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UPDATED: Blogging Basics for Best On-Site SEO

UPDATED: March 8th, 2022

Moller Marketing (DBA WEB801) provides small business consulting to help clients learn how to best optimize their websites for search.

Through our experience, we’ve realized that there are a few principles that, if practiced, will dramatically increase the likelihood of your business website getting found in search engines for targeted keyword phrases.

Since we’re a big fan of lists in blogging, here’s the simple list of things you SHOULD do in every business blog post:

10 Basic Blogging Tips for On-Site SEO

1. Make the article at least 250 1,500 – 1,800 words

This has changed a LOT since I last wrote this article. 250 to 500 words used to be the homerun when it came to blogging and content creation: it showed Google and other search engines that your site was “active” and updated.

But now, comprehensive articles are what get the traction. Brian Dean from Backlinko has researched it:

Comprehensive content with a high “Content Grade” (via Clearscope), significantly outperformed content that didn’t cover a topic in-depth.

Longer, more comprehensive content WORKS!

2. Give the article a keyword rich title tag

More than just a “keyword rich title tag,” I’d say that today you want to use questions or solve specific problems people are already looking for.

In Chapter one of this video, you’ll see a list of titles that really work:

3. Adjust the permalink to include a variation of the same keyword phrase as your title


Yes, this may still be helpful at some level. But it doesn’t carry the weight it once did.

Make your permalink structure short.

Use a keyword phrase.

Here’s a great example:

keywords in permalinks

4. Keyword repetition and density

Repeat the keyword phrase you’re targeting at least 1% of the time within the content of your blog post (ie. starting an online business would be used 3 times if the article I’m writing is 250-300 words long).

Sure, this can be helpful. But like #3, it’s not something I’d lose tons of sleep over at this point.

We’re creating content MORE for end users than for search engines. If they read the content and the keyword phrase keeps showing up all over the place, it can get annoying.

SOLVE PROBLEMS = GET RESULTS

5. Use the keyword phrase to link to another related article on your website

This is still valid. Internal linking can do two things: 1. help search engines find other content on your site easily. 2. increase curiosity clicks from readers.

When I think about this today, it applies even more to the visitor path – where do you want the visitor to END UP and what does success (or conversion) really look like for your website?

6. Give credit where credit is due

Reference another legitimate source with a “target=”_blank” hyper link (that means the link opens in a new window)

I still like and agree with this concept.

Sometimes a mention of another leader in your industry (and a link to their content) is all it takes to gain more validity in your space.

Other business owners recognize these links and as the saying says, “What goes around comes around.”

The more you give to others, the better chance you have of that carma coming back around.

7. Use images

Use at least one image in your blog post and include a title tag and alt text with the keyword phrase you’re targeting (make sure the image is somewhat relevant to the keyword phrase you’re using)

Still applicable today.

8. Share, share, share! & Ask for shares

Send the new blog post link to friends and ask them to share in social networks and comment.

Still applicable.

One of my favorite “sales” tips for websites is “You’ll never get what you don’t ask for.”

If I want traffic to come to my site, sometimes the best way to start that trend is to ask those closest to me to read it, comment, and share.

9. Be consistent in your blogging

I recommend at least 1 time per week to clients who are using blogging as an online marketing strategy (which you all SHOULD BE). Scheduling blog posts is a “secret” that makes blogging consistently a LOT easier.

Still valid.

The quantity, though, isn’t as important to me as the quality of the content.

Mark Rober, one of the YouTuber’s I really look up to, only posts videos once per month, sometimes even less than that. But the content is QUALITY and he gets millions of views every time:

mark rober channel success

10. Review this article from time to time

For some reason many of these tips are often overlooked in business blogging.

And, as you can see by the update today, things change with time.

Many of the concepts are still applicable, but some have taken different directions.

Conclusion

There you have it.

Nothing really too “under the table” or “crazy unique”.

But, if all business bloggers implemented these strategies, their websites and blogs would get a LOT more natural search engine traffic – and I can GUARANTEE THAT because I’ve tested it with brand new sites and old sites alike, and I’ve seen over-night results (and that’s a phrase I really HATE so it must be true).

What results have you seen/are you seeing as you practice these business blogging tips?

14 replies on “UPDATED: Blogging Basics for Best On-Site SEO”

Great post Nate! It’s all about having good quality content and being consistent with content creation. Delivering content that is worth sharing is the key to natural link bait and creating conversation about your content!

Integration of blogging to our website is a part of our cosmetic dentistry marketing strategy. We do hope that this will serve as a stepping stone to gain more traffic back to our site.

This is fantastic, Nate! Thanks for the super-helpful tips that I can definitely incorporate. I’ve shared this on our Facebook wall, as I know our readers will find it useful as well!

Could you explain #7 a bit more?
Thanks,
Erin Larson

If you put your cursor over the image, you’ll see a keyword phrase appear.

By using wordpress, you can add title text and alt text. This gives the images you’re using actual value with Google spiders.

Now days, many people not only search for websites, but they also search for images, video, etc. This helps your site get traffic and placement for those searches by optimizing your images.

Hope this helps.

Wow — I had no idea this was possible, let alone helpful for my site!!! Is there a chance, though, that this might be construed as keyword stuffing (or whatever it’s officially called) to cheat my way higher on page rankings? I’ve read a lot about that lately…
Thanks for the excellent info-
Erin Larson

Great post Nate. I have added your link in my url submissions directory so that visitors can find it in easy way. Keep blogging like this. 🙂

As I was reading the article, it became more obvious why #10 is important. I love #5 because it’s so true! Using keywords to link other related articles totally increases curiosity because it happens to me all the time! Giving credit where credit is due is just good business so you definitely want to do that. The only thing I have a question about is using a title tag on images.

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