The idea of blogging to make your site more searchable, to drive more business, has been around so long that blogging for the sake of blogging can become default. Writers become frustrated after a while when it feels like they’ve been plucking away and aren’t getting anything out of it.
In fact, some of the most common ways blogs get hung up are:
- The disconnect between what a business owner thinks is important to know about their industry and what readers are actually searching.
- Each post being an island, and not part of a broader strategy.
We’ll unpack each of those here, and provide examples for addressing each of them.
What Blogging With A Purpose Looks Like
We need to be more specific than thinking about blogging as “boosting search rankings” or “getting more phone calls.”
To accomplish both those things, we should also clarify a few things with ourselves and our team beforehand:
Which types of products/services we offer are priorities, and what can we tell people about them that competing websites don’t? Many topics are a dime a dozen, so how can we inform, demonstrate expertise, and genuinely help someone in ways our competition hasn’t? The more data we can provide, whether from demonstrated experience or from studies and careful measurements, the better.
There are vague assertions everywhere, and it’s the fastest way to “same-y” material.
How do we see ourselves in this industry? Are we thought leaders? Watch dogs? Price competitors? Innovators of features and specs? The tone and types of content we’d create are different depending on these answers. For instance, if we think of ourselves as watch dogs then we’re protecting people from bad actors, bad deals, and bad situations. Our content will have a “what you should know” and “make sure to look out for THIS” edge to it. We’d demonstrate expertise through real world examples and cautionary tales.
On the other hand, as a thought leader we’re likely conducting a lot of our own research. We’re tracking things others aren’t. Therefore, we have information others don’t, and may have opinions and strategies others in the space wouldn’t. In this case, we should lean into these distinctions and show our value through forward thinking content.
The strategy here would focus on a fresh perspective to old questions, but also in guiding the conversation and questions.
When we’re clear here it goes a long way toward establishing a voice.
Unstructured Blogs Are More Like…
Blogs without a planned structure often have one or both of these elements at play:
- The titles aren’t very descriptive, and may be making assumptions about the reader’s ability to just “get it”. For instance, a title such as, “Tips For Fall” on a website about remodels. The title doesn’t describe what these tips are about, and even at that, “tips” is pretty vague. What can the reader expect to learn here? What’s the benefit?
- Topics swing from one area to another with no tie-ins. When there’s not a clear plan, a blogger may just write whatever occurs to them that day. For readers, that means there’s a lot less meat to the subject matter, and for SEO purposes there’s far less topical reinforcement. There aren’t clusters of related content that reference each other meaningfully, so the sense of knowledge and expertise the blog puts out there is lessened.
Being Selective About Phrasing and Keyword Goals
Prioritizing writing around ranking for key queries has to be done with care. Doing this well requires discernment about which types of queries serve which part of the overall plan.
For instance, focusing only on “buying intent” keywords where the searcher is ready to take an action can seem tempting. That’s where the money is, right? But these are often very competitive. Ranking well for them (top 5) is tougher, and you can quickly rise and fall right back out of this area without enough other things going for you to sustain it.
If you fall out of the rankings for these, it requires a pivot to eventually regain them. Shorter term, that’s just lost time.
Building a comprehensive mass of information about your industry, from thoughtful answers to stats and predictions, establishes a much stronger presentation of why your website is worth recommending to buyers.
Also, if you’re clever, there are subtle nudges you can make even within informational content to spur a sales opportunity. If few of your competitors are focusing here, it’s a real opportunity for you.
But it’s not a matter of simply starting with answering questions and then moving on to selling.
Some variations of keywords in your industry are distractions.
This is why I furrow my brow when a business owner mentions that an SEO pro told them there are “tons of keywords they aren’t ranking for.”
It’s a statement meant to sound insightful, but it offers little apart from a vague attempt at sparking fear.
No matter how powerful a site is, there are always going to be things it doesn’t rank for. And many of those keywords don’t matter.
For instance, a client of mine was once told that he was missing huge opportunities by not ranking for keywords like, “fence repair” and “sidewalk repair.” Indeed, these are terms related to home remodeling and home improvement, and would probably appear as suggestions in a keyword tool that is giving suggestions by broad topic. The search volume for them might even be solid, meaning a lot of people are looking for these each month.
Is that a missed opportunity?
No, because this client was focused entirely on larger remodeling projects like home additions, major repairs, and converting living spaces. Fence repair is more of a job for a handyman.
There is a place for a good fence repairman, but that is not a good project for this business. For my client to become concerned at the lack of rankings here, or to feel the need to focus material around it, would be a disservice to a content plan that was working well.
The Phrasing of a Search Query Also Affects Which Types of Sites Google Wants to Show, and It’s Best Not to Fight That If You Don’t Have to.
Searching for “real estate agents near me” instead shows local agents, and often much smaller sites comparatively. If you were an agent looking to flex your website for leads, it’s not to say you would never try to rank for “homes for sale” type queries.
But I know where I wouldn’t start, because if Google has already shown it prefers to show major listing sites, there’s no meaningful way I can compete in that way initially. Those sites have the same listings I do, and a ton more clout.
In this example, it’d be more advantageous for the real estate agent to focus on the service they are providing and its value so they can capture searches for an agent, and once meeting the prospect begin talking about listings. Leading with listings, for this business, would be an exercise in frustration.
Google may also show a clear preference for informational type sites for one phrasing of a topic, and storefronts for a slightly different variation.
Even the distinction between “state parks in California” and “California state parks” is surprisingly meaningful — where one shows park websites with information, and the other shows map results for quick navigation.
In that example, Google has narrowed down that it feels one type of search is a person looking for ideas, and the other is someone actively looking to go somewhere right now.
This is why we always recommend that you do a search for a topic you’re interested in ranking for, just to see what comes up. And “what comes up” means more than simply who your competitors are. In this case, observe the types of results Google is showing and make some notes. Experiment with different phrasing.
In the above example, trying to rank our map listing for a search page filled with informational results would be a waste of time, since Google has told us that’s not the answer it wants to show. And making a bunch of informational content might be equally misleading if our goal is to rank our map listing.
Some variations may be a clear priority over others. Some variations might become clear that they aren’t worth attention at all.
As you can see, there’s a lot of thought that goes into a content plan. However, as we have hopefully also illuminated, clarity in this phase makes creating the content much more systematic and efficient.
Conclusion…
Being deliberate about blogging according to a plan means more focused readership. That means lower bounce rates, easier leads — and when done well — that each piece you create systematically reinforces others.
Nothing is done just for the sake of it. Every move has meaning.
If you’d like that kind of clarity in your own content production, give us a call.