If you’re marketing using a blog, or if your blog is a large part of your business, then chances are you’ve heard of keywords.
Keywords do what they say on the tin – they’re the essence of what you’re writing about, and they’re also what Google uses to decide how and where to rank your content.
Now, the old way of thinking was very much “the more keywords the better” … but this doesn’t make for very good reading for humans, and Google has started to realise this. It’s already made changes to its algorithm to prioritise blogs that write for their users, and not for search engines.
Here are 5 tips for keeping your blog content keyword-rich, without ruining the reading experience and landing yourself a hefty penalty:
1. Find out what people need to know
Let’s say you want to write a post about creative writing, but you’re not sure what to write about.
The easiest way to find out what questions people want answered is to plug “creative writing” into Google and see what Google spits back as “People also asked”
You can use this to structure your content, using these questions as headings. This also gives you the opportunity to be the piece of content that pops up here, which will massively increase the number of people that get to see your site.
However, that’ll all be in vain if you don’t follow rule 2:
2. Keep your tone fun
One of the signal for Google that a piece of content isn’t very easy to read is how quickly people bounce from the content, back to the search page.
If you have analytics set up, this is shown in your “bounce” rate, and also in your “exit” rate: how many people leave your site from that page or piece of content.
You should write a blog like you’d write a book: with cliffhangers. Did you see what I did moving between section 1 and 2 of this piece? I left a cliffhanger: “However, that’ll all be in vain if you don’t follow rule 2…”
That was designed to keep you reading. Employ the same tactics to show Google that the content is for humans, and not robots.
3. Make it rich
Add your own experience and insights into your writing – stuff that only you know. Chances are the content you’re writing has already been written somewhere, by someone. So what are you bringing to the table? What new insight are you adding?
If the answer to this is “I’m not” – then revisit your content. You need to make sure it’s doing something different to the rest. Here are 3 quick ways to do that:
- If you’re writing a list, make it the biggest list
- If you’re writing a guide, make it the most complete guide. The ultimate guide
- If you’re writing on a common topic – give us your opinion. After all, that is unique in and of itself
Penguin in the Room @prartsmarketing is a group of creatives with an arts marketing dream: penguin stepping our way into the arts industry and helping other creatives flourish! Specialising in online marketing, social media, branding, copy writing, media coaching and web design for actors, artists, casting directors, agents, production companies, theatre companies and creative individuals.
Contact us any time for penguin chats via email:info@penguinintheroom.com or Facebook.com/penguinintheroom or waddle over to our website: www.penguinintheroom.com
The Penguin in the Room Blog 