.

Google knows if your page is slow and people are leaving right away. So load time is crucial for getting eyes on your article and climbing the SERP rankings.

Very short blog posts are easy to read and may get a lot of views. But how much valuable information can you provide in 300 words?

Itll always be little more than a teaser. (Fun fact: Youve read over 400 words already.)

Longer posts will increase the value of your content if you deliver relevant insights.

Heres a little secret trick (well, not so secret anymore): If you prefer short posts, create clusters of short articles around the same topic and interlink them.

Readers can easily move from post to post, and you kill three birds with one stone.

Google wants to know who your friends are. I mean, they know just about everything, but you get the idea.

Creating an optimized blog goes beyond writing relevant, engaging, and informative content for your audience.

It requires promoting, networking, and distribution as part of the content marketing strategy.

To establish a loyal readership, you need to build trust.

Google is on the readers side, and backlinks are an important ranking factor. They are considered a kind of proof that you are a recognized authority on a subject.

To rank well, you need established sites to vouch for you.

Lets stick with gaining the readers trust here.

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How can a random searcher be sure whether you know what youre talking about?

Before they trust you, theyll trust Google. The search engine wont send people to your page on skincare if your company sells computer accessories.

The question you need to ask is, what expertise can you offer to your audience?

Your blog content needs to streamline what your brand stands for.

If you are clear on that, authority is a logical consequence. The search engine recognizes your area of business based on the relevance of keywords to the URLs of your domain.

Proper keyword research is still the holy grail.

Your keyword strategy is useless if you target the wrong terms. You need to identify the keywords your target audience uses to find what they need and effectively target them.

It means putting yourself in their shoes.

Evaluating search volume and keyword competitiveness wont cut it.

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Ask yourself, Why and what does your audience want to read and learn about?

How does search intent alter the way searchers use keywords?

What intent does your blog satisfy?

Which keywords drive the most traffic to your type of blog or website?

These are questions you want to answer for your blog as a whole and for the individual articles, as well.

Theres no time like the present. Take a look at the top keywords in the United States (i.e., what people are actually searching for) right now:

You need to think optimization before you even create the first bit of content and never stop.

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What do I mean by optimization? After all, there is SEO optimization, conversion optimization, image optimization, and simply optimizing your content to stay relevant.

Optimization is simply the process of making something optimal higher quality, more effective, just better.

The bottom line though is you want to optimize your new and existing content to meet your goals. That likely includes all of the above, plus some more.

Youll want to implement the focus keyword in your title and metadata.

Select secondary keywords that appear in H2s and incorporate them naturally throughout the text.

Create titles with a clear message that drives people to click and keep reading.

Add visuals that enhance the written content and optimize those images with the right keywords in the alt texts.

Put some thought, and research, into your CTAs. Make them interesting and most importantly clear.

If you have old content that is losing relevance, you can update it in keeping with on-page SEO best practices and see powerful results with a lighter lift.

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If I had to choose a single SEO tip, this would be it: Treat your blog as a central pillar in your digital marketing strategy.

We used to think of blogging as extra content that isnt essential. Those days are over. And so are the days when blogging was merely writing freely about an interesting topic.

This is one piece of critical advice every SEO pro will give you.

Many blog managers assume they know their audience but never analyze how close to reality their assumptions are.

If you want to get (and keep) your blog a step ahead of your competitors and improve your audience targeting, go the extra mile and analyze your actual audience vs. your target audience.

This is a critical part of our SEO strategy, and we use our audience analysis tool to identify demographics, interests, and behavior.

See what your web analytics software offers, collect and track data about your blog audience.

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You may not make mind-blowing discoveries, but youll fine-tune your SEO strategy to generate more qualified traffic and reach more relevant readers.

No matter how you turn it, keyword research is your foundation.

Research in Context

The most sophisticated SEO strategy cant generate results unless its built on the right keywords, which is why I believe in addressing keyword research (or any other research) in the context of the market landscape.

Investigate the search volume for keywords, but also reverse the angle.

How? By starting with the destination, not the term.

The idea is to reveal which keywords drive the most traffic to sites similar to yours.

It helps pinpoint user intent and identify relevant audiences.

Research Performance

Research how keywords perform and to what type of content they drive traffic.

When you see your chosen keyword generates traffic to sites that answer entirely different issues, reconsider.

Research Relevant, Current, Accurate Data

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The abundance of data thats available on the web can be overwhelming. What metrics are most relevant? How come different analytics tools provide conflicting info?

Its because each has its unique definition and measurement method. Whats best for you depends on your type of business and business goals.

But one thing is increasingly important for all blogs and websites: Research with real-time data.

Averages from past months arent indicative of whats working today. Keyword performance and rankings change quickly. You want to identify the most promising trends so you can create new content and optimize existing content.

Pro tip: Identify whether your target keywords are driving organic traffic or generate mainly paid traffic. This helps you laser-focus on the most relevant terms and avoid losing traffic to ads.

Your closest competitors are likely targeting the same keywords.

Searchers get SERPs full of similar page titles. When that happens, your potential reader turns to the meta descriptions those 160 characters summarizing your blog content to determine whether the article answers their query.

See the article here:
10 Blogging Tips to Capture the Right Audience (and Keep Them) - Search Engine Journal