Maintaining a blog by regularly posting new articles is essential to a content marketing strategy. For a blog to be discovered by the intended audience, it must be written with search engine optimization tactics in mind. Luckily, writing a blog that will rank on Google, and show in search results, is not difficult, but it needs to be done purposefully. Here are 4 tips to help your blog rank on Google, build your brand and achieve your demand generation goals.  

Research Keywords

Before writing a blog article that will rank on Google, research keywords for the topic you plan to write about. Doing research will inform you of the specific words people are searching to learn about the topic you plan to write about. Note competitive and less competitive keywords. Also, consider long-tail keywords. These are longer and often less competitive but still relevant to searchers. 

Based on your research, determine which keywords to repeatedly include in your blog article as primary and secondary keywords or phrases. While it may seem most advantageous to use competitive keywords, that is not always the best strategy. The ability to rank with those keywords is difficult due to competition from other content using the same keywords. Often it’s the less competitive – but still very relevant – keywords for your chosen topic that will result in ranking on Google.

There are free and paid online services to help you do keyword research. Still, it may be most effective and accurate for a marketing agency, like Fuhrman Creative, that offers SEO services in Gettysburg, PA, to do the research for you. 

Include Keywords In Blog Articles

With the research done, now you can focus on writing a blog that will rank on Google by incorporating the keywords into your article. Primary keywords should appear approximately once every 100-200, and a total of about 5 times. Secondary keywords should appear less frequently, equating to about 1-2 times for a blog of 1,000 words or less. Additionally, keywords should appear in the title and description of the blog to fully optimize the blog content for Google to find in search queries. 

Create High-Quality Content

While it’s uncommon for a skilled writer to intentionally write poor content, even the most eloquently written, grammatically correct content can be considered poor quality for ranking on Google. Writing a blog that will rank on Google involves writing well-researched articles that offer value to readers by:

• answering questions
• providing accurate information and citing resources
• providing readers with actionable information
• entertaining and informing simultaneously – without containing irrelevant or redundant information
• including a Call-to-Action (CTA) to naturally and easily guide the reader to take the action you desire after reading your blog

Use Cross Linking

Cross linking, or internal linking, as it’s most commonly referred to, is an easy tactic to use when writing a blog that will rank on Google. Cross linking involves finding relevant places in an article to add links to other pages or blog articles on your website. Taking this action helps search engines efficiently do their job, which helps improve the rank of a blog on Google. Cross links should read naturally in a blog article and guide the reader to discover more useful information on your website. It’s an additional value to readers that helps your blog rank on Google and be easily discoverable. 

Writing a blog that will rank on Google doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does need to be done with purpose and intent. Ranking on Google with blog content is not just a matter of publishing words. It is a matter of researching and using keywords and valuable cross links to provide high-quality content for your readers and for Google.

Fuhrman Creative offers blog writing and SEO services in Gettysburg, PA. Our team of SEO specialists and blog writers is ready to help you build your brand with blog writing!