Optimize Your Blog

Posted on March 15, 2018January 24, 2024 by Brian Loebig

Blog Writing Best Practices for SEO

When you’re trying to keep up to date and make sure your website is the best it can be, it is easy to get caught up in the many possible tasks you can take on to effect improvements. Making sure the site is mobile-friendly, eliminating bulky images that slow download time and exercising due diligence to understand your competitors and what makes them successful are all relevant efforts. However, there is one thing you should make sure not to lose sight of in the mix: always keep your content in the forefront of your mind.

Fresh content is a must. It makes a lot of sense to update your main pages with new information to keep your audience informed. But beyond those changes, adding regular quality content is a big step along the road to high search engine ranking. If you are taking the time to make strong, consistent blog posts, give it a little more forethought and make sure your SEO is up to the task as well.

Once you have decided on your topic for a new blog post, consider the primary keywords for which you intend to rank. Don’t force-fit keywords; make sure the one you choose flows easily and fits well with the main focus of your post. If you have a pet care service in Hoboken, NJ, for example, you may decide to write a story about walking dogs during owners’ working hours. If you then choose “dog walking” as your focus keyword, you’ll want to make sure to use it in all the ways that will give you maximum SEO benefit. Here are your next steps:

Write great content. Think first of the reader, rather than Google. Make sure that the person who lands on your page will find your content relevant, entertaining, heartwarming, or whatever your goal is for the piece. Using at least 500 words makes it better for SEO. If you can write a longer article all the better, as the trend is moving toward longer articles for higher search engine ranking. A 1,000 to 1,500-word article that is authoritative, engaging, and well-focused on a topic relating to the target keyword will not only please your readers but will signal to Google that the web page is worthy of ranking.

Add the keyword to the text of your blog post. Make sure you use the keyword in the text two to three times. If you’ve chosen your topic well and matched it to a strongly associated focus keyword, this should be a seamless effort. Be careful not to use the keyword too many more times than the recommendation. Search engines will penalize keyword stuffing.

Use your keyword in the H1. The H1 is the main heading of your blog post. If you’ve chosen “dog walking” as your keyword, your H1 might be “Dog Walking in My Favorite City.” Using the keyword as close to the beginning of the heading is best. “Dog Walking in My Favorite City” is stronger for SEO than “100 Other Things I Love to Do While Enjoying Dog Walking in the City.” If it is not too awkward, you can use the target location in the H1 as well, as in “Dog Walking in Hoboken, My Favorite City.”

Use your keyword in the meta title and the meta description. The meta title appears in the tab of your web browser. You will also see it as the bold, blue title at the top of a Google search result. Next, write a meta description that gives a brief glimpse of what will be found in the blog post. This meta description will not be visible at all on your website but will appear below the meta title in a Google search result. Again, it is important to use the keyword and local modifier close to the beginning of the metatag. Here is an example of a meta title followed by a meta description:

Dog Walking Hoboken | Pet Care in the City

Looking for dog walking in Hoboken? We care for dogs, cats, and even some exotic pets while you’re at work or out of town. Call us at (201) 867-5309.

Link up. Find related content within your website and link to it from your blog post. You may want to provide a link to your About or Contact page, or you may reference a previous blog post and want to make the connection. Whichever links you choose, one to two internal links should be the maximum. Next, link to an outside, high authority website. Good possibilities for links that would make sense in the course of our hypothetical blog post would be Dogster or PetSmart.

Finishing Touches

Use images and ALT tags. Adding images and other media to your blog post makes for a pleasant experience for your readers, but it is also good SEO. Use at least one image in your blog post and find the area where you can add background information for the image. In the space labeled “ALT tag,” write a brief description of what is depicted. In this space, using the exact keyword is not ideal unless it is truly in the interest of the description. “A man with a standard poodle on a leash” or “children petting a dog on Washington St.” are examples of typical ALT tags.

Categorize and tag your post. Some popular blogging platforms such as WordPress and Wix give you the opportunity to create categories that describe your blog topics. You can also tag a few people or terms in the blog article that it makes sense to highlight. Choose a category and tags that are consistent with your keyword choice. A thematic category might be “Dog Care.” Tags might include more specific things like “North Jersey,” “pooper scooper,” and “Cesar Millan.”

Check your speed. Make sure you have the edge over the competition by keeping your mobile website up to speed. Use Test My Site to see how your rates. Test My Site, a Think with Google tool, offers optimization tips to help you if the text shows that your site has room for improvement.

Submit the blog to Google. Once you finish with your changes, submit the URL of the blog article using Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool. This helps the pages of your website to be more easily found and indexed by Google. Here’s how to do this easily, but easily overlooked step: https://loebigink.com/how-to-use-the-url-inspection-tool/.

Share it! After you have finished all the steps it takes to complete a great blog post, don’t forget to share it on social media. Raise awareness about your blog and get people talking about your web content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other places online. Those who are interested in what you have to say may mention you on the web and create links back to your website, which is very valuable to SEO. The more buzz, the better! By following these guidelines, you will have a blog set up for success.

Read more about efforts you can make to improve SEO in our previous post, The SEO 80/20 Rule.

Resources:

searchenginejournal.com/4-important-ranking-factors-according-seo-industry-studies/184619

searchenginejournal.com/se-ranking-seo-tasks/229783/

Facebook for Small Business: Still a wise marketing investment?

Posted on February 11, 2016January 24, 2024 by Brian Loebig

Sometimes, when something has been around for a long time people tend to take it for granted. It may even be considered “old” and not “trendy” after a short period of time.

