5 SEO Tips to Drive Organic Blog Traffic

Blogs and SEO go hand in hand in the digital marketing industry. If you’ve been neglecting your SEO strategy, you could spend a lot of time on creating content for your blog without seeing the organic traffic you’re aiming for. We’ve rounded up 5 SEO tips to help you drive organic traffic to your blog.

Driving Organic Traffic To Your Blog With Our SEO Tips

1. Don’t write blindly 

The most common mistake made by bloggers and writers is to think that trending topics will drive massive amounts of traffic to a blog. While a trending topic may be a great way to grab attention, you’ll need to be an established, trusted name in the industry you’re writing for (with lots of followers) to benefit from writing about a trending topic. If you’re not a well-known expert in the industry, you won’t be the go-to resource, and the interest in the trending topic you just wrote about will die off long before a large number of readers find your article or post. 

You can remedy this by writing what we call “evergreen content” that will keep attracting the attention of readers for a long time. Evergreen content is not time-sensitive, and stays relevant for long after it has been published, driving traffic to your blog over several months or (even better) years. Evergreen content does not rely on a specific event or trend to remain relevant, instead it remains valuable for readers over a long time and does not need to be updated often to remain factual and correct. 

Research is key to understanding if your topic is trending or evergreen. You can research topics by using lead generation services such as search engines, keyword research tools (to determine traffic) and by looking at what your competitors and other writers in your industry or niche are ranking for. Another great tool to determine if your content is evergreen is to use  search engine optimisation tools such as Google Trends. Do a quick search for your topic and you’ll be able to see if your topic has a notable “spike”. If there is a spike, it means that your topic could be trendy (or possibly seasonal) which makes it less applicable in your search for evergreen content. If the line is more or less straight (with spikes and dips), it might be an evergreen topic. Try searching for “Christmas” and “social media” for a demonstration of how this tool works. 

2. Understand why people are searching for a specific term 

If you want to rank better on SERP, then you need to have an understanding of why someone could be searching for a specific topic so you can write content that answers the question. Google wants to deliver the best search results to its users, so if you miss the “why” of the search, then your content will not be aligned in a way that will get you to rank.

When someone searches for “coffee” they’re most likely looking for a place nearby that sells coffee. So, if you’re writing about the history of coffee, you won’t rank above the results that provide direct, relevant information. If you’re in the coffee industry, think about answering some more pertinent questions such as “where can I buy a vegan latte” or “summer coffee recipes”.

3. Write deep, not long 

Many resources about SEO and blog writing will tell you that your content needs to be over 2000 words in length or some other number. Instead of trying to hit an arbitrary number or writing for adaptive SEO, rather take a look at what is typical for your industry and write enough content to answer a specific search query. 

You need to focus more on covering your topic in depth so that your reader gets all the information they might need in one place. Google wants to provide its audience with great results, and that includes giving them results that answer their questions comprehensively. 

Use the search engine results page (SERP) to ensure that you cover the most important aspects of your topic by reviewing the results that already rank and checking that you’re covering what your audience may want to know from a search query. 

4. Earn links by creating valuable content

Google will know that your content is relevant and valuable to others if your content is linked to by others. While it seems simple, it is incredibly powerful to have other bloggers, writers and online or social networking sources to link to your content. It shows Google that you know what you’re talking about and that you are a trustworthy source of information.

Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to buy links or gain them through similar schemes. This goes against Google’s user policy and can get your page(s), or entire website removed from rankings altogether. 

There are ways to create link-worthy content, including sharing unique insights and personal experiences that people will genuinely be interested in. You could also curate information into a definitive guide and provide an insider look at the information that people would typically not have access to (data that you’ve gathered or research that you’ve done). The key here is to be ethical about how you provide information- be sure that you’re allowed to share information, credit your sources and don’t plagiarise information from other writers. 

5. Spend time on your title and description (H3) title tag meta description 

This is where you need to get a little creative without crossing the limits of what is displayed. Because Google truncates your title tag and meta descriptions, you need to keep them short and sweet while using your chosen keywords and attracting attention with powerful terms, also called power words. 

Keep your title under 50-60 characters and your meta description under 160 characters. Put your keywords first (or as close to the beginning as possible) and create something that will get the reader to stop scrolling and click on your post. 

If your SEO strategy needs a revamp, contact WSI Digital Boost to find out how we can help you to drive organic traffic to your blog with an improved SEO strategy. 

Contact us for SEO for your content marketing, link building services, and website services, today!