SEO Blogging Basics for Beginners to Help You Rank on Google
So, you’ve decided to start a blog for your small business – good call, by the way, because according to Hubspot, companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads monthly and 55% more website visitors than companies that don’t.
Now, you want to know how the heck people are going to find your content.
Easy: Google.
Search engines like Google (and Yahoo and Bing) are endless libraries of all the content out there on the Internet. Every time you type something into your browser or even ask Siri a question, the search engine is sifting through all its existing pages to provide you with the best quality content.
It does this by “crawling,” or reading, every page on the Internet and categorizing it based on the information that’s on the page. The search engine then uses a number of ranking factors to determine what type of content is valuable and rank it on the search engine results page (SERP).
Long story short: Google is putting in the work to make sure that every time you search for something online, you can find what you’re looking for as quickly as possible.
What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a way for you to write or edit your content to attract the attention of these search engines.
Think of it like this: You want Google to fall in love with you (rank your website), so you keep shooting your shot (pushing out fresh, optimized content). However, Google is a sneaky link. While writing with search engines in mind is a great way to gain visibility, it doesn’t do justice to your audience.
When you’re blogging for business, first write for humans. Provide value, offer real insight, make jokes, and infuse your personality into it. Then, optimize.
For instance, when I was writing blog posts about diversity and inclusion practices in business for my UK-based client, I made sure to use phrases that were appropriate for a UK audience. This meant using phrases like “Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic,” (BAME) instead of “People of Color” (POC).
From dialect and titles to in-text examples and the actual content of your small business blog, be sure to serve up value to your audience above all.
You can optimize content on every page of your website, like your Homepage and Service or Product pages as well as every blog post you publish. To do this, you need to understand the anatomy of a blog post:
Here is a roundup of SEO blogging basics for beginners to help you optimize your business blog content and rank on Google:
Blog Title / Main Heading (H1)
The title of your blog, also known as the H1 heading, should pique the interest of your audience.
No matter where they find your blog, you want it to stand out enough to stop their scroll. Whether it’s in the results of a Google search, or Pinterest, or Instagram, give your blog a value-driven title.
As the main heading, it is going to be the main indicator of what the content is about, which means the title should be centered around a keyword. There are many advanced strategies around keyword research, but for now, consider keywords to simply be the main topic of your blog.
For instance, if you’re writing about wellness practices for women of color, you will want either “Wellness” or “Women of Color” (or both) to be in the title. Here are some popular title formats that typically get good click-through rates to lean on when you are feeling stuck:
The Ultimate Guide to… (ex. The Ultimate Guide to Content Marketing)
X Ways to… (5 Ways to Wear Our Multi-Way Scarf)
How to… (How to Store Your Gourmet Olive Oil)
X Mistakes to Avoid… (7 Mistakes to Avoid During Your First Year in Business)
Everything You Need to Know About… (Everything You Need to Know About Logo Design)
… vs. … What You Need to Know (Appropriation vs. Appreciation: What You Need to Know)
Top X… (Top 12 Tools I Use in My Online Business)
In other cases, you’ll find that a formulaic title like these ones blend into the crowd. Consider browsing through other editorial websites and publications that you love and that your target audience reads to get a better idea of what might capture their attention.
I personally adore Allure’s blog titles; they do a great job of centering keywords without coming off as overly basic.
Blog Sections / Secondary Headings (H2)
Reading a blog is very different from reading a news article or a novel. Think about it, when you search for something on Google, you want an answer – fast.
Blog content for your business should be written to be:
Skimmable for those looking for an answer
Interesting enough for those who can afford the time to get hooked into reading it, and;
Long enough to provide high-value for when they finally sit down to read every line
Secondary headings, or H2 headers, break up page content to help readers skim while also defining the page structure for search engines when they are crawling your website.
In other words, treat your subheadings as mini-titles for each section of your blog: they should be interesting and incorporate keywords.
Let’s say you are writing a blog about “3 Daily Wellness Habits for Small Business Owners.” Your secondary headings might be something like Journaling for Mental Wellness, Yoga for Physical Wellness, and Meditation for Holistic Wellness.
Similarly, you can break each of those sections up into subcategories – H3, H4, etc. – and so on. Typically, when you’re blogging for business, H3 headings won’t be as important as H1 and H2. Therefore, avoid breaking up copy into third level headings unless it offers better readability to your audience.
Body Copy
Your blog post’s body-ody is the main act and should adequately cover the topic you’ve decided to write about. There are a lot of different opinions on what the best length for any given blog post should be.
