Tag: writing

How To Write a Blog, Part 3: Why Care About SEO?

The first article in this series outlined my process for how to write a blog post. The second one gave you a framework for success with some planning. 

In this article, I’m going to cover an essential concept for bloggers: on-page search engine optimization (SEO). I include it in the Research step of my process, but this is an important topic and worth a separate post.

Why Should You Care About SEO?

Chasing SEO rankings can be frustrating, especially if you’re a one-person shop or small business. You may not think you have a chance of ending up on the first page of search results, but SEO is essential if you want to:

  • Boost your reputation for credibility and authority
  • Attract new customers and retain existing ones
  • Build your brand
  • Increase traffic to your website
  • Stay ahead of your competition

There are two broad categories of SEO: technical and on-page. Your webmaster can help you with the intricacies of technical SEO; that’s above my pay grade. As a blogger, however, you can take some simple steps to improve your blog’s on-page SEO.

What Is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO is just Google’s term for good writing. It includes all the things a writer should be doing to produce great content, plus one more to make search engines happy. Good on-page SEO:

  • Answers readers’ questions
  • Employs clear, concise, well-formatted copy
  • Provides information for search engines so they can find and display your content 

Keyword Questions You Were Afraid to Ask

On-page SEO starts with keywords, so let’s dive in.

What Is a Keyword?

A keyword is a word that a user enters into a search engine when looking for information. For example, I typed “backpack” into Google’s search bar. Here’s the search engine results page.

Pictures of backpacks from Google

In about a second, Google served up 740,000,000 (!!!) results: images, maps, snippets of information, and links to other sites. It even helpfully organized all of this data into separate tabs to help me find what I want. Even so, it’s overwhelming. 

What is a Long Tail Keyword?

A long-tail keyword is a phrase that more accurately describes what someone is seeking. Searchers use phrases to help narrow down the list of results and make them more relevant. For example, when I entered the long-tailed keyword “waterproof backpacks on sale near me,” Google presented the following information. 

Google search results with pictures of backpacks and a map of stores near my location selling backpacks

Google knows my location, so it shows nearby stores selling waterproof backpacks on a map. It also lists many more places where I can buy waterproof backpacks. The search results page has about two-thirds as many listings (448,000,000 is still a huge number). But the information presented is much more useful.

When you’re a small business, it can pay to use long-tail keywords. They’re more likely to answer a specific user question, and therefore more likely to put you closer to the top of the search results page.

Note: from now on, I’m going to use “keyword” and “long-tail keyword” interchangeably. 

What Are Paid Search Results?

Paid search results are advertisements. Many businesses pay to advertise on Google and, while they have to match the keyword you entered to show up in your results, some paid advertisements get ranked at the top of the page. They’re also marked to show they’re ads. 

There are two ways to identify a paid ad:

  1. Look for the word “Sponsored” near the top of the page, as shown in the screenshots above. 
  2. Depending on what you’re searching for, you may also see “Ad” in a small box in the search results listing.

What Are Organic Search Results?

Organic search results appear below ads on the search results listing. Google ranks items based on how well it thinks the content matches a searcher’s intent. (It’s not that simple, but this is a good enough explanation for our purposes.) 

Do I Have to Buy an Ad To Show Up on Search Results Pages?

No, you don’t have to buy an ad on Google. Paid advertising can get expensive, especially for popular keywords. Besides, most users have learned to ignore paid ads and skip to the organic search results. 

Can I Have More Than One Keyword?

Absolutely. For the best results, you should plan to use a combination of keywords and long-tail keywords in your blog.

However, you need to select one as your target keyword. You’ll incorporate your target keyword into the blog title, at least one header, and the body of your text.

The rest of the keywords are called related keywords. Google recognizes related keywords, so it’s worth working them into your content. (We’ll talk about using keywords in the next couple of articles in this series.) 

So how do you research keywords?

Step 1: Know Thy Customer

If you haven’t done any planning for your blog, stop now. Go back to the second post in this series, “How To Write a Blog, Part 2: Plan for Strong Results. One of the topics talked about understanding your customer well enough to know what problems you can solve for them. If you need to, review that before you go any further with keywords. When you understand your customer and her challenges, figuring out your keywords becomes much easier. (And that’s one of the reasons why the planning step is so important.)

