Issue #43: How to Rank on Page 1 of Google Search By Blogging with the Best!

Imagine you own an aesthetic medical practice (not so hard to imagine for some of you!), and a Botox newbie searches on Page 1 of Google for the best place to visit. After scrolling past several generic listings (“Botox in Des Moines”), a unique link catches their eye – “A Real Patient’s Botox Experience in Des Moines.” It’s the blog you wrote last year. It includes all the important information found on a procedure website page, but it tells a story and immediately connects with your prospective patient. 

We’re here to tell you that blogs are crucial to boosting your website’s SEO capabilities while helping to inform your viewers, and they just might help your practice land on page 1 of Google, stand out from the crowd. Indeed, a world-class blog can actually boost a website by as much as 6 times!

There’s nothing random about blogging– here are some useful tips on how to get the most from your content:

Have a focus keyword or phrase handy to land on Page 1 of Google.

Simply put, a focus keyword is the word or phrase that brings people to your blog via Google. Keywords are commonly searched phrases and will help folks find your website during their search. After making a list of keywords relevant to the blog, find their monthly search volume– this will show you how relevant the keywords are to your audience, allowing for some fine tuning. Some more points about keywords: 

• • • Think like the user. People outside of your industry are likely the ones searching, so it’s important to brainstorm from their perspective. 
    • Keep it snappy! A longer focus keyword means it’s likely to be less searchable, but it also means that the conversion value can be higher. 
    • If your website is already ranked, look through your analytics to determine what keywords are already used on your website and go from there. 
    • Determine your keywords and use them regularly but remember that there’s a fine line between just right and too much. 

Keep your blog authentic!

This is a “write-how-you-speak” reminder. Someone is reading your blog to learn more about the topic, but also more about you. Your blog should help humanize your business and add likeability, so remember to relax while writing and let your personality shine through.  Write to your customers, not your colleagues– simplicity and jargon-free speech is ideal. I mean, aren’t we an awesome read?!

Don’t forget to use images and alt-text.

Images are another excellent, searchable aspect of your blog. Actually, images raise blog views by 94%. Alt-text is a written image description detailing the appearance and function of the image. It’s used for accessibility (screen readers utilize this for visually impaired users), and for context in indexing the image so it is searchable. It’s good to be descriptive but not overly so. 

Add links!

Links help add context for the reader by allowing them to continue learning. It also shows Google that you know what you’re talking about. There are two ways to go about this: internal links and external links.

• • Internal links are links from one place on your website to another place within your site. You’ll want to link deep through your website, meaning avoid major pages like your homepage and the contact page that are already saturated with views, and instead choose less viewed, yet still relevant pages. 
  • External links are links to outside websites. These are trust builders, and should be relevant and fact-checked. They work as an extra booster to your site, because external links tend to already be popular webpages. 

This is just a brief list of the many reasons blogs are crucial to website success. Yes, it is extremely helpful for search engine optimization, but it is also a great way to establish yourself as an authority in your field, and can help be a pool from which social media content is drawn.  

 

Stick around for more articles like this one, and contact us to learn other proven ways for your business to rank #1 on Google search.