You know that feeling when you post something on social media, thinking it'll resonate with soooo many people and then…just crickets. It can be exactly the same with blog posts, only they take a whole lot more effort to write.
You think of a topic which you know will be useful to people. Gather your research. Write and edit the post. Add helpful links. Optimise it for SEO. Press publish, and share. The process can take hours of your time. So it can be a real letdown when it doesn't get the traffic (aka people clicking and reading) you expect.
I'm often asked questions around getting your website and blog posts seen more on Google searches. Everyone wants to know how to get to the holy grail of number one on a Google search. Side note: That often goes to sponsored (paid for advertising) posts these days but there are still people who refuse to click on a sponsored result.
How search works
I thought it would be helpful to share a little about how the search algorithms work.
First, they look at the words of your query (ie. what you type into the search box). Then they look at things like the relevance and usability of pages, expertise of sources, and your location.
Different weight is applied to the various criteria depending on your query. For example, if you type ‘Cafe in Sheffield’ there will be a greater weight put on location than typing ‘how to make gluten free puff pastry’.
Focusing on the following three things can help your content rank higher in SERPs (search engine results pages).
1. High-quality content
Understand what people are searching for and match that to the content you publish.
2. Page experience
Ensure your website pages have a good experience. That includes how quickly a page loads, whether your website is mobile responsive, how easy the page is to navigate, whether it looks good, and how easy it is to read (eg. using headings to break up text).
3. Using links
Internal links to relevant content on your website can give readers a better experience when they read your posts. External links to websites and sources of information can be super helpful. And incoming links from high authority websites in your sector can give your website a boost (eg. a site like brides.com which has a DA of 84 linking to a bridal boutique's post about this season's wedding dresses). Note: DA stands for domain authority and is a search engine ranking score which predicts how likely a website is to rank in results.
Want to understand more about writing blog posts and search engine optimisation? Take a look at the links below for these posts on my website:
Give me a shout if you want any clarification.
Always in your corner.
Until next time…
