Nowadays it has become common knowledge that your web site and the pages contained in it need to be focused on drawing in those all-important keywords and phrases. These are the very terms that potential customers and clients are searching for, so by planning a well-structured schedule of blog posts and page content you’ll be sure to find the very people who are looking for your help, advice, and custom. However, there are still many who won’t do their due diligence and miss the research stage entirely. This is a big mistake, particularly if your blog posts are not keyword targeted, posts that should be frequent, consistent and sustainable. If there is one message to take from this article, then simply acknowledge how keyword-optimized blog posts will help you now and more importantly later down the road.

• Blog posts are ideal for targeting the latest trending topics that quite simply put, wouldn’t be worth devoting permanent website content to. This will allow you to be current and obtain the traffic that comes with a trendy keyword phrase whilst it is popular. However not everything remains trendy for long, and the one advantage of blog posts is the ability to capture an audience who research the popular keywords in your industry. You can then allow this file to become part of your existing catalogue of posts and articles section (blog) rather than your established and permanent web page content.
• Blog posts are essential to your overall ranking as the keyword searches pull in your content as matching and helpful articles to help with user’s queries. It is important to note that although your blog posts will rank quickly, they will also be valuable sources of pulling web traffic to your site in the months and years to come.

Here are some of examples of some keyword-targeted blog posts:

• How-to Content that lasts: How-to content is ideal for drawing in interest and customers to your business. Sharing your expertise is a great way to attract people to your products or services. Either through videos or blog posts, this is ideal content that helps users solve problems. In return a sense of loyalty and trust can be established that encourages followers to your brand.
• Recipes/Ingredients: We always recommend doing your research when conducting a blog post, and should you write articles for something like a food blog this is a great example of how you can exploit your keywords to your advantage. One of the more common searches online is food related and how to guides when cooking or presenting meals. When you think about it, there are many keywords that people can search for that will link them to your company/website. Should someone need a recipe, or a how to guide for making ‘bolognaise’, then Google will return results with a list of videos with those specific keywords in the title. Should you utilise these words correctly then your video can rank in the searches for these specific keywords.
• What’s trending: Throughout the year there are several events or occasions that take place, either seasonal trends or events that draw in audiences in their droves. By linking blog posts, stories, videos linked to these events you stand a higher chance of ranking higher in the search ranks I real time as they happen. For example, the Olympics are held every four years, and attracts audiences from all over the world. Potential cliental can be drawn to your business based on a post or feature related to this event that has come from you. The following shows some ideas that are ideal for targeting keywords with blog content.

Identifying Keyword Opportunities

The first point of call is to establish your keywords by conducting research based on the industry you are in. Keyword phrases are the very words that people are likely to be putting into search engines to look for the answers to their question or query. The sort of research conducted, should be based on the end goal for your initial blog post. Should you be creating posts for a trending topic, then software such as Google trends, or Google suggest are ideal starting points to find the key phrases you are looking for. Having access to these analytics are ideal sources for pooling together information to benefit the future activity for you and your business. The best way to find the keyword traffic relevant to your viewing audience is by observing your own analytic data. Looking for keywords, groups of keywords which drive traffic and engagement are great ways to establish areas to focus your future blog content on. If there is a lot of activity around a given topic and you realise your business lacks this information, then this is the ideal starting point to draw people to you. Posts with keyword phrases in the title tag will rank higher for those searches as it will be clearer to see its relevance, which in turn increases the click-through rate.

Narrowing Down Your Topic

As a topic, "carbonara" is rather broad and would need narrowing down. You would be very unlikely to rank well for this term on first page of Google. However, this doesn’t mean the subject matter around ‘carbonara’ is, this word may feature in several related posts that mention the keyword, from a food recipe to a sportsman mentioning this is his favourite meal. By being selective with your keywords and narrowing down your topic, you will be able to harness a respectful amount of readers. Should you be using analytic tools for help with your SEO, you will be able to find variants of these words to be able to write about.

Today most people are utilising their cameras on their portable devices, and by doing so you will be able to tackle audiences’ queries with effective How-To content. Using specific content like this enables you to create content that will apply to your readers queries. You can expand this in even more detail by adding more depth to your titles exploiting your keywords further. ‘How to lay patio’ is a good start when harnessing likely keywords in this subject matter, going more in depth would be ‘laying patio slabs in the back garden’. Keywords that can link to this video are also the steps involved in getting to this point, for example ‘ratio of sand and cement for patio slabs’, ‘designing your garden from scratch’, can also be the keywords people are typing but stumble across a video that doesn’t directly pull viewers in from the content, but the meta titles and description links.

Optimise Your Post

Sometimes the hardest step with most things in life is the very first one, and there is no exception when discussing content for writing blog posts. When you know your content subject matter and the goal for your posts then the writing takes care of itself. We are aware how content is king for most people in business these days, and writing good shareable content is time consuming and hard work.

The following tips are food for thought when you are writing your next keyword targeted blog post.

Using keywords in the title tag makes this a key signal for search engines.

• Video posts are growing in popularity however you'll also want text to accompany it. Any simple instructions, guides, measurements etc. are even more visible when written over video. Use your keywords and relevant variations in the text.
• Internal linking. On your index page for video content you can add links to other areas that maybe beneficial as a result of seeing this video post, add a link to the video from both, with optimised anchor text.
• Always use the keywords in the appropriate meta tags, for example the meta description, the file name and alt text of your images. Also use these in the title and description of your video.
• Promote your post— Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. This will encourage external linking to.

Targeting keywords with blog posts is easier than doing so with web pages, keyword research is as good a way as any to come up with topics to write blog posts about.

Should you have any questions or need help with any of the information discussed in this article then please get in touch via our telephone number or email contact information. Alternatively fill in our online query form and we will get back to you.