Step 2: Build a Keyword List

Put yourself in your readers’ shoes. Ask yourself how you might search for the topic you want to address. Write down every idea that comes to mind; you can prune later. If you get stuck (I do), ask a customer, colleague, or friend how they might go about the search. 

Once you have a list, key the words and phrases into Google’s search bar and note the suggestions that it displays. For instance, when I keyed “backpacks on sale” in the examples above, Google presented the following results. 

Google's list of recommended searches

Right there, I have more ideas for search terms (keywords) others are using. You may want to do this several times to get ideas for more keywords.

You can also use the Google Keywords Planner to get more detailed results. Here’s an example of what I saw when I searched for “backpack,” “waterproof backpack,” “tote,” and “backpack near me.”

The Keywords Planner gives you a lot of good information.

  • Broaden Your Search lists suggestions for other keywords
  • Refine Keywords helps you target a specific audience using several criteria
  • Avg. Monthly Searches tells you the popularity of the keyword with searchers 
  • Competition indicates how many other people are using the same keyword

The rest of the information applies to paid ads. The data will show just how popular a term is by showing how much advertisers will pay to use it. You may not care about paid advertising, but this is useful information for gauging how popular your keywords are.

You can download this list if you want, though it can be a long one. I prefer to add the keywords I’m interested in, the average monthly search data, and the competition ranking to my own spreadsheet.

Step 3: Review the List

Once you’re satisfied you’ve identified the relevant keywords, review the list. If you have a long list, score each keyword (high/medium/low, or 1, 2,3) to help you focus on the best choices. Sort the list by score and see what pops out.

If it seems like the keyword list is steering you to different topics than the one you planned on using, you have two options:

  • Look for different keywords 
  • Reconsider your topic or the angle you planned to take

Step 4: Choose One To Be Your Target Keyword

Once you have a final list of keywords, pick one to be the target keyword/phrase for the blog. There are two philosophies about how to do this:

  • Popularity. Higher competition for a keyword means more advertisers are bidding for that term. If you want to tackle a popular topic, this might be the right keyword to use. But it will also be tough to get a high search ranking–if that’s important to you.
  • Lack of popularity. The opposite approach may identify a niche. The fewer advertisers there are bidding for a term, the easier it’s going to be for you to rank highly in search results. 

There’s no right answer here, and sometimes it comes down to a coin toss.

Now What?

Good for you! Your keyword research is done. Next up in this series on how to write a blog post, I’ll talk about writing eye-catching titles and calls to action. Titles are the first place where you put your keyword list to use. They signal to the reader (and to search engines) what problem you’ll be solving for them and they’re key to getting a reader to pay attention to you.

Tools You Can Use

Moz offers a Keyword Explorer tool that’s free for up to 10 keyword searches a month. This option is perfect if you’re a blogger and don’t need anything else.

SEMRush and Ahrefs are also excellent sources for keyword research and much, much more. But like Moz’s full-service offering, subscriptions can be expensive. They may not be worth the investment unless SEO is your thing.

If you use WordPress for your blog, I highly recommend adding the Yoast plug-in. Even the free version will help you improve your SEO with actionable suggestions. If you want to learn more about using keywords, Yoast has an excellent blog on the topic.

Tips for Success

Google offers a great series of workshops in the Google Analytics Academy. I recommend watching Analytics for Beginners to develop a basic understanding of this topic.

Don’t overthink your keywords. About a third of the effort you spend on your blog should go to planning and research together.

Need Help With On-Page SEO For Your Blog?

Are you stuck? Want to brainstorm? Don’t know where to start? Schedule some time to talk with me. I may be able to help you get unstuck and give you ideas on how to find and use keywords successfully.

How To Write a Blog, Part 2: Plan For Strong Results

If you’re making the effort to write a blog, you want people to read it. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of competition. Hosting Tribunal says it in a nutshell: “To date, there are more than 500 million blogs out of 1.7 billion websites in the world. Their authors account for over 2 million blog posts daily.” 

How can you stand out? Some forethought and planning will help.

  • What precisely do you want to gain from blogging? If you’re not sure about this before you start, the whole thing becomes an exercise in frustration.
  • Answer your customers’ questions. That means you have to know who your customers are and what they want.
  • Put your spin on it. Yes, a lot of people write blogs. And yes, your customers care what you have to say.
Develop a plan before you start writing a blog
Photo by Daniel Gonzalez on Unsplash

Plan For Writing a Blog

Before you start dashing off ideas, take a few minutes to think through your goals, your audience, and your angle. Clarity at this stage makes writing a blog much more rewarding.

