Content is King: Creating Blogs For Your Manchester Business
When it comes to writing engaging SEO Blog Posts for your Manchester Business, you need to focus on quality.
Google has repeatedly stated the most important factor in Google ranking blog posts is that they are useful in solving the question or curiosity of the user.
Quantity vs Quality
If you were searching for “how to write an SEO blog post”, what would you prefer:
The latter option is clearly superior, not just in solving the problem better – but Google will view your website in a more positive light. That being said, this Hubspot study found that their highest-ranking blog posts were the ones in the range of 2,100 – 2,400 words.
That being said, 32% of the highest-ranking blog posts in the study were under 1,500 words.
While we cannot know Google’s algorithm for certain, studies such as this give us opportunities to learn more about what Google is looking for.
From this study, we can gather that while a longer word count is ideal, it is not necessary to achieve a high ranking in Google.
Remember – it is far better to write fewer words that answer the user’s search query concisely than it is to write incoherent text in a desperate attempt to reach a higher word count.
Identifying Critical Keywords
‘Keywords’ are simply the search terms that people type into Google. If you’re reading this blog, you likely typed in something along the lines of “SEO blog post writing for Tampa”. This is good news, as it’s exactly who we’re writing this for.
There’s not much use in writing for the first blog post that comes to mind – you need to analyse what keywords people are searching for that are most relevant to you while not being competitive to make it as easy as possible for your blog post to rank.
At Digital Capital Marketing, we use premium tools such as SEMRush, AHrefs and Moz to not only analyse what keywords to write for but to also find ‘keyword gaps’ – keywords that your competitors have overlooked that we can slide into to create an advantage in your search rankings.
If you’re looking to get started with keyword research yourself, using a free tool such as Google Keyword Planner is a great place to start.
As we hinted at earlier, competitive keyword research is key to achieving the prized 1st-page ranking on Google. Once you’ve had a look through a few of your competitors’ websites and noted what topics they’ve written down (or own premium software that does this for you), you can find a new, unique variation if it’s a topic you’re interested in writing an SEO blog post for.
For example, if a competitor has written a well-performing blog post on flat roofing, and you’re trying to generate new clients for a roofing company:
See the difference? We’ve turned a general “How” question into calling out the customer themselves for the exact question they’ve just asked in Google and then presenting them with a solution by showcasing ‘The Ultimate Guide’ to their exact problem.
This is exactly the type of thinking you need to implement when you’re in the mood to crush your competition – get creative, present yourself as unique, and stay relevant to the customer’s question.
Above is also a great example of a ‘Long-Tail Keyword’. This is simply a search term that is, as the name suggests, longer than a shorter search term (2-3 words). While Long-Tail Keywords often have fewer people searching for them, the competition is lower as it is hyper-relevant to a specific question. Think of it like a pyramid, as shown below:
When you’re writing your SEO blog post, you want to make sure you include key words (see what I did there) from the search term you are trying to get the blog post to rank for. Using the example above of a buyer needing a new roof, I would include phrases such as “new roof”, “buying your new roof”, “in this ultimate guide”, etc. You don’t have to put the words back to back as they are in the title – you just need to include them close enough together that your ‘search intent’ is clear to Google.
You should look to include terms like these at 1-2 phrases per 100 words of your SEO blog post. This is known as “keyword density” and as you just read, the industry standard is 1-2%. Be careful not to overdo this, or your website may be considered as “spam” by Google and ultimately punished in search rankings.
For your Manchester business, in general, you should be including “Tampa” in your blog title and text. This is great as it means your business is no longer competing with the entire world for the 1st page – just your local market (in this case, Tampa, FL).
Internal & External Linking
Internal Linking
Internal linking is simply connecting text in your blog post with another page of your website. It is considered ‘internal’ as you are linking within your website. These are important as they help Google to understand the structure of your different pages on your website better, and how they all connect in the spiderweb of other websites.
Per SEO blog post article you want to be including between 5-10 links ideally.
If I were to replace this underlined text with a link to my website’s homepage, this would be considered an internal link.
