A good ranking in search engines is a fundamental part of a strong digital presence. Learn the main SEO techniques for blogs!
SEO for blogs has become a basic principle for those aiming to achieve a strong digital position. However, with the constant updates of search engines, it's essential to stay well-informed to apply the most effective techniques.
Content production is a key part of many brands' marketing strategies, but production alone doesn't guarantee a strong and consistent position. In addition to ensuring a good volume and consistency of blog posts, attention must also be given to techniques that make these contents reach the company's target audience—a task every agency needs to master.
That's why we've prepared this comprehensive content so that you know, once and for all, how to improve your ranking with the best blog SEO techniques. Check it out!
How does blog SEO work?
Starting with the basics: after all, what is blog SEO and how does it work?
The acronym refers to Search Engine Optimisation, a set of techniques aimed at optimising for search engines, such as our beloved Google.
The idea behind this strategy is as follows: imagine you're looking for information. It's highly likely that your first step to find what you need is to open Google and enter some keywords into the search bar. After that, you'll be bombarded with thousands of results, listed by the search engine, which ranks the most appropriate pages to answer your question. With so many options available, it's unlikely that you'll analyse each of the links displayed, let alone move on to the next pages, right?
Studies confirm this user behaviour. Data from a Backlinko survey show that the first result displayed by Google receives almost one-third of the clicks.
The general conclusion is: the closer the blog is to the top of the page, the more organic searches it will receive from users.
In this scenario, the million-dollar question is "how to get there?" and blog SEO is precisely the answer to this question.
To achieve a good ranking, you need to develop high-quality content that informs the user and provides what they're looking for while adhering to the standards that search engine algorithms consider positive.
Thus, the techniques applied in blog SEO serve precisely this purpose: to increase the likelihood that search engines identify your text as the best answer for the user.
Key blog SEO techniques to improve ranking
To achieve a good ranking and enhance the organic traffic of a site, you need to know the key blog SEO techniques and ensure they are applied in each produced content.
After all the effort involved in creating a post, you can't afford to let it get lost among the myriad of other content available on the internet.
Therefore, we've selected the main techniques you need to know to ensure a good ranking for your blog:
Conduct keyword research
The first step to achieving good results with blog SEO is to conduct thorough keyword research. These are the terms users enter into the search bar when looking for content, and they are what lead users to your post.
In general, there are two types of keywords: high-volume and long-tail. High-volume keywords are frequently used and are usually short, going straight to the point. However, they may have high competition. Long-tail keywords are longer and focused on more specific searches, which can be positive for your ranking in those searches.
Create meta-descriptions
When conducting a Google search, you've likely seen that below the post title, the search engine presents a small text, about 160 characters long. While the search engine usually inserts the beginning of your text in this position, it's not the best way to use this space to attract more traffic to your site.
The meta-description is a short text, no more than 160 characters, providing users with a preview of your content—a brief summary of what they will find when accessing your page. This increases the chances of accessing your blog, and including the keyword in the meta-description also informs search engines that your content aligns with user searches.
Organise content into topic clusters
Organising your blog content is crucial for site indexing and better ranking in search engines. Topic clusters function as subtopics or groups based on the subject of the posts they gather. This makes site navigation more intuitive, providing users with a better experience when accessing your content, which also generates positive signals for search engines.
After dividing content into groups, connect them to a pillar page using hyperlinks, which also helps Google better locate each of these pages.
Understand search intent
To make your content relevant to users and achieve a good ranking in search results, you need to understand the intent behind the search. Generally, three types of intent can be identified:
Informational: When the user is looking for information on how a process works, how to solve a problem, or curiosities about a particular subject.
Direct: When the user is looking for a specific page but uses a search engine to reach it.
Transactional: When the user is looking for a specific product or service but uses search engines to find a brand that can offer it.
Understanding the search intent behind a particular keyword helps guide content production, organising each post to precisely answer what the user is looking for.
Optimise your titles
A compelling title is responsible for grabbing the user's attention and making them more inclined to access your site. It needs to be developed with the target audience in mind, be intriguing, and contain the post's keyword to make it clear that it can answer the user's query.
Additionally, don't forget about title tags, HTML elements offering a quick description of your post. They shouldn't exceed 60 characters and should also contain the content's keyword.
Incorporate interactive media
Embedding media in your content is an effective way to enrich posts and can also help improve your ranking in search engines. Incorporating videos related to the post's subject, for example, increases user time on the page, reducing bounce rates. This signals to Google that your content is relevant to site visitors.
Other types of media can also be incorporated to enhance your content. When creating a post guiding your target audience on completing a task, consider inserting screenshots that guide the reader through the process, making your post more informative and relevant.
And, finally, don't forget about alt text! This feature allows you to describe the images used in your content, making the post more accessible and optimised. You can include the post's keyword in this description.
Use internal links in content
Building authority is also a fundamental part of achieving a good ranking. Therefore, one of the principles of blog SEO is to include internal links that lead users to other content on the same site using anchor text.When mentioning a term that you won't detail in the current post but for which you already have other published content, it's worthwhile to link that ready post to that word or phrase. This signals to search engines that your blog post refers to other published posts, indicating a wealth of information and enhancing your site's authority in the digital environment.
Make URLs friendly
The URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is responsible for specifying the location of a web page on the internet. When crafted in a friendly and efficient manner, the URL informs search engines about the content of the page it refers to, aiding in determining your site's ranking in a search.
Some important points to ensure your URL is friendly (and consequently more effective) include keeping them short and concise, using few words but ensuring people understand the content available on the page. They should be relevant, indicating to the user that they will find what they are looking for by accessing your blog post. Include the keyword, showing search engines that your page is genuinely relevant to the conducted search.
Have a responsive platform
Mobile devices have dominated people's daily lives for quite some time. In 2020, Wolfgang Digital's KPI Report pointed out that these devices were responsible for 70% of web traffic. In other words, having a non-responsive platform is no longer acceptable.
Having a site that adapts well to different devices is crucial for users to consume your content with higher quality, without facing difficulties when reading your post, whether in text resizing or dealing with hard-to-close pop-ups. Therefore, it's essential to pay attention to this aspect of your blog and ensure that the platform is as responsive as possible.
Optimise old content
Search engine algorithms aim to deliver the best possible content to users, meaning they prioritise posts that seem more relevant and contain the best information. Therefore, it's natural for more recent posts to be prioritised.
However, instead of always producing new content, it may be more worthwhile to give some attention to old posts, which are easily updated and can become more relevant to search engines. By updating posts and adding new information, you also have the opportunity to optimise the SEO for blogs, including new links, changing the keyword if necessary, or even improving the copywriting of the text.
Prioritise your reader, not the algorithm
Now that you have this set of blog SEO techniques in hand, here's a golden tip: prioritise your reader, not the algorithm.
This statement may seem contradictory after discussing how search engines work and what they look for in a text to improve your ranking. However, with the advancement of technologies applied to these algorithms, search engines are increasingly interested in content that is truly relevant to users.
For this, elements such as content rejection rate and page dwell time are verified, meaning that no technique is sufficient if your post is not developed with quality, considering the needs of your target audience.
In other words, finding a long-tail keyword and inserting it multiple times into your text won't help if it appears in positions that disrupt reading and understanding the post.
Therefore, always remember to develop content considering its reception by readers and how it can become relevant to these people.
