4 Simple and Unique Tips To Rank Blogs On Google

Orbit Media states that the average blog post takes 3 hours and 57 minutes to write.

To say that is a shock is not really surprising.

High-quality blogs take time to get right, considering the effort required to create a readable and engaging piece. But there is no point in writing a blog post if it doesn’t rank you on Google.

And while writing 1,000+ words of content, adding multimedia, and building links might help, these four unique tips might help a little more.

A Balanced Keyword Approach

You might have done keyword research for your SEO strategy before, so the process is similar. The critical difference is that you have to get a balance of highly searched words, alongside easily ranked keywords, says lead expert Neil Patel:

“As a general rule of thumb, search for high volume keywords with a high CPC (the average cost per click to pay for a Google Ad) and low SD (estimated competition in organic search). High volume is ideal because it shows that you can get plenty of traffic if you rank on the first page. Keywords with a high CPC typically convert best. And finally, a low SD means it’s easier to reach the first page.” – Neil Patel

With these balanced keywords as your foundation, now you can focus on maximizing them on your blog post by adhering to these ‘rules’:

• According to HubSpot, make the focus on one or two long-tail keywords per blog post.
• Include the keywords in your Page Title, as well as H1, H2, and H3s.
• Include the keyword a few times in each article (IMPACT suggests “no more than five times in a standard blog post“).
• Include semantic keywords within the blog post, which are simply words or phrases related to each other conceptually.

Maximizing User Intent

CoSchedule and Search Land Journal suggests that there are three examples of user intent, and using the example of purchasing a new laptop, we’ll show you how you can tweak your blog for your users.

1. Informational Searches

This is where the searcher is looking for information centered around a problem and is gathering information.

In the case of a new laptop, the user is looking up the products’ information and features. As such, keywords and topics will include “laptop features” and “benefits of X laptop.”

2. Navigational Queries

Navigational queries have the user searching for brands and the benefits of purchasing from a particular company.

For your blog, it becomes about finding information about specific brands and the “value” that comes with them. Your blog topic, for example, then will focus more on the advantages and disadvantages of buying from a particular company.

3. Transactional Searches

When you’re ready to buy something, it means the navigational has turned into a transactional query.

Terms like “best laptops” or “laptop deals” are transactional keyword terms and will bring in users ready to make the final step. Through your blog, you can lead people to your products or services.

At each stage of the process, you will use different words and phrases to bring in your audience and satisfy their intent.

Finding Your Branding Voice

Implementing a brand voice to your blogs can be challenging, yet fun. Before you start your new post, you have to develop the foundation for it to work.

1. Understand what your audiences want

If you did your keyword research right, you’d know what your clients are looking for and what will hook them in. You can now develop a style around their wants and needs as 79% of people say that user-generated content highly impacts their purchasing decisions.

2. Develop a branding voice

Trial and test a branding voice that reflects your business and your own natural voice (there is nothing better selling your brand than yourself). For example, this blog topic is written in a jovial, helpful, light-hearted manner. Others are deadpan and serious. Find what works for you.

3. Stick to it

Don’t always change your tone or language. Stick to it and let it build with your audience. The same goes with your layout, posting style of your blog, and your posts’ schedule. Consistent helps build your brand as Lucidpress states:

“Customers appreciate it when a business has a consistent brand [as] a consistent presentation of a brand increasing revenue by 33%.” – Lucidpress

Remember: quality branded content leads to more traffic and users, which ultimately leads to higher Google rankings.

Systematic Schema MarkUp

For those you don’t know, schema markup, according to Neil Patel is “code that you put on your website to help the search engines return more informative results for users.“

Schema markup, according to Neil Patel is “code that you put on your website to help the search engines return more informative results for users.”

It works like this: Google crawls your website pages, trying to understand what each page or blog post is about through the pages’ HTML codes. Schema (also known as structured data) is a language within the code that is designed for search engines to understand what the page is about with extreme ease. In basic terms, schema tells Google what your blog is about in straightforward terms.

A prime example includes Schema.org’s breakdown of the movie Avatar. This is what it looks like without the schema code:

<div>
<h1>Avatar</h1>
<span>Director: James Cameron (born August 16, 1954)</span>
<span>Science fiction</span> <a href="../movies/avatar-theatrical-trailer.html">Trailer</a>
</div>

Below is what it looks like with the code:

<div itemscope itemtype ="http://schema.org/Movie">
<h1 itemprop="name">Avatar</h1> <span>Director:
<span itemprop="director">James Cameron</span> (born August 16, 1954)</span>
<span itemprop="genre">Science fiction</span>
<a href="../movies/avatar-theatrical-trailer.html" itemprop="trailer">Trailer</a>
</div>

As you can see, there is more information within the code, helping boost the search term ‘Avatar’.

But implementing a schema markup strategy can be confusing, especially if you aren’t familiar with adding custom code. Thankfully, you have a few options to implement it:

• Manually add the schema markup to Your HTML Code (as shown in the Avatar example) by using tips from org.
• Find and use a WordPress Plugin (such as Schema Pro or Rich Snippets WordPress Plugin)
• Use Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper

Using schema markup, you can improve your blog’s search visibility and drive more customers to your website.