Most bloggers and marketers who’ve been around a while hope for strong blog post rankings.
Do you struggle to get search engine traffic?
Maybe your articles are getting buried in search engine results pages.
Are your page views low by anyone’s standards?
Guest author Nirmala offers a comprehensive strategy for easily fixing these problems.
Her tips will include
How to improve your search engine traffic
How to improve the quality of your blog post articles
How to keep people on your blog or website longer and improve your bounce rate
Hacks for building links to your site and
How to increase your blog posts’ social shares.
She presents proven strategies for success. Are you ready to receive your action plan?
How To Quickly Improve Your Blog Post Rankings On Google
by Nirmala Santhakumar
Almost every blogger struggles A LOT to improve their blog post rankings on Google. It is because organic traffic fetches many visitors and sales to any website.
To get better search rankings, you need to assess your current keyword rankings and go after the keywords with great potential.
If you are looking for proven ways to increase your blog post rankings on Google results [pages], there are four tips for you.
Let’s dive into the details.
4 Powerful Tips to Increase Your Blog Post Rankings on Google
#1 Do keyword research before you create content
It’s good that you are aiming to write amazing content. But wait, did you do enough keyword research before you started writing? If not, hold on!! Read this first.
If you struggle so hard to increase your blog post ranking, keyword research is very important. Google receives more than 100 billion search queries per month. So, you need to optimize your site for keywords related to your niche.
If you don’t use the right keywords, you will receive unrelated and unwanted traffic. So, to avoid all these, focus on using the right keywords in the content.
Here is how you can do keyword research before you create content.
- Make a list of relevant topics related to your blog niche.
- Now fill these topics with keywords.
For example, say your blog niche is health, and the topic you selected is “diet to lose belly fat.”
Now, brainstorm keyword phrases that users would type in related to this topic. Those might include: “how I lose weight around my belly”, “weight loss diet”, “exercise and diet for belly fat”, “tips to lose belly fat”, “diet for flat stomach” and so on.
- Research related search terms. For this, go to Google.com and give your keyword, scroll to the bottom of the Google’s results, you will see suggestions for “searches related to your keyword”. These will give you some more keyword ideas to dig further.
- For each topic, check for both head terms as well as long tail keywords. Head terms are shorter and generic which contains one or two words whereas long tail keywords contain three or more words.
For example, “how to market a product” and “marketing”. Of these two, which will get good rank? Obviously the first one! Because, if a person is looking for something specific, then he is the qualified searcher.
- Spy on your competitors. Observe what keywords they are using and how they are ranked. You can use the SEMrush tool for this.
- If you would like to go with a free keyword research tool, use Google Adwords keyword planner to extract the list of keywords. You can check the search volume and traffic estimate for a particular keyword.
With this, you have got a handful of right keywords. Now, focus on creating content.
Make sure that you evaluate these keywords every 2 months. It is to ensure that your blog content is always up-to-date.
[Read: 13 Best Free Tools You Need to Improve Your Long Tail Keywords]
#2 Focus on creating engaging and highly informative content
Do you want your content to sit on the search engine top results page? Apparently, a big YES.
The secret lies in creating in-depth original content. Why it is important: the success lies in making your visitors stay on your blog for some time.
For this, the content must be really engaging and informative that should make them read the post till the end!
If they leave your site without taking any action, then you will lose an excellent opportunity of converting your visitors into leads.
So, you should focus on crafting helpful content and provide the best reading experience for them.
In my recent post, 5 Excellent Green Web Hosting Services of 2017, I have examples of how to use long-tail keywords. The keyword phrases I chose were What is Green Web Hosting?, Why Green Hosting?, and What to look for in Green Website Hosting. Additionally, I featured some reliable Green Web Hosting providers.
Here are the tips to write engaging content.
- Use a storytelling approach. Usually more than facts, people remember stories. It makes them feel involved in your blog post.
- Generally while reading online, most of the people scan; they don’t read. So, make the best use of headings and subheadings. [Read: How to Engage Blog Readers Who Are in a Rush]
- Never write lengthy sentences. Make it short. People love to read short sentences; that’s why we have got so many apps to read the news in just 60 words. Don’t write long paragraphs. The latest trend is 3 to 4 lines that make a great section.
- To engage more with your audience use words like “you”, “your”, and “I” words in your content. It gives a friendly approach.
- Don’t use words like “In my opinion”, “According to me”. Already the content is your opinion, and it speaks what you are. By mentioning those words gives an impression to the audience that you doubt your content.
