How to Write Blogs that Increase Your SEO

One of the main reasons most organizations maintain a regular blog is to improve their organic search engine optimization (SEO.)

Blogging helps improve SEO in many ways.

• It helps create more pages linked to your website, making your website's "web" larger and therefore more likely for people to be found in search engine results.

• It means content related to specific subject matter will be tethered to your website in search engine results. (Ex. Shoe company writes about sneaker trends.)

• It improves your Google quality score, which is part of how it decides which pages rank higher than others in search results.

And these are just a few examples.

But for many people who are spending hours developing copy for their blog, they still feel like they're spinning their wheels. They don't know the ins and outs of SEO, and don't have hours to spend getting trained on it.

That's why today, we've got one helpful strategy that will help increase your SEO performance. It only adds a few minutes onto the process, and makes a big difference.

Here's how it works.

Step 1: Sign in to Google AdWords (create an account if you don't have one. It's free.)

Step 2: Go to the Keyword Planner tool.

Step 3: Click 'Search for a new keyword and ad group idea.'

Step 4: Type the subject of your blog post into the first box, and then click 'Get Ideas.'

Step 5: Click on the 'Keyword Ideas' tab and look at the results of different keyword phrases.

You want to find a phrase that's 2-5 words long, has 1,000 or more average monthly searches, and has low or medium competition.

Step 6: Once you've found your perfect keyword phrase, try to work it into your blog post naturally 3-5 times throughout the post. Don't force it or overload on the keyword, as that will actually harm your SEO (Google sees that as "keyword stuffing.")

Now, will this strategy make you the #1 result when you Google a certain keyword phrase? Probably not. But if you use this strategy over time and regularly produce quality posts, your SEO will improve.

Think about what phrases your audience might be searching if they were looking for a product or service you offer, and then see how you can create blog content around those topics, pain points, and questions.

Still don't have time to write SEO optimized blog content? We can help.

How to Take Content Marketing Offline

So, say you've created an excellent content marketing strategy. Your blog posts are insightful, your social media is engaging, you're offering free materials in exchange for a reader's email address, and you're collecting more leads than ever before. Well done.

But now that you've created this beautiful marketing machine, have you considered taking some of those materials and using them offline? As in, sharing your resources directly with an audience in real life?

You can repackage your content marketing materials and present them in a whole new light when your audience is sitting in front of you.

Here's how:

1. Take lunch meetings

Have a potential client or two that's still on the fence about working with you?

If the distance isn't too far, make the reach and offer to sit down in person with him/her to go over how you could work together. This is an opportunity to educate the client(s) by sharing some of the information you've included in your content marketing. Since an on the fence client is in the midpoint of the sales funnel, work from that stage in your content marketing plan to help encourage them to follow through.

2. Be a Public Speaker

Have you found an opportunity for you to share your expertise? Then go for it.

Speaking at conferences, meetings, and in front of organizations helps you share the knowledge you've collected from your industry and also positions you as an expert. Later, when someone at one of those speaking engagements needs experience in your unique industry, they'll think of you.

3. Teach

One of the most powerful ways you can share your knowledge is to actually go out and teach it to others. Now, you don't have to give away all of your trade secrets. But pull from the material in that great eBook you put together or spend some time training people how to use a handy tool you've created. Often times, there are associations, local colleges, and clubs who would love to have you come share your expertise.

4. Offer Consulting Sessions

Sometimes a client doesn't need your help on an ongoing basis. They really just want to pick your brain. This could be a time when you provide an in-depth walk through of a content marketing piece, or even a time to build a strategy together. By offering in person consulting sessions for 1-3 hours, you're creating an opportunity for both parties to get what they need. You charge an hourly rate, and they get only the information they're after. No frills, no fuss.

Your content marketing materials can still be impactful outside their natural habitat. All you have to do is put them to work.

5 Predicitions for 2015

You've probably read a post or two that recaps the past year (yes, we did one of those, too.) But now that it's 2015, it's time to start looking ahead instead of behind.

It's time to make plans, to get prepared for the future, and to build a strategy that helps make this year more successful than the last.

None of us can see the future, but we can make some predictions that will help guide our paths based on trends, new areas seeing growth, and by evaluating what works (as well as what doesn't anymore.)

Here are a few of our predictions for marketing in 2015:

1. Paid Advertising on Social Media

Facebook has already jumped into paid advertising with both feet and even announced that in 2015, business pages will pretty much have to pay if they want their promotional materials to be seen by, well, anyone. The good news is Facebook's advertising platform has improved dramatically over the past year and enables pages to target users better than ever before.

But you can expect to see this trend continue to grow on other platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, too. As all of these social networks find their footing with revenue-generating opportunities, advertising seems to be the first area they'll push.

2. More Copywriting, More Content

Content Marketing is no longer just for the early adopters. Everyone is doing it, and if you're still not, it's time to get on board. 2015 should be a year in which you regularly publish valuable blog content, create lead generators (like free eBooks, templates, checklists, etc.) and start collecting email addresses so you can stay in touch with your audience and help them through the sales funnel.

3. Video, Video, Video

Online video is quickly becoming one of the most powerful marketing tools throughout social media. Old and new platforms like Vine, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and many others are making video creation easier than ever. And since video combines both audio and visual elements, you can communicate a powerful, concise message in just a few seconds.

4. Influencer Collaboration

One of the most popular ways to expand the reach of any marketing effort is to partner with a powerful, relevant voice within your target community. Whether that means collaborating with a popular blogger, YouTuber, or Podcaster, finding ways to connect with new audiences starts in this arena.

5. The Growing Importance of Design

Design has always been important, but now it's becoming critical to businesses' success. The everyday consumer is valuing it and taking it into consideration when make purchases or signing up for products. A recent study found that design was a reason that 46% of people trusted a website. If you have a website, marketing materials, or social media presence, it may be time to refresh the look.

As you look forward into 2015, think about the areas you can surge ahead and get on board with new strategies before your competitors. Don't rush it, but do your homework and see how you can thoughtfully transition into new territory.

What would you add to this list? Send us your suggestions at @wearelumen on Twitter.