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Blog SEO Tips

5 Tips for Creating Irresistible (Yet SEO Friendly) Blog Titles

Do you know the difference between website developers and website designers?

Bear with us for a sec.

From a distance, they look like one in the same. They are not.

While there are some uber-talented folks who can effectively do both, it’s far less common. Designers focus more on appearance and appeal while a developer’s job is making a website functional.

SEO is like that. You can create content that is tech-speak heavy and make search engines happy, but lose the humans. You can also make the content delightful for humans, but useless to search engines. It’s important to strike the balance between form and function when writing blogs and crafting blog titles. 

Here are five simple steps to writing irresistible yet SEO friendly blogs and blog titles to grab the attention of both search engines and your audience.

Step One: Keyword Research

First things first, head to Google to do some quick and dirty research. Type in keywords for the topic you want to write about. Keep in mind this is not a comprehensive build-your-entire-SEO-strategy-level search. This is to help you find topics people are searching for most often so you can craft your blog title around what your audience wants.

Step Two: Pick Strong Keywords

Strong is a relative adjective, so let us clarify. Specific keywords are great if you want someone who is ready to move forward now. For example: “Best SEO Services Near Me”. 

However, if your service or product requires some education, strong keywords could be more solution-focused: “How Can My Business Get Found on Google More Quickly?” Be discerning when choosing keywords for your blog titles.

Step Three: Write Multiple Headlines

Writer and entreprenuer Marie Forleo suggested this trick. Write multiple (like, 20) headlines. It seems like overkill and it isn’t. Sometimes you need to work through your thoughts on the page before they’re ready for the world. Avoid industry-speak when possible. 

Examples:

  1. Your Guide to Great Blog Writing
  2. Five Steps to SEO-Friendly Blog Writing
  3. SEO-Friendly Blog Titles 
  4. Four Tips for Great Blog Titles 

Phrases like “Your Guide”, “Five Steps”, “Three Tips”, are key for a couple of reasons. It’s an easy way to slip in a keyword without it feeling forced and it gives the reader an idea of how much mental energy they need to commit: Five tips? I can handle five tips. Let me read this blog real quick.

Step Four: Write the Post

Be natural and educational. Don’t focus on squeezing in those keywords in your first draft if it feels forced. Say what you want to say and then add keywords during editing. It’s important to offer helpful information without selling. People change their thinking when they feel they’re being pitched. Be breezy, not salesy.

Step Five: Change Your Permalink

Most of the SEO nerds we know love WordPress, and with good reason. If your blog is on WP, we’re gonna nerd out for a moment, but stick with us and it will help!

WordPress allows you to change your permalink/slug URL. This is simply the actual URL for your blog post.

 www.yourwebsite.com/your-blog-post

You will want to edit this permalink (you’ll find it at the top of your post, right underneath your blog title in WordPress).

Your permalink :

  • Should contain your keyword
  • Be short–no more than seven words if possible
  • Be descriptive and relevant to your post
  • Can be different from your actual blog title

Click “ok” to save and you’re ready to hit Publish on your blog post.

Are You Ready to Create Excellent Blog Titles?

When writing blog content, keep keywords in mind, but don’t sacrifice your audience. Whatever your headline, make sure it’s interesting and relevant enough to be clickworthy.

Insider secret: The amount of actual humans who read your blog impacts your SEO results. Google tracks search behavior and pays attention to how many clicks your post gets and if people stick around to read it. Big Brother is absolutely watching, so give ‘em a good show.

Need more assistance with jump starting your content strategy? Book a strategy session with GoBeyond SEO today.

Categories
Business Blogging Content Marketing

How to Create Great Content & Solve the Content Conundrum in 3 Simple Steps

Just like most small businesses owners, you may have heard that Content Is King. So you do some research online and decide you’re going to create some content for your website or social media. You can check the marketing box on your to-do list and you feel good about this.

Sitting in front of your laptop, ready to write, you’re suddenly flooded with the dread of “what the hell do I write about?”. Your cursor is blinking at you, menacing. What do you do? You know you want to create something, but you’re not sure where to start. Sound familiar?

You’re not alone. When getting started with content creation, small businesses owners often ask themselves these questions:

What does my audience want to hear from me?

What expertise or advice do I have to offer?

How can I find topics that my target customers will actually be interested in?

Even if you’re an expert in your industry and struggling to break down all the details of what you do and how you serve your clients, these three simple steps will help you get started with the overwhelming task of creating content.

Step 1: Segment Your Audience

It’s tempting, but don’t try to be all things to all people, especially as a business owner. A customized audience makes for a more personal and effective message when creating content for your website. Breaking down the details of your expertise for creating content is easier when you know your audience.

Step 2: Make a List of Your FAQs 

Each FAQ is great inspiration for content writing, and can give you ideas about where to narrow your focus based on your target customer. Detailing your FAQs is also a great opportunity to go more in-depth with a short video or infographic to put on your site.

Step 3: The Editorial Calendar

Now that you’ve segmented your audience and made a list of your FAQs, look up some of your favorite publications and search the editorial calendar.

There you will find topics by month, hashtags (sometimes), and what topics are coming up in the next month. Using your favorite publications as a guide for your own content writing topics demonstrates that you’re in the know and that your clients and prospects should listen and trust your expertise. It’s the not-so-secret sauce to great content.

What Prevents You From Creating Great Content?

