If you have done any research on web marketing in the last 10 years or so, you have probably heard that blogging can be a great addition to your practice’s online marketing toolbox. And that’s true!
While blogging sounds easy enough, however, it should not be started without a true plan or strategy. It can be a simple and robust part of your online marketing, but like any other part of your marketing plan, you should have a strategy mapped out and in place for your blog.
One powerful way to harness the opportunities that come with blogging is to use keywords in your blogging strategy. Here are a few easy tips to get you started on creating your own blogging keyword strategy:
- Understand what keywords really are.
Your blog can gain more traffic when people from search engines like Google find your blog and read your posts. To acquire this type of search engine traffic, your blog needs to include keywords. These keywords are the search queries that are typed (or spoken) to a search engine, such as Google. Basically, the keyword is the “question” the searcher is asking. Your job is to provide the answer in your blog.
- Select specific keywords to target in your blog article.
One of the best ways to choose keywords to use in your blogging is to consider what types of questions your ideal audience will be asking. To do this, you need to have an idea of who your ideal audience is (such as a typical new patient). Think about what someone might be searching for when they find your blog and what answers they need. As a hearing professional, some important keywords might be centered on terms like “hearing loss,” “hearing aids,” “hearing health care,” and so on.
When selecting your keywords, you can also use online tools that evaluate keywords, suggest similar ones, and display each keyword’s “difficulty score.” If your blog is relatively new, it is probably best to aim for keywords with a lower difficulty score.
- Incorporate your chosen keywords in your blogging.
Back when search engines were fairly new, all you needed to do to rank for a certain keyword was to use it many times on your page. However, those days are over. Google and other search engines are smarter now, and they have developed ways to assess not only whether you include certain keywords in your blog, but also how well you actually answer the question that the keyword poses.
So, to make sure your blog ranks well on search engine results pages, focus more on answering the question than simply repeating the keyword. One useful way to think about this is to search for existing pages that currently rank well for a keyword you would like to target, and then think about how you could make your own page better than that one.
With these simple tips, you are well on your way to effectively using keywords in your blogging strategy.
As a bonus, here a few more ways to make sure your blog is a success:
- Be consistent. Do not start and stop blogging. Publish new articles on a regular schedule (even just once or twice a week), and do not allow your blog to go dormant.
- Make sure each blog article has a certain number of words. This number is up to you. In recent years, marketing research has shown that longer blog articles (think 1,800 words or more) tend to do better in search engine results. However, many blogs still rank well with 500-800 words per article.
- Include images. Very few people want to click on a link for a blog article and be hit with a wall of text. Break up the text with relevant images for some visual variety.
- Encourage interaction. Invite your readers to leave comments or connect with you on social media. When you do receive comments or messages, be sure to reply to them. You want people to engage with your blog, and therefore your practice.
For more great information about how to make your blogging strategy a success, we encourage you to contact AudiologyPlus today.