Facebook is one of those items that has been around for more than eleven years. It can certainly be considered “old” in the still growing world of social media and not “trendy” by most in the industry.

However, don’t let its age and familiarity fool you. It is still an internet marketing powerhouse and should be considered in any marketing plans for your small business. In fact, Facebook is still so popular with the public, it had a record one billion plus people online during one hour just this past August. One billion is impressive by any measure.

Facebook should remain an integral part of your small business marketing plan for the following reasons:

Mobile phone users love it: 80% of Facebook users access their page through their cell phones and visit at least 14 times a day! Your business page or advertising will be seen by a large number of visitors. It is a very busy place. Your product will not only be seen by present and potential customers using their phones, they can also call you immediately to find out more.

Facebook advertising is inexpensive: This channel is still known as being the best way to reach the largest audience for the smallest marketing dollar. The ROI is outstanding even though Facebook has changed its algorithms making it more difficult for a larger audience to see your free postings. In return, though, it is a great source of leads and still outperforms most other advertising venues. You even save money as you don’t have to buy a spot on a mailing list. Facebook has done massive data mining and is working with data leaders like Axciom and Datalogix to access information on customer habits, shopper loyalty and credit card accounts. All this mining and research helps your company reach the right customer efficiently and cheaply.
Facebook ads send traffic to your small business website: Your main reason for all your ads should be people going from the ad to your website. While your business page is important in your engagement and marketing efforts, your website is the most important focus. Your advertising campaign should have them click on the ad and go directly to the landing page in which you are featuring the product. From there, you can “convert” them and sell the product.
Your small business Facebook page is still free and still crucial: Facebook still has free business accounts and their importance in engagement, branding and sales cannot be understated. Small businesses should post on them five times a week using the “80/20 Rule”: 80% quality content (sharing posts from other sources) and 20% marketing (sales and promotions). Even though fewer people see your business page, you may still get hundreds even thousands of people reading your posts, commenting on it, sharing it or even messaging you for more information.

There are even more reasons for keeping Facebook on your business marketing radar screen and we will discuss them in a future blog. The answer to the question of whether Facebook is a wise decision for your advertising dollar is still a resounding “Yes!” Facebook remains the most popular social media channel in the world and there is no decline whatsoever. It should be on every business marketing plan for many, many years to come.

How Does Social Media Affect Youth?

Posted on August 7, 2015November 20, 2024 by Brian Loebig

By Nia Crawford, McKinley Technology H.S. and Loebig Ink Summer Intern

In 2015, it is now easier to access the internet than ever before. This easily leads to the misuse of the technology that we are provided with but not everybody misusing it. Studies show that the age group of 12-21 access social media more than any other. Being that I fall into this age group I know that social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat is used to keep up with the latest trends, our favorite artists and an easy way to stay up to date with what our peers are doing.

But, how has this turned into more? We have became so immune to being able to contact someone with just the tap of a screen, that we can have an entire conversation with someone in the same room as us without saying one word. We’d rather Snapchat a picture to one of our friends than to actually go see them. We have officially been labeled as the “Dumbest generation” by author Mark Bauerlein, due to our heavy use of technology. I am very aware that my generation doesn’t use technology for much more than social media, which in many ways is the same as misusing technology. Although social life is a very powerful temptation, the only way it impacts us is socially unless we allow it to do otherwise. Teenagers are simply impacted by what they allow to influence their life.

The social websites become their first priority, rather than the things that should come first such as school, family and sports.
People portray themselves as someone they’re not.
Young people can begin to cyberbully another peer; this can lead to many things such as depression and suicidal thoughts.
Some youth are easily influenced so they may feel the need to change their physical appearance by comparing themselves to the next person they see in the media.
Social media is a very powerful temptation, so it can also become addicting and begin to start sidetracking the youth.

There are also a lot of benefits that come from social media and the internet for teenagers. For a lot of people in my age group social media is an outlet for thoughts that they are able to share with their peers. Websites where you can interact with others your age means a lot to teenagers because it is a form of self expression. As we begin to get older it is very important to know who you are and what you want to do with your life, through social media you can easily find this out. So before we get into our serious years we might as well practice how to express ourselves in a respectful way. Also social media is an easy way to connect with people all throughout the area that you live in. In my age group a lot of very close friendships have been formed through social media and have helped to benefit each other in multiple ways. The reason social media makes it so easy to create bonds is your allowed to express your likes and dislikes, which people can easily relate to. As many ways as people believe that social media is bad, it can also provide a lot of good, you just have to use it for the right things.

Five ways I have seen technology have a positive influence on youth:

Keeps connections between friends when they’re not always able to see each other when they want to.
Social media also keeps you up to date with things that are going on around the world rather than just in your area.
It gives youth a place to express themselves in a way that a public place wouldn’t allow us to.
It helps to develop social skills, a lot of friendships can stem from a social website.
It’s a fun way to interact with your peers, other than seeing them in person.

In conclusion, social media can have both a beneficial and negative impact on the youth of my generation. It can help youth prosper in so many different ways. As well as hold them down in various ways. The impact that social media has on us is up for us to decide!

Loebig Ink is a small business consulting firm fueled by coffee, creativity and music to provide SEO, web design and social media solutions.

Blog Writing Best Practices for SEO

Finishing Touches

Loebig Ink is a small business consulting firm
fueled by coffee, creativity and music to provide
SEO, web design and social media solutions.