Don’t start writing until you can answer the questions below. Or at least recognize that for you, blogging is a hobby, not a way to grow your business. (No judgment from me. I’ve blogged for all sorts of reasons, not all of them related to business.)

Question 1: What Are Your Blogging Goals? 

If you’re going to commit to the work of writing, figure out what you want to achieve before you start. It’s OK if you’re going to write because you love it. (I do.) But don’t miss this opportunity to reach a specific goal.

Do you want to:

  • Acquire sales leads?
  • Attract people to your website?
  • Build a following?
  • Demonstrate your expertise? 
  • Expand your network?

Be specific. There’s no wrong answer, and you may have more than one goal. Best to sort that out now.

Question 2: Who Do You Want To Reach With Your Blog? 

Determine exactly who your audience is. (Clue: the answer is not “anyone who….”) Be as specific as possible; you’ll do your best job when you write as if you’re addressing a single person. 

Marketers will tell you to create a persona, a detailed description of your ideal customer. For most of us, it’s easier to pick a favorite customer: someone you like and someone who you would like to work with again.

Photo by Anton Belitskiy from Pexels

Question 3: What Problems Can You Solve For This Person? 

What would your favorite/ideal customer want to know? This is not the same question as, “what can you write about?” For example, I write about a lot of things, but my writing solves problems like these for my clients:

  • A start-up in the autonomous vehicle space wants a white paper that explains their idea to investors in a simple, non-technical way.
  • A digital marketing agency needs updated website content that showcases their recent work in industries they want to penetrate.
  • A consultant lacks case studies that highlight her expertise for potential clients. 

Question 4: What’s Your Angle? 

Your angle is your take on the topic. It’s your position or viewpoint, based on expertise and a deep understanding of your ideal customer’s problems. Your angle helps you stand out from the army of other bloggers writing on the same subject.

Many would-be bloggers tell me they don’t think they have anything new to add, that everything’s already been said by people who know more than they do. That’s probably true.

But it’s equally true that your customers rely on you, not other bloggers. They want to know what you think, what you believe, how you feel. In short, they depend on your expertise.

Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels

If you’re having trouble coming up with an angle, answer these fundamental questions to solidify your perspective.

  • How do you feel about the topic? 
  • Why is this worth writing about?
  • What do you think your reader should know?
  • What’s in it for them, from your perspective?

If you need inspiration, this is an excellent opportunity to agree with or dispute what others say. It can generate more ideas for content and maybe even boost your SEO. (More on SEO in the next blog in this series.)

Question 6: What’s Your Call to Action? 

A call to action (CTA) is what you want readers to do when they’ve finished reading. Should they:

  • Contact you?
  • Download a checklist, white paper, or case study?
  • Set up an appointment?
  • Visit your website?
  • Buy something?

It’s OK not to have a clear call to action. Just make it a conscious decision; don’t let this be a missed opportunity.

My Favorite Planning Tool When I Write a Blog

Sticky notes are a great tool when you plan to write a blog
Photo by Amanda Jones on Unsplash

Yup, you got it—sticky notes. They are my all-time favorite planning tool for anything from updating my herb garden to managing a major systems implementation.

If you want to know why, my friend Shawne Greene says it all in her blog.

Tips for Success

Once you’ve completed this planning exercise, you may not have to do it again. What you learn in this step will probably hold true for a while.

Blogging regularly can seem overwhelming. You do have other things to accomplish. Schedule a time and write several related posts at once. It’s more efficient, and you will be able to catch inconsistencies more easily.

To save your sanity, create a content calendar dedicated to the activities needed to publish a blog. Establish how often you want to post and put that in the calendar. Add milestones to account for the different stages of work, and for any tasks that others need to complete in support.

Keep an idea bank. Jot down anything that comes to mind, no matter how crazy. A list of ideas will is another resource for when you need inspiration.

Other Posts in This Series

This is the second in a series of posts on writing a blog. Here’s the series:

Need More Help Writing Your Blog?

Stuck? Want to brainstorm? Don’t know what to do next? Schedule some time to talk with me. I may be able to help you get unstuck and give you ideas on how to make progress.

How To Write a Blog That Gets Results, Part 1

Here’s the thing about writing a blog that gets results: most people know what they want to write. What they’re missing is a process to guide them in creating a blog that people will read.  So I’ve created a series of posts that lay out the process I use.

