Did you know that there are more than 30 million small businesses in the United States? This means for you that no matter your industry, you have a lot of competition.

In order to stand out from the crowd, you need to have a well-developed marketing strategy. But for many businesses, this can be easier said than done.

There are so many different marketing tactics out there, and they can feel overwhelming and too expensive.

That’s why you should consider doing whatever you can to dominate the free channels, like blogging and SEO. To help you take advantage of this amazing marketing opportunity, known as content marketing, we’ve put together this guide outlining the important do’s and don’ts.

Keep reading to learn more.

Do Create a Strategy

This the foundational aspect of every marketing plan: having a solid strategy.

If you don’t have this, you will flounder. You will not be as successful as you could have been.

On the other hand, developing and implementing a robust strategy will set you up for great success. Start by thinking about your goals. What do you want to accomplish from your blogging and SEO efforts?

Then decide what types of content you will produce and create a publishing calendar. Next, create a writing plan. Who will author your posts, and what will your company voice sound like?

Lastly, it’s time to implement. And keep in mind that as time goes on, it’s okay and even a good idea to adjust your strategy as you continue to gather data and learnings.

Then decide what types of content you will produce and create a publishing calendar. Next, create a writing plan. Who will author your posts, and what will your company voice sound like?

Lastly, it’s time to implement. And keep in mind that as time goes on, it’s okay and even a good idea to adjust your strategy as you continue to gather data and learnings.

Developing and implementing a robust strategy will set you up for great success.

Do Keyword Research

Next, be sure to perform keyword research as you’re going about your content marketing efforts. Don’t just publish a blog post for the fun of it. Instead, spend some time before writing looking at the trends on Google.

What are people searching for? How do they phrase it? How much search volume is there around certain keywords?

Also, try to pick a topic that people are talking about lately or something that is trending. A great idea is to look for a hot-topic issue that will be relevant to the times and potentially searched for.

Once you know this, you’ll be able to include this information in your blog posts, increasing the chances that they rank well in Google. And this will lead to more traffic to your site, better brand awareness, and more leads and sales.

Do Use the Right Tools

If you’re new to the world of blogging and SEO, it may feel intimidating. You may be wondering:

• How are you supposed to do keyword research?
• How will you know what to write about?
• How will you publish a blog that loads quickly and does well in the eyes of Google?

The good news is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are lots of excellent tools out there that can help you accomplish your goals.

Here are some of our favorites.

First, Google Analytics. This is a free software that allows you to track all kinds of data on your website.

Want to know how many visitors you’ve had this month on an individual post or where all of your traffic came from? You got it.

Also, look into Ahrefs. This is an awesome tool that can show you keyword data for literally any search term.

Another potential tool is Screaming Frog. This tool can crawl your site for you, letting you know of any SEO issues you should fix.

Google Analytics, Screaming Frog and Ahrefs are all great tools that can help you accomplish your SEO goals.

There are also lots of great tools that can help you from an SEO perspective. These can help you do keyword research, brainstorm blog post ideas, and get insight into your competitors’ blogging efforts.

Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew

When you’re investing time in content marketing, it’s easy to discover lots of opportunities. It’s an area of marketing with countless possibilities. And this is exciting!

But it’s also easy for this to become overwhelming. It’s tempting to bite off more than you can chew.

The better strategy is to start slow. Publish one article a week. Then in the future, you can ramp up your publishing schedule.

Each article you write takes time. You want to do detailed keyword research, learn more about the topic, write an interesting article, and make sure you include all the necessary keywords. It’s a lot.

Start by focusing on quality over quantity, and remember that you can increase your efforts as time goes on.

Remember that you can increase your efforts as time goes on. You can grow with time. Start by focusing on quality over quantity, and you’ll see great success.

Don’t Keyword Stuff

Speaking of keywords, there’s an important distinction to make here when it comes to blogging and SEO benefits. Yes, it’s absolutely necessary to include relevant keywords throughout your article. But what you shouldn’t do is add it too much.

This is a strategy known as keyword stuffing, and it’s a bad idea. For example, if the keyword you’re targeting is garden supplies, you shouldn’t include it 40 times in a 500-word article. That is unreadable.
Google will also penalize sites that keyword stuff. This is because their goal is to provide searchers will relevant, engaging content. If your post is only created for SEO and does not provide value, it won’t rank well.

Instead, your keywords should be included naturally.

Think of how you would speak. This will help you incorporate keywords without interrupting the flow of the content.

Don’t Forget to Review Performance

Last but not least, let’s address one of the biggest SEO and blog mistakes: not reviewing performance.

Often, companies get into a schedule of brainstorming content, writing, and publishing, then starting the process over again. And what they forget to do is take time to analyze the results of their efforts.

Instead, you should regularly review the performance of your content marketing efforts. Look at your website traffic, leads, and sales.

Also, look at which marketing channels generate the most traffic, leads, and sales. Another thing to consider is which types of blog posts performed the best.

You should regularly review the performance of your content marketing efforts. That way, you can take your learnings and make relevant changes to improve your future efforts.

It may be a good idea to have a report template that you use each quarter to update the team on your latest metrics. That way, you can take your learnings and make relevant changes to improve your future efforts.

Blogging and SEO: Final Thoughts

There you have it: the do’s and don’ts of blogging and SEO. Now it’s time to make a plan for your business and put it into practice.

Have more questions? Contact our team today.

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