- Always be up-to-date with the trend. Read blogs, magazines related to your niche on a regular basis.
- Take breaks while writing content. Set the timer for 90 minutes. Take a break. Go for 10 min walk and come back. It helps you to stay focused.
- Write compelling titles. Remember, your audience reads the title first. If it’s interesting then only your written content will get read.
- If you get loyal readers, then your blog post ranking would improve without any doubt. So, reach the targeted audience with the useful information.
#3 Attract backlinks to your blog posts
Getting a blog post idea that attracts backlinks to your blog is the toughest job especially if you are a newbie. To boost your ranking in SERP [Search Engine Results Pages], you need to get high-quality links from authority sites.
Here are the several ways you can follow to attract backlinks to your blog posts:
- Use Infographics. Search Google for “your niche keyword + infographic”. It gives you all the top infographic search results related to your niche. Activate “Ahref toolbar” which displays the number of backlinks that each result has. From this, you can determine keywords for your posts. To get more post ideas, add one or more keywords. For example, marketing or new product + infographic.
- Interview top influential bloggers. People love to hear from their favorite personalities. So, conduct an interview with top bloggers in your niche. By doing this, you will not only drive traffic to your blog but also the interviewee may give a link to your blog post about his interview.
- Quora. It is one of the best places to get ideas for the post that attracts backlinks. In Quora’s search field, enter your niche keyword, observe the results. The one which has a high number of followers is the best topic to pick. Now, start answering that question and leave your blog post link at the end of the answer. It will encourage readers to visit your blog, link back to their blog if it’s really helpful information.
- Check for list posts in Google with “your keyword + list”. Use the Ahrefs toolbar to know which result has high backlinks and start building a list on that topic. Keep a word file and write all the better blog post ideas that you get.
#4 Increase your social shares (so you can better search rankings)
Do you want people to share your content extensively on social media? YES should be your answer!
You can maximize your social shares just by making few adjustments to how you create and publish content.
I will share 6 tips that help you to increase your social shares.
- Check for top shared content. You can check with the help of Buzzsumo. Whatever the topic or keyword, this tool will give you the list of trending topics.
- Put social buttons on your blog. Make it easy for your readers to share. There are plenty of WordPress plugins if you use WordPress for blogging. You can even create unique call-to-actions using “Click-to-tweet.”
- Hook your blog visitors with headlines. If you want more social shares, then start thinking in social context before writing the headline.
- Visuals speak better than content. Showcase your brand by creating custom images. You can use Canva for this purpose. Attach images to your blog posts.
- Prioritize social networks while promoting. This is because each one has a different base. LinkedIn has industry professionals, Twitter is the hub for trending topics, Pinterest has a more female base, Facebook has a large user base that includes friends and family apart from business personnel.
- Know at what time to post. Posting during peak hours encourages more social shares. According to research done by Hubspot, posting to Twitter from 12:00 to 3:00 PM Monday to Friday, posting to Facebook on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 1:00 PM, between 1:00 and 4:00 Pm on Thursdays and Fridays, posting to LinkedIn between 7:30 to 8:30 AM, 5:00 to 6:00 PM on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday increases more social shares.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Social shares also depend on region, how audiences interact with the social networks overall etc. Test your content on different time schedules to know which time works best for your business.
Final thoughts about increasing your blog post rankings
Understand your target audience and identify what your users are searching for. Create remarkably useful content with this information and promote it massively.
Be consistent in creating content and do research well before you write. Focus on genuine link building strategies and make use of social networks.
I hope that you have learned some helpful tips to boost the search engine ranking position of your blog posts. Now, you share your thoughts and ideas in the comment section.
Author Bio: Nirmala is a dedicated blogger, WordPress enthusiast who blogs at WPGlossy.com. Writing is her passion and helping others is her best quality. Apart from being online, she would like to do YOGA to improve her focus. You may connect with her on FaceBook.
Host Blogger’s Comments:
Nirmala has done an amazing job. She began by explaining how to get search engine users to your site. Then, she went on to advise how to create strong enough blog post content visitors will stay at your website and sign up for your newsletter. For those of you involved in sales, your new website visitors can become customers. All the strategies Nirmala shared are valuable for all content creators.
Please share so other bloggers and marketers looking for website traffic know about Nirmala’s tips for boosting blog post rankings on Google and other search engines and all these blogging best practices that she shared.
