What good is a blog if you can't get new eyeballs seeing it? With billions of websites online, it takes a little more than great writing to get your blog discovered. Discoverability means that your blog need to be returned by search engines like Google, Bing etc preferably on the first page of results. We want to let you in on our pro tips to grow your blog viewership and be more discoverable.
Being discovered usually begins with a search on a search engine. When your readers searches online , they enter certain words and phrases into a search box. These are known as keywords. Using these keywords in your content allows search engine bots (the robots that scour the information on the internet and categorise it) to match your content to the searched keywords and return your blog page in search results.
1. Get the right topics and content.
Research is a very important step in blogging and identifying topics to write about in your content. Good and in-depth research will help you identify what your audience's interests are and churn out content that will be meaningful for them. It will also helps you identify trends, techniques and content gaps that you can leverage to stay relevant. What that means is: your research should be a healthy mix of competitor research and keyword research.
Just because keywords help your page get returned doesn't mean that your blog should be loaded with keywords. The bots will detect your keyword stuffing and your blog will be penalised. As a rule, write for humans. Keep your posts readable and include your keywords in your article very organically.
2. Employ SEO basics in your blog posts
After identifying topics and keywords, you need to place the main ones strategically in your article: in the title, in the blogpost URL, in your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) description (the "summary" text that gets presented in the search results), and in the first paragraph of your post.
3. Plan how you structure your content
It's very important to make your blogpost readable - for both the humans and the bots. When writing for humans, formatting is everything. Break your prose with headings, into paragraphs, with bullets etc. In the background, be sure to give your titles HTML tags - H1, H2...H6 to tell search engines the hierarchy of your text.
4. Take advantage of internal linking
When the bots crawl your blog content, you can help them find your other posts. In addition to that, you will also be letting your readers know that they can get more related information on the topic in question on a related post. That means more clicks!
5. Add Alt Text to all your images
Giving your images some context for search engines is great. You can do this by including alt-texts. It allows them to also be indexed. As you right your alt-text, keep in mind your keywords.
6. Make your blog mobile friendly
People all over the world are consuming data on the go, specifically on mobile . That means that your blog needs to be readable on any device. Sites that are mobile-friendly get indexing priority.
7. Post regularly and frequently
A blog is one of the best ways to rank higher on search engines. With the right keywords, new and fresh content fresh shared regularly, you are sure to grow your viewership and ranking. Make a content plan to ensure that you keep the good and intentional content churned out.
8. Amplify on social media
Leverage on your networks to grow your viewership. Share your blogposts on social media with your followers.
As a bonus, consider having guest contributors publishing on your blog. When they write, they are likely to share it with their networks too. That means more clicks!
Also, contributing on other bloggers' sites can help you grow your following if they enjoy your material.
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