Using keywords effectively in your blog content strategy
A successful SEO content strategy optimises the information on a website to drive organic traffic to the site. This is achieved in many ways, including the effective use of keywords in a blog.
Blog posts are a great opportunity to target keywords but the industry has evolved beyond the approach of either saturating a post with keywords, or writing exclusively for an audience, with very little in between. At TJS, we know that Google demands relevant content that delivers what the audience wants and part of our blog content strategy focusses on answering the questions we know people are asking, incorporating the keywords we know they are searching for.
What is a keyword?
An obvious question maybe, but creating an effective and successful blog content strategy relies on knowing the answer to this! Keywords are the single words, phrases, and questions that people enter into a search engine when looking for information. For example, someone looking to have a website developed for their online business living in Lincoln might search for ‘ecommerce web design’ or, more specifically, ‘web design Lincolnshire’.
Why keywords are important
Keywords bridge the gap and form the link between what people are searching for and the material they find. Your content has to contain the keywords people are using if your website is to be returned in SERPs (search engine results pages). The organic traffic that is driven from SERPs to your site will have a direct bearing on your rankings, giving keywords a vital role in your content.
Using an SEO content strategy
Once you understand the need to incorporate the right keywords for your audience, how do you go about identifying those keywords and phrases? Employing an SEO content strategy, or keyword strategy, that will identify keywords through thorough research is paramount. Keywords need to be relevant though, and they need to end up in front of the right audience so understanding the needs of your audience, and who they are, is just as vital – without this knowledge, you cannot create content for this target audience! To learn more about how we do this here at TJS, read The Content Strategy Process.
Where to use keywords in your blog
You have identified your audience, you know what they’re searching for and you’re ready to write blog content to appeal to them, but where to incorporate those all-important keywords? It’s crucial to think beyond the confines of your blog post content:
Title tags – these are a key signal for search engines so use a keyword here.
Post content – it goes without saying that you should be incorporating keywords into any blog post but only if they’re relevant and the piece still makes sense with them. Never keyword saturate a post and remember to include text containing keywords with video posts too.
Meta tags and meta descriptions – using keywords here will give you easy wins and don’t overlook file names and alt texts of images too.
Internal links – these can be used to your advantage as internal links reinforce the keywords you are using and add substance and reinforce the authority of your content.
Sharing blog posts – We cannot stress enough how important this is! Once a blog post goes live on your website, share, share, share it. Use your social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X) to promote your content, using keywords in your post; traffic that lands on your site via social media is classed as ‘real’ traffic (i.e. not bot-generated) and will drive rankings up.
To discuss a digital content strategy for your website or to chat about how a blog can help your organic visibility, call us today on 01507 525500
