Search Engine Optimization | Small Business Branding

Pertinent Content and Popular Keywords

As a small business owner or CEO trying to broaden your internet target and get noticed, I’m sure you’re aware of the significance of new, fresh, recurring content on your site of all kinds. When it comes to written material on page copy or blogs and articles, you need to have the ability to write well, inform and entertain, that’s obvious. That’s for your followers. But if you can’t write as well for Google and the other search engines to maximize your material for Search Engine Marketing, you are the proverbial tree in the forest that falls when no one else is around. This post offers a frequently talked about yet misconstrued technique to help you make your content relevant and explode your SEO online.

Keywords and Google

Maybe you’ve heard of Google Adwords, Google’s main pay for placement tool on their mother of all search engine returns. You may have run a campaign or I bet you’ve at least been solicited by Google Adwords “professionals” to run your campaigns for you to help you pay less per click, otherwise known as PPC.

Well, Google provides a free tool to help you select keywords and phrases depending upon how much they are searched each month and how much opposition there is from other marketers. It’s called the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and while it is created for advertisers, it exposes plenty of clues about search engine optimizing your written content (or video tags) for your page copy and blogs. Unlike what many believe, you do not have to have an Adwords account to make use of this tool, and here is the link, so save this: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal link so you can use the tool later. If you need help with the tool, my instructional video to see exactly how to use Google’s Keyword Tool.

Uncomfortable Behaviors

When I write I like to write for the readers. I’ve seen too much content composed for search engine optimization that really stinks to the point of being unintelligible, stuffing keywords into sentences. It’s awkward to write like this for me, and perhaps for you, because it just feels odd and you can end up with an article or blog that seems bogus. Here are a few ideas for getting adjusted to it:

Utilize the Adwords Tool first and come up with 3-5 keyword (phrases) for your site, using high-traffic, low-competition keywords where possible. Keep them on a list in front of you.
Lay out your paragraph or article in consideration of the phrases you selected for SEO. It might give a different slant than you first had or take you down a different path that you know interests the people out there.
Write your article dropping in the key phrases on your list where they click. Add a check mark every time you use a keyword, and you can use variations of a keyword to not sound too repetitive (spot gold, spot gold prices, spot gold pricing, gold prices).
Re-read for balance and content flow, and edit where necessary.

That’s it! Get used to that process and it will get easier and easier.

Resource:

Watch my instructional video to see exactly how to use Google’s Keyword Tool.

Business blogging is a great way to share information with a target audience for many reasons. Unlike other promotional materials like white papers and EBooks, a blog tends to be a lot less formal. It’s also easy to access and update, which encourages a blogger to post frequently. While a steady stream of new, quality content on a blog is extremely important there are a few ways to take your blog to the next level.

First, think about search engine optimization. SEO professionals have been touting the benefits of blogging for a long time. Since a large part of SEO involves content and a blog is a place to post content, it’s like a match made in heaven. The search engines rank websites based on keyword relevancy and a blog is a great place to incorporate keywords. Keywords should be included in the headline and body of the blog post naturally. This improves the chances of the blog post being found in a search for certain keywords.

A blog is especially a great place to target some long tail keywords that you didn’t have the opportunity to target on the main pages of your actual site. While blogging and SEO should work together, it’s important to remember that SEO shouldn’t be the primary focus of blogging. The focus is always on writing quality content that your target audience will appreciate. If you put too many keywords in there it results in a poor user experience and looks spammy. SEO is just a side benefit to blogging.

Blogs are also a great place to connect with others. Long before Facebook and Twitter existed, people set up blogs to share their thoughts and opinions on every subject imaginable with anyone that was willing to listen. The comments section allows blog followers to respond to the post. Not monitoring and responding to comments is a huge missed opportunity for some bloggers.

The whole point of spending the time researching, writing, editing, and posting a blog post is to get someone to read it, right? It’s important for bloggers to show that they appreciate their following, which for a business is mostly their target audience. Taking the time to respond to followers and even check out their content is a great way to network and it can lead to relationships and business opportunities over time.

Another way to take your blog to the next level is to increase its readership. While this may seem like, “Well, duh”, it’s a lot easier said than done. Depending on your niche there might be lots of bloggers out there writing about very similar material. Blog readers only have so much time to dedicate to reading their favorite blogs. Your goal should be to make yours one of them. Unfortunately it takes a lot more than great content and a great design and layout to get people to find your blog in the beginning.

The only way to get readers is to promote your blog. If you have a social media presence or newsletter subscribers, start by promoting your blog there. Encourage your followers to share links to their followers. Submit your blog to blog directories and do some link building for your blog. It may take some time, but it will be worth it in the end!