Internal Linking
External linking, as the name suggests, is when you include a link that is outside your website. They are important because they help to improve your website’s credibility. By linking to other trustworthy and high-quality websites you are connecting your website with the spider web of other websites across the internet. Highly credible websites usually have a lot of high-quality websites connected to them. By linking with these websites you associate your own website with this high quality.
Remember, quality over quantity. Not all websites are created equal, and you shouldn’t just link to another website for no reason. Make sure you’re link is relevant and contextual – ensuring it solves the reader’s search query. Aim for 2-5 links per article.
The source link included just below the image shown in the previous section is an example of an external link.
White Hat vs Black Hat SEO
Google wants the fastest websites, with the most informative, entertaining and informational content on the 1st page. Over the past few decades, they have consistently invested huge amounts of money into developing some of the most advanced AI in the world. Much of this is for one purpose – making sure the Google user experience is as pleasant as possible.
To do this, they must weed out websites that consist of incoherent rambling, ai generated, or keyword-spammed content.
This has been proven time and time again – you cannot try and cheat SEO.
You must do things the right way, or pay the consequences. While cheating the system may work in the short term, in the long term Google will always find a way to make them pay. To differentiate between different SEO methods, industry specialists have created different terms. The 2 most important are:
Black Hat SEO
Takes shortcuts to try and exploit Google’s algorithm. While their results can be quick in the short term, the websites are very likely to be punished by Google for following false practices, causing a potentially existential threat to your business’s online presence. Extremely high risk.
White Hat SEO
Follows Google’s practices, and is ethical at every stage. These people can consistently achieve the best results for themselves and the people they work with in the long term. Zero risk.
Beware! Many SEO companies claiming to be ‘White Hat’ can really be using Black Hat techniques in an attempt to get results for their clients faster. While this may work in the short term, ultimately your website is very likely to be punished, making all of the SEO work up until that point futile. Finding a trustworthy SEO company with a proven track record of success is the key to avoiding this pitfall.
Create High-Quality Content
You can have the perfect keyword, amazing internal and external links, and the perfect keyword density, but if your content is not high quality all of that effort is going to be ultimately wasted.
We don’t want that to happen to you – here are some guidelines to follow to keep your text user-friendly and relevant.
SEO Tip #1 – Engaging Headlines
Of course, you should include headlines to break up your content, but what about subheadlines? These ‘Tip’ bars you’re currently reading are an example of this.
Imagine if you were reading these lines without sub-headlines – not only would this post be more difficult to navigate, but it would be tiring to read – keep it fresh by adding plenty of h1, h2, and h3 headlines while including relevant keywords if you can.
SEO Tip #2 – Structure & Formatting
The human eye hates giant blocks of text. They are not just difficult to read through. but can be mentally exhausting for the user. Breaking up your text into smaller paragraphs of 1-3 sentences forces you to keep information concise while remaining relevant.
A single sentence in a line draws your attention instantly after reading the previous paragraph, and keeps the momentum going!
SEO Tip #3 – Images
Images are a great way to break up the text. Don’t just throw in random stock images (big no no), use a tool like Canva to create these yourself for some added value. This is the rule we follow at Digital Capital Marketing – always overdeliver. You can also include your keywords in your Manchester SEO blog post in the image file names and alt tags – don’t try and cram as many images as you can into the text because of this.
One image per 500 words is a good benchmark to aim for. Including more images than this is fine, but ensure they only help to add value to your post. Again, quality over quantity. Always.
Feeling Overwhelmed? Let’s fix that with this quick summary…
We’ve covered just a few of the key features you should be looking out for when writing your SEO blog post for your Manchester business.
In short, you want to focus on high quality, helpful content, make it easy on the eyes to read and ensure you’re writing on a keyword that either has a variation on a competitors post or is on a new, untouched gap that your competition has overlooked.
At Digital Capital Marketing we focus on writing the best content for the most lucrative search terms that are going to get you incredible results.
With our SEO Audit we’ll cover the current SEO condition of your website in detail (including your blog posts). With so much on your plate you shouldn’t be worrying about where your next customer is coming from – if you want to fill up your pipeline with high-quality customers that are actively searching for your business and want to see what’s holding you back – ask for your Free SEO Audit today (top right of your screen 😉
All the best.
– Alex