Is it time? Not knowing where to start? Not knowing the value that you offer your clients? Schedule a consultation with us at GoBeyond SEO to learn more about our strategy for bringing the game with your content marketing!

Categories
Content Marketing

How to Improve Your Content Marketing Focus & Strategy

Have you ever been chatting with a client or colleague and they mention that they’re doing content marketing for their business? You think you know what it is, but also think you don’t know what it is? Like, you know that it has something to do with blogging or posting on social media, and there’s an SEO tie-in, but you’re still not fully sure how it turns into leads or helps your business?

You’re not alone. In fact, there are some marketing pros out there that still can’t quite explain the value of content marketing and how best to use it. 

The word “content” can refer to a litany of things: service pages, product pages, blog posts, white papers, articles, downloadable freebies, videos, and infographics, just to name a few. 

So why is content marketing such a confusing topic for business owners? More often than not, they’re not sure why they’re doing it. The push to do content marketing is overwhelming. That said, content for content’s sake is a waste of time. 

It’s essential to be intentional with all your content, especially if it lives on the internet. But how can you be intentional when it matters most?

Keep Your Audience as the Focus

Valuable content goes far beyond content that’s stuffed with industry-specific keywords. In fact, if you write content that way, it actually can get your content penalized and result in lost rankings for your website.

Google has the end user in mind when indexing content. Not the product. Not the services. The end user. Google’s currency is attention. Eyeballs are the prize. If you write content that reads like it’s catering to a bot or search engine, humans will tune out and click away. If that happens, is Google happy?

Nope. 

Google wants engaged attention. The more your audience pays attention to a piece of content, the more valuable it becomes to Google. They can sell more ads. They can sell more ads at a higher price. They can sell their own products. 

Puts content in a whole new light, doesn’t it?

So what happens if you’ve already created several pieces of content and posted them to your site and social media without this in mind? Don’t worry—you can still revitalize your content to be more audience-focused for improved rankings and better results!

How to Improve Your Existing Content and Draft Sparkly New Content

Whether you’re planning to review your existing content and give it a few tweaks or just plan to write new content with more intention, here are four steps you should take before you scribe another syllable. 

  1. Keyword Research. Keyword research is the process by which you research popular search terms people type into search engines. (See Pro Tip #1 below.)
  1. Keyword Optimization. Taking the best keywords and strategically, but organically, placing them in your content to improve how well they are found in a search is keyword optimization.
  2. Content Organization. The content on your site should be organized in a logical way. This is not only good for SEO, it encourages visitors to stay engaged with your site or content. The more engagement, the better.
  3. Content Promotion. One of the best ways to increase visibility to new content you create is by sharing it on social networks and building links to your content. (See Pro Tip #2 below.)

Now, you’re well on your way to making your content favorable to both Google and your audience on the internet!

Keep These Things in Mind When Improving Your Content Marketing Strategy

Each business is unique, and since content marketing can cover such a broad range of mediums, it’s important to put the content marketing strategy in effect that’s right for your particular business. Here are a couple pro tips to keep in mind to improve your content marketing!

  • Pro Tip #1: Popular keywords are not necessarily the best choice when engaging in SEO. The more searched the keyword, the harder it will be to rank in the search results. Keywords with specificity are called long-tail keywords. For example, “plumber” is a very popular keyword. “hot tub plumber Charlotte NC” is a less popular keyword and may be more effective. 

Long-tail keywords are a better way to go for a few reasons. The first is there is less competition and therefore they will rank faster. The second reason is that the searcher is looking for something very specific and is likely ready to buy. 

  • Pro Tip #2: Most people know that if they write a post on social media, they can hyperlink a keyword back to a blog post or sales page on their site. Pretty easy and a smart thing to do. What many people fail to do is build INTERNAL links. When you write a blog post on your site and then make reference to a service you offer, hyperlink that service to a service page on your site. The link never leaves the website, but is a powerful tactic to optimize your website.

The best thing you can do when building your content strategy is to begin with the end in mind. Set your intention for your communications and be mindful of the experience you want your audience to have. Pair that with some strategically placed, well-researched keywords, and you’re on your way to having some killer content that both Google and your audience will love.

Wondering exactly what your content is doing for your business? Find out if your content is working for you or if you need to make some changes—schedule a complimentary strategy session with us at GoBeyond SEO!

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Kristy is an Assistant & Coordinator of Awesome. She has worked extensively in academic administration and brings a varied wealth of knowledge. As a self-starter, she is ready to take on news projects and see them through to completion. Always curious, Kristy is an avid researcher and delights in the challenge of learning new skills.

When Kristy isn’t organizing or researching something, you can find her listening to a true crime podcast, re-watching How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory and coming up with some crazy shenanigan for her family’s next adventure.

5 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT KRISTY

  1. Kristy prefers the Harry Potter books over the movies. Her favorite book is The Prisoner of Azkaban and her favorite character is Luna Lovegood. Ravenclaw house. She just started her 8-year-old son on listening to the books.
  2. Kristy has a nail technician license, esthetician license, medical assisting certification, associate degree, and bachelor’s degree. She didn’t get her full cosmetology license because she can barely do her own hair, she shouldn’t be trusted with someone else’s.
  3. She doesn’t know how to gamble but is originally from Las Vegas, Nevada. She moved to Colorado three months before her 21st birthday.
  4. Her high school graduating class consisted of only 20 people.
  5. Kristy loves gift giving. One of her great joys in life is finding the “perfect” gift.
Kristy Elias