Through my experience blogging for over 40 small businesses, I’ve seen that 500-750 words is a good length to aim for as a minimum. Keep in mind that exceeding this will add value to your blog post as “authority content.” However, you want to be reasonable and take your audience’s reading behavior into account.
Most SEO professionals recommend incorporating a keyword – or variations of that keyword – once or twice for every 100 words. However, I encourage you to read your content out loud before worrying about this type of nitty-gritty detail.
Instead, focus on writing naturally, answering the question or addressing the topic thoroughly, and making your content skimmable.
Forcing keywords into your blog – also called keyword stuffing – will end up doing more harm to your SEO efforts anyway. So, as with all content marketing efforts, don’t be afraid to simply have some fun with it.
If you’re feeling stuck on what to write, think about how you use Google.
Most people search in questions (think: “What does a content strategist do?”) as opposed to keywords (“content strategist”). With this in mind, find out what questions or concerns your audience has in relation to your small business product or service.
You can use sites like AlsoAsked.com or AnswerThePublic.com to gather suggestions for question-based topics, and then answer those questions as a blog post.
Images
Adding media to your blog post is a great way to diversify the content and keep your readers engaged. For instance, a case study done by Wistia showed that the average time spent on pages with video was almost 2.5x higher than on pages without video.
However, media assets like videos and images also have great SEO opportunities. Here are some basic tips on how to make the most out of the photos you add to your small business blog posts:
Add alt text with keywords to your images
Rename your media files with keywords
Compress the image sizes with a site like Tinyjpg so they load faster on the page
Links
Links are a valuable part of any blog, whether you’re the type to click on them or not.
There are two different types of links you should aim to incorporate into your blog content: internal and external links.
Internal links
Internal links direct a user to an internal page on the same website. These links add value for you and your audience because it helps increase the time spent on your site, while also increasing the likelihood of the reader converting during their session on your website.
External links
External links direct a user to another website on the Internet. These links help you support any facts or cite and quotes that you may use within your blog post. It is best to use external links when there is actually a reputable website to cite.
Additionally, these links show appreciation and suggest authority for other websites by linking to them (also known as backlinking). This adds value because it builds up the reputation of their website, but also opens up the possibility for them to reference your blog as a feature, therefore giving your site a backlink.
When using external links in a business blog post, I recommend citing relevant industry publications and sites or other small business owners. For instance, if you are talking about the benefits of video marketing on social media, you might link out to TikTok or Instagram’s blog pages, or you could get a quote from a video marketing specialist.
Doing the latter gives you the opportunity to network more in your industry and build up your site’s authority, which is a great strategy for your business and your SEO.
However, sometimes, you may not need to use an external link at all.
Ultimately, when it comes to linking in your business blog post, your first priority is to link internally and keep the user on your own website. After this has been satisfied, your second priority is to link externally to content that adds value to your reader through articles, videos, and other content that may be interesting to the reader.
Lists
Let’s be honest, most of the time when we’re looking for an answer on the Internet, we’re scrolling through the page quickly. Again, make it easy for your readers to find what they’re looking for and Google will reward you.
Lists are a great way to break up content to be more digestible. If it’s appropriate for the flow of your blog, consider using bulleted, or unordered, lists, or numbered, or ordered, lists.
For instance, if I wanted to list out the benefits of blogging for business, I might write it as an unordered list:
It drives traffic to your website.
It can help convert traffic into leads.
You can repurpose blog content onto your other channels.
You get the gist.
Conclusion / Calls to Action (CTAs)
The closing paragraph of all your business blogs should encourage the reader to take action of some kind. In most cases, this means plugging an offer to download a freebie, get a free quote, sign up for an email list, or purchase a product or service.
However, it doesn’t always have to be sales-oriented. Your call-to-action (CTA) could be as simple as recommending related blogs to read or posing a question to answer in the comments.
I also recommend throwing in a much more subtle CTA in the middle of your blog content, such as a link to your social media or an invitation to click through a related product that you mentioned within the body.
Either way, you want to keep your readers engaged and on your site for as long as possible.
Get SEO-backed blogs for your business website with Kavya Creative Co.
Overall, when you write first for your unique audience, and then optimize for search engines, you will be well on your way to building a base of fresh, relevant, and valuable content that will help to rank on Google.
Remember to:
Create compelling titles and subheadings
Optimize for keywords
Correctly use images, links, and lists to your advantage
Add a strong CTA at the end of your blog
If you are struggling to create quality blog content for your business or don’t have any idea of what topics to add to your queue, work with a professional content strategist and copywriter to add some TLC to your blog content strategy. Contact me to learn more about my blog writing and content strategy services today.
