Writing for an SEO Friendly Company Blog
Researching topics and information for your company blog doesn’t have to be stressful.
So you want to start a company blog? That’s great! A company blog can be a great way not only to boost your SEO but share company values with your customers. It can be a useful tool for highlighting what you do best and where your industry is going. However, optimizing your blogs for SEO can be difficult. While Google indeed loves having fresh content on your website, you still need to consider readability and backlinks as a strategy for drafting high ranking content.
In short, you need to know how to find keywords for your articles and how to cite your blog properly so that Google recognizes that you are acting “in good faith.” By “in good faith,” we mean that Google sees that you are using links to your site, and others as properly. Some companies try to spam their own links in an article or on other sites. This will not only not rank highly on Google, but be considered as spam, which in turn will actively be suppressed. Instead, follow these tips to stay ahead when researching and writing your company blog.
Starting a Blog
What’s the primary goal of your blog?
You first need to identify this before beginning any research. Is it a source in which you can talk about upcoming company developments? Is it a way to boost your ranking on Google? Ideally, you’d want it to be both. You want to inform your customers about what your company offers and still have that content rank highly on Google. Remember, you always want to be centering your content around services or products that you offer. Even if your goal is to inform the customer about industry standards, you still need to let them know how your company meets or exceeds those standards.
Look at the Competition
For SEO purposes, you need to start looking at what the competition is doing. Start googling some of your top competitors in your area and see how they run their blog. If no one in your area has started a company blog, start looking at some of the big-name competitors and see what they’re talking about. That should give you an idea of the type of content that Google likes to see and what people are clicking on most.
The most important thing though? Do not steal content. While others’ content can inspire you, you cannot duplicate it. Jot down some overarching themes and put them into your own words.
Search Keywords
Now that you know topics that your industry routinely covers, you can start to identify keywords that will help you rank higher on Google. First, you can always center your keywords around answering key questions in your industry. For example, questions like “how can bulk fuel help me?” is an easy way to get started with choosing keywords. In that example, there are several key phrases you could use for content:
• Bulk fuel
• Is bulk fuel helpful?
• Can bulk fuel help me?
Google will often suggest common keyphrases or questions when searching a topic. Make sure to make a note of those common searches as they can make for content in the future.
Long keywords that are specific and answer specific questions are indexed best by Google. These keywords need to make up 3-5% of an article you write. You don’t need to mention your keyword in every sentence, but for a 500-word article 5 times is enough.
Another way to search for keywords is to use items like Google Trends to see where specific phrases are trending and common synonyms associated with certain terms. Certain phrases rank better than others and it’s crucial to nail down specific keywords that target your market. An excellent way to do even more keyword research is list out all possible topics surrounding your industry and see which words perform the best.
Third, you can pay third party software to list rankings for you. There are tons of options when it comes to this. You can use partners like SEM Rush or other companies to do this part of the search for you. Dock Line Magazine can also perform these services for you.
When it comes to writing, each person is different. However, most people find:
Researching a Topic
Now that you’ve nailed down your topics and key phrases you’ll want to do some research. While you may be an industry expert, it’s always nice to have multiple sources to back up your claims or suggestions. When researching for a Blog article, make sure to use sources like:
• Government entities
• Trusted professionals
• Non-profits
• Peer-reviewed journals
• Websites that link to their sources
These types of references can add credibility to any topic that you talk about. However, it is important to note that you always need to give credit when citing a source. This doesn’t mean that you need to perform the MLA format on the web page. You do need to include backlinks and references to the webpage where you got the information. If you are using a direct quote, make sure to include the author of the article. You’ll want to have at least three backlinks to other websites in a 500-word article and three internal links to your own website.
You can look to competitors to see what types of sources and information they are offering to customers. However, you want to exceed the values they provide with great sources and even better insights. Don’t limit yourself to how thoroughly you research a topic. The more simple you can make detailed information, the better.
If this seems like a lot of work, that’s because it is. Choosing your keywords, formatting your article, researching, and staying up to date with the latest SEO techniques can be challenging. Why do it all yourself? At Dock Line, we can handle all of your SEO needs from building a website to starting a company blog.
If you need assistance with Search Engine Optimization, The Dock Line’s professionals can help! Visit www.thedockline.com or email us at [email protected]
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