This post covers the preliminaries: whether you should write a blog (even if you’re not a writer), an overview of my approach, and a couple of my favorite writers on the subject. Future posts will cover: 

  • Do some planning so you get results
  • Research and search engine optimization (SEO)
  • How to create a strong headline, an outline, and a call to action
  • Writing, editing, and publishing
  • Saving your sanity with a content calendar 
Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

Should I Blog?

Content is king, or so the pros tell us. We need, we must have, our business will die without blogs, videos, and social media posts. Lots of them, frequently posted, and all with fresh content. It can be overwhelming. Who needs something else to make them crazy right now?

For many of us, the easiest place to start with content is a blog. After all, how hard can it be? We write all the time: emails, presentations, reports–each of us generates a ton of content. Pick a topic and have at it, right?

As it turns out, blogging is a bit of work. But here’s the thing: the more effort you put into the upfront work, the easier it will be to write the blog and the likelier you are to be successful. 

But I’m Not a Writer!

You don’t have to be a great writer to author a successful blog. You just need some expertise or a point of view about something in your field. Most of us have at least one of these qualifications, usually in aces. 

You also need a process to guide you on how to write a blog. There are some basic things you can do to produce excellent content that your audience will appreciate. They aren’t complicated and, even better, most of it doesn’t involve writing.

How To Write a Blog: A Process

Here’s the process I follow when writing a blog for myself or my clients. I’ve adapted this from several sources and added some bits that I think are important. I’d particularly like to acknowledge Anne Janzer’s “The Writer’s Process” and, “Everybody Writes” by Anne Handley. (Both authors publish excellent newsletters, too, if you’re interested.) 

Plan

Before you ever put pen to paper, answer these simple questions.

  • Who are you trying to reach?
  • What do they want to know?
  • What do you want them to do once they’ve read your blog? 

Only after you’ve completed this step should you proceed. Because if you can’t answer these questions, the content you’re so proud of will fall on deaf ears.

In fact, I think this topic is so important that I’m going to address it in its own post instead of combining it with the next step, research.

Research

There are two parts to this step: keyword research (for SEO) and research to confirm facts, gather quotes from experts, and find appropriate images. 

Yes, you should do this before you start writing. You may uncover something that changes what you want to say or how you want to approach the subject. To improve your SEO rankings and build credibility, you’ll want quotes, experts to cite, and websites you can link to.

SEO research doesn’t have to take a lot of time or involve the use of arcane technology (though it can). I’m going to recommend some simple tools and a basic approach that will get you started. Where you go after that is up to you.

Design

Draft a strong headline and a call to action (CTA), and identify the major points you want to make. Take it from an experienced writer: headlines are often the hardest part of the entire process.

I know you’re itching to write, but Google and humans both pay a lot of attention to headlines. You want something crisp, concise, and compelling that will draw people in. And if you don’t bring them in, all this work is for naught. 

As for a call to action: you don’t always need (or want) one, but make that a conscious decision. Don’t waste this opportunity to let people know what you offer and how they can reach you. 

Once you’ve got your opening headline and closing CTA, the rest should fall into place–another reason why you want to do this before you start writing.

Write!

This is the easy part because of all the work you’ve done to get this far. Have at it. Write to your heart’s content. You’ll worry about cleaning it up in the next step. Don’t edit yourself, and don’t worry about length right now; focus on getting your message across. 

Polish and Publish

Editing your work can be a painful experience. Frankly, it’s challenging. I’ve just told you to pour your heart out, and now I’m saying, “wait a minute here.” The thing is, it’s essential to get your ideas out of your head so you can share them. In this step, you’ll polish those gems until they shine like the diamonds they are.

Never fear, I’ll be giving you some suggestions for how to edit your writing in a future post, along with a few things to know to prepare your blog for publishing. There are some excellent automated tools to help, and I’ll tell you what they are, too

Tools to Help You Write a Blog

As part of this series, I’ll be recommending tools to help you be a better writer. Tools won’t fix everything, but they can help you avoid basic mistakes. (See my blogs, “The Writer’s Toolkit” and “More Writing Tools That Will Help You Now” for a sneak peek at some of them.) 

Need Help with Writing a Blog?

Are you stuck right now? Do you want to brainstorm? Schedule some time to talk with me. I may be able to help you get unstuck and give you ideas on how to make progress.