There is so much more to blogging than just posting searchable topics and plugging in information. You have to try and strike a balance between several different objectives, and it’s not always that easy. You want content that is rich in organic SEO qualities, yet it should also be engaging and well-written.
Let’s look at 3 primary goals of a business blog:
Ultimately, the biggest value of your blog will be to build your website’s SEO potential through targeted, searchable content. Just adding fresh and relevant content to your site periodically (in a weekly or bi-weekly blog post) will do a lot to help your organic SEO. Then, there are tricks you can use within the posts to maximize the SEO appeal of that particular article and your site as a whole.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
We’re talking about the keywords, questions, titles, meta descriptions, excerpts, tags, photos, alt photo descriptions, internal and external links, and more. These are all things you will want to utilize to enhance your content from an SEO standpoint. The more specific and relevant to the article topic and the questions people might be searching for, the better.
2. Engagement
Next, you want to focus on producing quality content that is well-written, informational and engaging. Some blog posts are written by bots or by so called “SEO experts” who aren’t exactly skilled at writing for communicative purposes. They can stuff it with keywords and key phrases, but the articles are choppy, poorly written and generally hard to read.
The SEO features can lead your horse (a potential customer) to the water (your site), but it can’t make them drink (buy into your brand, products or services). This is why you need good content that is engaging and easy to read, so that people who find your blog articles actually read them and glean something useful from them.
3. Conversion
So, the SEO brings people to your site. The quality and information of the articles keep them engaged enough to read the articles or visit other site pages. Now, you have to convert. Direct sales conversion is not something that’s easily done through a blog. It is more of an indirect sales tool in most cases, but it can still convert in different ways.
Certainly, you can link to products and service information pages within the posts and that could drive some sales. You can include a call to action that gets someone to call or opt into an email list. These are all good things you can do within a blog. Mostly, the information and insight you are providing is “selling” the reader in another way. It is building your credibility. You are showing yourself as an expert in the topics you are writing about and you are providing free, helpful information to the user. This builds trust and, over time, brand loyalty because they see you as a credible source.
The real trick is finding the right balance between all three of these primary blogging objectives. How can you write blog articles that are engaging, SEO-driven and lead to some sort of customer conversion? That’s something you have to learn to do through time and practice. There is no magic pill you can take. You just have to keep all three goals in mind when coming up with your topics and producing your posts. Over time, you will get better and better at striking the perfect balance that makes your blog as effective as possible.
If you have questions about blogging or are looking to outsource your blog management to someone who is skilled at finding this balance between SEO, engagement and conversion, contact NextGear Marketing today!
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