In the last 20 years, search engine optimized content has seen enormous growth due to its abundance of traffic. Google accounts for over 70% of all global desktop search traffic, followed by Baidu at 13%, Bing at 12%, and Yahoo at 2%. Before having a better grasp of optimizing your blog for keywords, it is essential to understand what optimization is and how it works.
What is optimization?
Here, optimization refers to Search Engine Optimization, where blogs and articles are written with an intent to rank higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) such as Google, Baidu, Bing, and Yahoo. Ranking high in these search engines, especially on Google, leads to increased traffic to your brand’s website, and this is one of the main ways the audience discovers your website content online.
The two kinds of optimization often used are on-page optimization and off-page optimization.
On-page optimization: optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn relevant traffic in search engines. On-page refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized. The website’s best optimization practices involve content, design, architecture, and back-end coding. Also called on-site optimization, the number of ranking factors include:
- Title tags
- Headings
- URL Structure
- Alt text for images
- Fast-loading pages
- Mobile-friendliness
- Page content
- Internal linking
- Schema markup
- Social tags
- Core web vitals
- Page experience
Keep in mind that Google’s search algorithm uses more than 200 factors to rank websites. While 57% of marketing executives say, on-page optimization was the most effective SEO tactic.
Off-page optimization: Off-page SEO focuses on doing the same thing by getting backlinks; links from other websites. Multiple facets influence your off-page SEO rankings, and they share a similar, achievable goal of getting your website to rank higher. It is a shame that 55.24% of pages don’t have a single backlink. This is done with the assistance of:
- Inbound links
- Social media marketing
- Guest blogging and guest posting
- Unlinked brand mentions
- Influencer marketing
The most crucial factor here is the number and quality of backlinks to your website. The different ways you can build links to your website include but are not limited to creating relevant and shareable content, and it should be something of value to the readers. Sharing your content on social media platforms to generate backlinks and uploading guest blogs on sites that share the same niche as yours. These guest posts will have backlinks to your site. It is crucial not to let go of the fact that the link quality triumphs the link quantity on any given day. There are three main types of links. There are three types of links: natural, manually built, or self-created links. All named the basis of the method they were earned.
- Natural links are done without the efforts of the website page owner, and it is someone genuinely recommending your link for something relevant.
- Manually built links are earned link-building activities. This includes getting people to link to your website or asking specific influencers to share your content.
- Self-created links are created when backlinks are added to an online directory, forum, blog comment signature, or press release with optimized anchor text. Some self-created link-building tactics lean toward black hat SEO and are usually not appreciated by search engines.
How to do it?
- Use short-tail keywords: Short-tail keywords comprise very few words, and each one has millions of monthly search volumes. They are typically generic or category keywords and result in high traffic. The competition is more intense for short-tail keywords as they are industry keywords. Market leaders normally target them, while new entrants or small players may start with long-tail keywords. Then as the company grows and builds a solid digital presence, its SEO strategy will evolve from long-tail keywords to short-tail keywords. Most users don’t spend their time typing in-detail queries in a hurry; they might simply type a four-letter keyword like “best mobile in India.”
And skim through the search results for it. Having short-tail keywords in your blog opens up new avenues and potential target audiences. 69.7% of search queries contain four words or more. - Use Long-tail keywords have a click-through rate of 3% to 5% higher than generic searches. Using more content-specific link-building keywords like “best pressure cooker under thousand rupees is advised, which will garner your niche audience and drive them to your blog. They also have lower competition and better conversion rates.
- Perform an on-page SEO audit: Auditing your site regularly to improve your site’s performance. It allows you to find out which keywords you are ranking for. Having written the best blog but not optimizing it for keywords will lead to the blog not being found. These audits let you understand which keywords bring in traffic, convert leads, and monitor your progress.
Why is optimizing your blog for keywords necessary?
Most digital marketing strategies revolve around keywords. Be it content optimization, social media sharing, link building to directly emailing newsletters to the target audience right in their mailbox, keywords are an essential tool that aids the process of finding and reaching the right target audience. Keyword optimization is one of the most crucial pieces in the puzzle of digital marketing. This industry is constantly evolving, and with new changes and modifications incoming more research about the field continues. With these changes, keywords become, and new ones are discovered too. Old keywords are soon replaced with new ones to scratch the surface and find more opportunities to amplify and promote your brands. Keyword optimization consists of three stages that aim to assist the brand in targeting qualified leads and driving them from search engine results to their website. It’s a crucial component for paid and organic search strategies equally.
The three stages of Keyword Optimization are Research, Analysis, and Selection of the best and most relevant to your brand keywords. Incorporating the right keywords does not only help in improving website traffic and conversion rate. It helps measure the potential traffic flow by understanding the actual size of your possible target audience. Using keywords is like breadcrumbing the audience into following the trail. However, nothing triumphs the content, you could use the keyword with the most potential to convert, but it won’t help unless you use it effectively in a blog. Brands often hire a content writing company to do this since they understand the industry’s nuances and how to navigate through them efficiently. Website crawlers can differentiate between authentic content and content that is just stuffed with keywords. Using the right keywords helps you connect with your audience and allow them to resolve their queries.
Conclusion: It is crucial to not just keyword optimize your blogs but do it the right way. Simply keywords stuffing your article will only nudge Google in the direction of not ranking your site higher and considering it as spam content. Abnormally high keyword density will devalue your website and appear lower in the organic SERPs. Keyword density should ideally remain up to 0.5% to 2.5% on any webpage. The content marketing services that the brands hire are on par with the industry standards and ensure there is no fluff, only good, relevant keyword-optimized content. This aids the process of increasing traffic, leads, and sales.
Research also shows that most web pages rank very high for very few keywords, and very few websites rank high for many keywords.
