SEO is the buzzword on every blogger’s lips. It’s the secret sauce that will make your blog reach your target audience, but if you don’t fully understand it, then you’ll never be able to implement it and optimize your content for it.
Basically, SEO is proving to search engines that your content is relevant for any given search. Search engine companies aren’t manually reading every blog post on the internet; that would take forever.
Instead, they use algorithms and technology to seek out the most relevant and insightful content, so you need to adapt your writing to their expectations.
You might have noticed that I’ve specifically mentioned Google in this post, not just any old search engine.
That’s because Google has 91.88% of the global search engine market share. As such, it’s the most important search engine that you need to focus on if you want your blog to reach a wide array of interested readers.
So, read on to find out more about what Google wants from blog content and how you deliver it in every blog post you create.
Also read: May 2020 Core Update – New Big Google Update
Relevant Keywords
Relevance is key to Google’s search algorithm, and it is one of the core factors that it trawls for when seeking out pages for each search result.
As a result, you need to make sure that your content is relevant and that it meets the needs of searchers.
To do this, you need to find out the keywords that are associated with your chosen topic.
Google itself is actually a great tool to use to do this.
If you want to find related keywords, all you need to do is type in your target topic and search for it.
You can then scroll to the bottom of the screen, and you’ll see a list of related searches.
Below are the related search results for the search time ‘puppies.’
As you can see, it shows you words that are used when searching for this term, as well as giving you an idea of what people want from this search; they want to find a puppy for sale that can take home to love.
If you have the budget to pay for keyword tools, then solutions like Ahrefs and SEMrush are designed to show you all of the top keywords on your chosen topic. They can also tell you how difficult it is to rank for these keywords and advise you on how to go about it.
If you want to just use free tools and make Google work for you, then you can also view the ‘people also ask’ section on your search to find out more about the intention behind searches and create content that meets these requirements.
Another way to find questions that people are asking about your chosen topic is to use tools such as AnswerthePublic. Just type your chosen keyword, and this free tool will show you the questions that people are searching for.
When you have all this information, you can integrate it into your article, and find a way to answer the most frequently asked questions and include keywords that the algorithm will notice.
Simular To Top Ranking Content
If you can’t beat them, join them!
One of the easiest ways to reach the top of search engines with your blog articles is to copy the techniques used by the writers whose content is already there.
A great tool for this is SEO Surfer, which can take your target keywords, find the top-ranking content, and create an editor that shows you what associated keywords you need to use in your blog posts.
It will also tell you how long your content needs to be, how many headings it should have, and much more.
If you don’t want to shell out for a tool like SEO Surfer, then consider doing that research yourself. Use BuzzSumo or just search Google to find the content that is ranking for your keywords and then read it.
Once you’ve read through it, you can see what they’re doing and try your best to emulate them.
Make sure that you don’t copy their work, however, as Google frowns upon plagiarism and repeated content.
No matter how clever you think you’re being, Google has sophisticated tools that can find copied content, and they often penalize websites for including writing that has been plagiarised, so make sure that your content is completely original.
Just try to use the keywords they do and make your content a similar length and structure so that you can show the algorithm that your work is of as much interest as the articles that are already in pole position.
Internal Backlinks
Internal backlinks might seem pointless, but they are, in fact, an incredibly important part of SEO. That’s because they are a free, easy way that you can show Google the relevance of other web pages on your site.
So, if you’re writing a blog post that you’ve already written something similar about, you can link the two to show Google that they are both relevant to your chosen keywords.
By linking your previous blog posts and additional website pages within your articles, you will also encourage readers to click on the link and read more of your work.
Clicks are also a meaningful way that Google decides if an article is relevant and worth showing to users, so it’s worth including internal links in each blog post you write.
After all, what do you have to lose?!
Conclusion
Overall, Google’s algorithms are constantly changing. What isn’t changing is the search engine’s dedication to finding content that is relevant and insightful. The search engine’s core goal is to help its users, so whenever you’re creating blog content, your core focus needs to be on them.
These tips will help you to figure out unique ways to adapt to the latest algorithmic changes so that you can show Google that your blog articles are designed to inform and support readers. By making that your focus and using these tips, you can reach your target audience and grow your blog for the benefit of yourself and your target readers.
