According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, optimization is “an act, process, or methodology of making something (such as a design, system, or decision) as fully perfect, functional, or effective as possible.” In other words, it’s maximizing the amount of outcomes or making the best of a situation. Becoming an expert in search engine optimization, especially when it comes to writing blogs, will overall increase the odds of your blog showing up on someone’s Google search.
SEO is essential when it comes to blog writing because it is a key part of the user experience or CX. Search engines like Google are programmed to offer consumers a unique experience targeted to their specific questions. Blogs that use SEO can improve traffic flow to your website and multiple tactics will help you become an expert in search engine optimization. According to Hubspot, there are 13 tips on how to incorporate SEO into your writing.
- Start with keyword research
- Use headings to your benefit
- Optimize your content for featured snippets
- Write for humans, not search engines
- Optimize your title
- Include keywords in your meta descriptions
- Add alt text to images
- Resist the urge to keyword stuff
- Link to high authority websites
- Aim for scannable, longer posts
- Link to other posts on your site
- Compress images for fast page load speed
- Design a link-building strategy
At my internship this semester with Sports Innovation Lab, I had to focus on SEO for our YouTube channel. We recently announced a partnership with Snowflake and now people can access our sports fan data through the Snowflake marketplace. To start this project I did keyword research, as Hubspot recommended. The sites that I found to be the most beneficial were keywordtool.io and answerthepublic.com. By using SEO tactics on our Youtube channel, we connected the Youtube videos to the marketplace and I have started to write blogs that use long-tail keywords to increase our SEO. As I learned in my Public Relations Messages Style & Design class, long-tail keywords are phrases that are more specific than a singular keyword and get less search traffic, but overall a higher conversion rate. A high conversion rate is better than high search traffic because your site or blog will more likely show up to answer a consumer’s specific question. Using a long-tail keyword in your blog will make your blog more SEO-friendly, thus helping you on your journey to becoming an expert in search engine optimization.
My goal is to become an expert in search engine optimization to increase the odds of consumers landing on Sports Innovation Lab’s page when they are looking for specific sports fan data. Blogs can help boost SEO by positioning your website as an answer to consumers’ questions, so the YouTube work and the blogs will ultimately lead to more customers finding our page on the Snowflake marketplace.
Including SEO tactics in your blog writing ultimately leads to higher traffic and more customers coming to your website and potentially buying your product because your blog answered the question that they were looking for. Blog writers who consider themselves an expert in search engine optimization will be able to create high-quality content that reaches their target audience. If you fail to use SEO tactics when writing blog posts or creating your blog from the ground up, you may never be successful in reaching your audience and the company you work for may never access new customers.