Tips to improve the Search Ranking of Blog Posts
Search engines always reward those sites that are user-friendly, which means they have high usability and good interaction between posts and visitors. Not only Google but all the search engines favor those sites that are not only rich with keywords, but also demonstrate user engagement as well. SEO ranking improves when users stay on your blog for a longer period, view the number of pages on your blog, and repeat their visits often. The more user-friendly your blog is, the more likely higher rank in search may be achieved. Let’s have a look at few tips that not only improve usability on your blog but also help increase your SEO ranking:
1. Using tags in order
Nobody likes a wall of direct text without any format. Excellent formatting of your content helps improve the user experience of your blog tremendously. It makes readers more willing to spend the time to read your blog post and come back for more of it, which will ultimately signal your relevancy to search engines. Proper use of header tags can help you break up your content into required sections that are easier to read and utilize. As many users like to scroll through your post based on heading tags.
2. Different forms of content
Images, infographics, videos, audio, and slideshows can help your blog to enrich the user experience which in turn increase engagement and allows you to deliver enough information in a way that is most suitable for your ideal visitors. They also help as a signal for quality content to search engines, after all, you have put much effort to make your content look great and interactive! Video marketing has become an increasingly integral element in driving user engagement and conversion. It is found that websites that are using videos achieved a 4.8% higher conversion rate, compared to a 2.9% average on sites which are not using any videos. Videos get visitors to spend more time on a website which decreases bounce rate and retains more information.
3. Use SEO optimized theme
Optimizing your theme is necessary because it helps give Google indicators that you are a trustworthy site. Make your theme mobile optimize as well as it is the future of SEO. It also helps Google find your content.
4. Permalink structure does matter
Permalinks are how visitors locate your blog and all its internal posts and pages. They are made up of a root and an extension. For example, in this post we have: ROOT: digitalready.co/blog/ EXTENSION: tips-to-improve-the-search-ranking-of-blog-posts Now, it is vital to have a good permalink structure. If you are using WordPress, you can change this by going SETTINGS > PERMALINKS and tweaking the options. The best choice to have in there, in my opinion, is just the post name. So you should select CUSTOM STRUCTURE and then add /%postname%/
5. Install a sitemap
One of the simplest things you can do is install a Google Sitemap plugin that gives a full map of all your blog posts, pages and archives. The most common one that people use is a plugin for WordPress, and they all seem to work quite well. This automatically generates the sitemap for you at regular intervals and then submits it to Google, Bing, etc. on your behalf. It is literally giving them a map of your site so they can index it better.
6. Readability test
Even if you have an educated audience, they probably don’t want to be deciphering a Ph.D. thesis every time they visit your website and read your content. You do not want them to give up reading your content and click away because it is too challenging. Making your content effortless to read and understand helps make it useful to your users. Some experts also believe that Google takes readability into account when ranking their web pages.
7. Site architecture and navigation
When visitors cannot find what they want on your website right away, they most likely leave your site, and this contributes to high bounce rate, low dwell time and also a low number of pages viewed. A well-thought-out site architecture reflected in precise navigation is important in helping visitors to find what they want on your site, fulfill their goals and come back repeatedly and repeated visits can improve SEO ranking as well.
8. Social sharing
The number of Facebook shares, Twitter Tweets, Pinterest Pins and other social media activities and mentions can influence your blog SEO rankings. Installing social sharing buttons on your blog not only makes it easy for visitors to share your content, and thereby improve their user experience, it can also help you rank better on SERP. Social sharing also contributes to driving purchasing behavior. Nearly 4 out of 10 Facebook users report that they have gone from liking, sharing or commenting on a product to buying it, while 43% of social media active users have purchased a product after they made a share or like it on Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter.
9. Content-length and quality both matters
You cannot expect your blog posts to rank if the quality is not right or if the content length is too short. We have seen from authority blogs that posts with more than 1200/1500 words rank much more quickly than posts having 500 or 800 words. The main benefit of writing lengthy posts is that you will maintain those keywords ranking for a longer duration. If you regularly post good quality posts with the minimum of 1200 to 1500 words, then contender blogs may not be able to outrank you easily. You need to plan each and every post, do proper keyword analysis and at the same time, you need to keep improving the quality and quantity if required of the content as it will be helpful in attracting more readers quickly.
10. Build backlinks by commenting, guest posting etc
Backlinks are crucial as they will help you to build your traffic. Commenting and guest blogging on other blogs related to the related niche will provide your blog with quality backlinks which will improve your ranking. It is necessary that you should always try to comment on related blog posts only. You should comment frequently, but excessive commenting should be avoided as it may result in a Google penalty. I will advise you always to focus on natural ways for link building as Google is against artificial and unnatural modes of link building practices.
As you know, SEO is a long-term strategy and requires a lot of skills to be at the top. SEO incorporates all relevant aspects of digital marketing. The best way to increase your blog’s search engine ranking is by creating sufficient, useful, relevant content that addresses all the core issues of your audience. These are a few tips to get quality traffic to your blog and help you increase ranking.