These days the word is out:  Almost every company website must have a blog.  There are exceptions to this, but I believe that any company has information to share and can benefit from sharing this information.  

So you’ve decided to start blogging for your company, how can you make sure that what you write is of some benefit to your organization?  There are several ways an active blog can benefit, but the one reason that most would be aiming for is improving website traffic.  If this is your goal, it helps to keep some basic search optimization tactics in mind.  

Here are a few steps to consider to ensure your blog post is well indexed by Google and other search engines:

Test Searches for Successful Key Phrases

Take couple of minutes to do some Google searches to see what is already out there. If you find many other pages already ranking, you should look for pages that are ranking well for key works and phrases similar to yours. Find several phrases that are fairly successful and consider these when writing your post, both in the title and in throughout the post.

In this scenario, you are targeting a successful phrase with the thought that your information/answer is more relevant or simply better than those already ranked.  Your goal should be to write a more informative or more targeted post than those you had found.

Test Searches for Niche Key Phrases

The opposite (and typically easier) approach is to take the popular phrases you find and consider a better way of stating it. If you were searching for this information, what would you type in as a query?  Chances are, you aren’t the only one.  

Think of it as though you are targeting all the people that weren’t well served by the obvious phrase used in most searches.  Also, you can definitely target both the popular phrase and the niche phrases at the same time, just target one more aggressively than the other.

What Will Google Find in My Blog Post?

Keep in mind that every sentence you write will be indexed by the search engines and someone might be searching for your statements. Don’t make it read like a list of keywords, but use phrases that people would use to describe any of the steps in your solution.  In the end, your goal is to write a informative piece that will help folks answer a question and the search engine’s goal is connecting people to the best answer.  Make it as easy as possible for Google to find your information.

Web and Blog Copywriting Basics

Write in much shorter sentences and typically use only 2 sentences per paragraph. People will generally not read posts that are written like we were taught in school, they are just too long on a computer screen.

Break up the post into smaller sections and give each section a sub-heading. Many people (and arguably the search engine spiders) have short attention spans and are typically just scanning your post, the subheadings will grant more importance to both the search engines and to the viewer.  Remember to use your key phrases in these subheaders.

Bullet point steps associated with any task. People like them and the search engines like them. 

Once You Are Finished

Look back through your blog post for any opportunities for supporting posts, then plan to write these posts. You do not want your article to be disconnected from the rest of the site, so try and link the information to other posts – both old and new.  

Now submit that new post and get back to work.  It’s time to learn something new to write about!