Since using this simple SEO framework, our client has noticed increased traffic and more inbound attention in a highly competitive space.
A client of mine asked if I could help improve their SEO strategy for existing and future blog posts. They pump out new content daily, so I needed a scalable way of implementing these updates. First I used SE Ranking to identify the most common drawbacks facing their backlog. Using the information from the audit, I assembled a brief SEO cheat sheet. Since using this simple framework, they’ve noticed increased traffic and more inbound attention. There’s no magic formula. You can find most of this information online, but here’s what’s been working for them.
Blog Title
- Use numbers in your blog post title (i.e. ‘11 Tips On…’ or ‘6 Ways to Increase X by 321% in 30 Days’).
- Add modifiers to your title, such as: ‘in 2019’ (use the current year), ‘best’, ‘guide’, ‘review’.
- Keep your title less than 65 characters in length – that’s the viewable limit on a Google Snippet in the search results.
- Find a way to include a few variants in your titles. Users may search for “5 best practices for…” or “top 5 practices for…”.
- Ask questions in your titles.
- Start the title with your target keyword. If your target keyword is “resizing” your title should look like “Resizing Tungsten Rings: Pros & Cons”.
- Create titles that speak to your experience so that people can avoid making the same mistakes you did.
- Make sure your article title is enclosed in H1 tags.
Keywords
- Select keywords that have a difficulty score of ~42 or below. You can use tools like KWFinder to determine the score.
- Include the keyword phrase 3-5 times throughout the body of your article or post.
- Include the keyword phrase in the meta description, as close to the beginning as possible.
- Include your keyword phrase within the first 100 words of your article. This is not only for Google’s benefit but also for your visitors.
Topic Suggestions
- Corner the less saturated markets and write about niche topics. For example, “ring resizing” returns 186M results, but “ring resizing overnight” returns 759K.
Blog Structure
- Try to include your keyword phrase in at least one heading or sub-heading.
- Given that the conclusion sums up the whole article, it’s more than likely that the algorithm expects to find your main keyword in the conclusion.
- Aim for at least 1200 words per blog post.
- Embed videos where possible to create more engagement and dwell time.
Sharing
- Mention key influencers in your article and reach out via Twitter to acknowledge them. Social sharing creates authority like backlinks.
If you find any of this useful, feel free to use and share it with your clients.