Content is king when it comes to making a name for your brand. The more high-quality content you create, the more likely your target audience will find you. But what makes it possible for consumers to see–and click on—your carefully crafted content?
Search engine optimization, or SEO.
Hardly anyone these days looks past page one of Google or other search engines for solutions, so it’s critical for your business to secure visibility in at least one placement within the first 10 spaces of a search page. This is where SEO comes in.
What is SEO?
SEO helps make your content more visible by using important keywords, relevant topic headings, and information that most readers will find relevant—all of which you must ensure is present and clear in your content.
That translates to higher traffic, increased clicks, and more opportunities to convert prospects into long-standing customers. While relying on B2B SEO too much can result in adverse effects when marketers rely on tactics like keyword stuffing (which algorithms recognize and punish sites for), it’s an important consideration when creating content that you want to reach the best audience for your brand.
So how can your business benefit from search engine optimization? Not all SEO best practices are created equally. Before optimizing your content to draw more eyes to your business, you must understand the two categories of search engine optimization.
Related reading: 10 Simple Ways to Use SEO to Amplify PR Hits in 2023
The SEO Difference: Website Pages vs. Blog Posts
Despite the fundamentals of SEO remaining the same, there are important differences between SEO for blog posts and website SEO. On-site optimization is highly focused on keywords, as it’s intended to drive relevant, convertible traffic to your website.
Blog posts, on the other hand, are used to support those pages with a broader collection of keywords and a wealth of links pointing to similar and relevant articles and pages on the site.
SEO for Website Pages
The foundation of a website is the individual web pages organized into a logical structure. A site’s domain authority can impact rankings; however, Google and other search engines prefer to rank individual pages rather than entire sites.
The pages that can affect your search engine ranking the most are considered the “core” pages of a business website—home, career, about, contact, services, and any other pages commonly seen on a site. They contain light, static content but acquire many links, especially the home page. For that reason, website pages can rank for individual phrases that are reasonably competitive. Using the focus keyword on the page, including it in the page’s URL, and including it in the page’s title are all standard SEO practice.
Web page SEO focuses on optimizing the B2B content you have control over and can change on your own website. Where your website appears in search engine results is determined by several ranking factors, including site accessibility, page speed, optimized content, keywords, title tags, and so on. For the best chances of positioning your website in the top placements of a search page, try this optimization checklist:
- Title tags: Put your targeted keywords in the title tag of each page on your site. Limit your title tags to 55 to 60 characters (including spaces)
- Headings (H1): As the most prominent words on the page, consider working your target keywords into the header of each page, but make sure you accurately reflect the page’s content.
- URL structure: Include keywords in your URLs if possible. (But don’t go changing all of your current URLs so they have keywords. This can actually be harmful to SEO.)
- Alt text for images: Accurately describe any images on your page by filling out the alt text for each, and include keywords if they’re relevant. This will help search engines better understand your page’s content.
- Loading speed: Consumers want to find what they’re looking for as fast as possible. Optimizing your pages to load quickly by ensuring your image size is neither too big nor too small will reduce your bounce rate and keep customers coming back.
- Mobile friendliness: Mobile-friendly websites can boost your sales and conversions because of ease of accessibility that surrounds the site’s design. According to Statista, in 2021 mobile searches made up 63% of organic web visits—so mobile is something you can’t afford to ignore.
- Security: The security of a website is also a considerable checklist for SEO purpose also. In this regard, HTTPS aka SSL certificate is an essential security for your website. So, a site holder should buy SSL certificate & Install it on the website for better search ranking and site security as well.
- Page content: The content on your pages needs to be useful, easy to read, and provide value to the end user.
- Internal linking: Linking internally to other pages on your website is useful to visitors, and it is also useful to search engines.
- Social tags: When users share your content on social media, it lets Google know that people find your content relevant, helpful, and reputable. Not every page on your site is share-worthy, but you can optimize pages by including “tweet this quote” links or social share buttons for each post.
- Core web vitals: An initiative introduced by Google in 2020. Core Web Vitals allow businesses and marketers to measure how well their websites provide a remarkable user experience. Through a standard set of signals Google deems “critical” to all users’ web experiences, marketers can identify opportunities to improve their sites and, ultimately, their customers’ experience. Common core user experience needs include loading experience, interactivity, and visual stability of page content.
Related reading: SEO Trends and Insights Every Marketer Needs to Know for 2023
SEO Blog Posting
Blog posts often answer frequently asked questions, announce upcoming events, or share industry trends. In contrast to web pages, blogs are one-page pieces of information with an article-like structure that can include videos and graphics, which may impact search engine rankings. Despite that, the text remains the most essential component of SEO. They’re almost always ordered in chronological order, with the most recent being at the top. Blog posts can also be used for content that needs to be categorized and tagged to make sense of a large number of individual entries.
One of the biggest contributors to your site’s SEO is the number and quality of backlinks—links on other websites, blogs, etc.—that lead to your website. Some examples of ways you can build links to your website are:
- Creating valuable content that people want to link to.
- Boosting social media shares of your content.
- Working with B2B influencers in your industry who can link back to you.
- Guest blogging on sites related to yours. These guest posts will have links back to your site.
Blog posts usually won’t be able to rank for head terms, but they frequently rank for long-tail keywords or highly specific phrases that won’t show a search volume in the traditional search tools. Because Google must still show results, it will include content with related terms, helping you appear for that and other unique searches.
Keyword Research for Blog Posts
Researching keywords is one of the first steps in creating content. Keyword research for blog posts must be specific if you want to find the less competitive, longer search terms on specific topics. Semantically related terms are also important. Here’s how you can get started with your research:
- Start with a topic.
- Make a list of your potential target audiences.
- Make another list of your keywords and related keywords.
- See what your competitors are doing.
- Do a Google search for relevant terms and phrases.
- Analyze your keywords’ competition.
- Make a timeline for when you want your content completed.
Keyword Research for Website Pages
Just as it is important for blog posts, finding out which keywords to use on your website pages is crucial to rank it higher on the search results page. First, you must create a list of relevant topics for your business. These can be broader and generic topic buckets—they should capture traffic for branded search and key general head terms. What do you want to be ranked for?
Next, create a list of related keywords for each topic bucket. After this, you need to analyze your list to understand the user intent and search volumes. Then, you’ll need to research related search terms. These steps will help you identify what keywords you should prioritize for your website.
Which Is More Important?
If you want continuous traffic from search engines, you’ll have to invest time and effort into your SEO practices. Website SEO and blog post SEO are complementary marketing tactics and should be used synchronistically.
To provide the most value, identify what your audience cares about first and tackle SEO second. But if you wait too long to prioritize your brand’s SEO efforts, your competitor could gain a new customer—or you could lose one.
If you need help setting up your SEO strategy, contact us for a few more tips! We’re always here to help.
