The age of filling pages with text and hoping to be discovered is over. The competition is just on another level, and unless you’re making deliberate steps to get in front of your target audience, you’re as good as dead – business wise.
You have to make discoverable blog posts for local business websites for search engines because that’s where people look up information online most of the time. Have a content optimization plan in place.
Optimizing blog content
To better understand this vital part of today’s digital marketing space, you must first take into account the two factors that your content is, more often than not, targeted to. That is search engines and, most importantly, your target audience.
What website content optimization does is to make your content both likable by search engines and valuable to your would-be customers. And, that is how you stay ahead of all that multitude of endless blogs and articles.
How to optimize blog posts for search engines and users
To get ahead of the pack with your content, incorporate the following checklist in your routine to have an optimized content marketing strategy:
Research keywords
This is the first step before you even go out there and start banging out countless words – with topics you’ve certainly created in your head.
Remember the aim of blog posts for local business websites is not to fill up your web pages with information you think your audience might need and hope that they find it.
What you want is to serve your readers just what they are looking for. This is the only way you are going to leave an impression on their minds and keep them coming back every time a need arises.
So, basically, keyword research is opening a window into the struggles of target leads.
Through keyword research, you learn about the problems that keep your readers on toes. That way, you’re able to formulate in-depth solutions as you’re aware of the exact pain points to aim at every time you create a post.
Quality instead of quantity
Of course, quality is a relative term. And, it’s also possible to have both of these – quality and quantity.
If you have keyword research nailed down, you have one piece of the puzzle right. At least, you’re going to create content that serves the needs of your audience; not what you fancy.
But wait!
Your content is full of all the useful information a reader is looking for. Great, but can you keep those visitors on that page? Are you presenting that information in a way that is easy for the reader to digest?
It’s not an academic paper. Your readers are going to hit the back button if they find themselves struggling to figure out what it is you are trying to communicate.
You have to optimize your page content to keep them on that page. They won’t even click on your site if you don’t entice them enough.
Accuracy
Present your ideas in a manner that fronts you as a credible thought leader to your users and search engines.
Two things here: grammar and the sources you link within your posts.
Without good grammar, your content is going to be a thorn in the flesh to the reader. And, few people are going to read and trust anything full of grammar and spelling mistakes.
For the links, it is a signal to search engines that you deserve recognition because you are getting your ideas from people who matter.
Additionally, make sure you know the source of each fact you put. Don’t just go around repeating what others have said without doing a serious background check.
Watch out how you use those keywords
So, you know the keywords – what your audience is looking for online.
You’re not going to go full swing and start plastering them all over. Not a good idea!
If anything, it will negate all of the above steps. Search engines frown on content with keywords sprinkled all over in an out-of-the-context manner.
Keyword stuffing will also make your content hard to follow along, and you know what follows when that happens – you may lose that reader (and more) forever.
In whatever part you decide to use your keyword in, make sure it is as natural as possible. You are not just writing for search engines, remember.
Optimizing blog posts for local business websites strikes a balance between the needs of the reader and those of search engines.
Just writing content no longer cuts it. You have to take a further step – content optimization – not only to meet the needs of your audience better but also to have a slot in the SERPS. That’s how you’re going to be helpful, and hopefully, make bank while at it.
The above steps are a good starting point.
Aside from the above tips on how to optimize your blog content, you should also get in touch with the Extreme Vision Team, so that they can help you boost your rankings.