Welcome to the second episode in a five-part series based on my workbook, “How to Get 1,000 More Website Visits.” This workbook guides you through the SWEET framework, and in each episode, we’ll dive into a different section. In this episode, we’re getting into “W” in SWEET: Work on a Blog Post.
Resources
Download the Free Workbook – How to Get 1,000 More Website Visits
How to Update Your Content So Google Pays Attention
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Raw Transcript
Hello, and welcome to the small business sweet spot. I’m your host Barb Davids, and this show is dedicated to helping small business owners like you get more organic website traffic and also to help create and distribute content and analyzing the numbers so that we can make better informed marketing decisions. It is action oriented, direct, and conversational. And if you’ve been looking for SEO or content marketing help, please stick around to the very end where I share about the group coaching program, small business sweet spot. I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s go.
Hello and welcome back to the sweet spot and this very special episode where I’m going through a workbook that I created called how to get your next 1000 website visits. It’s using my sweet framework, S W E E T.
And last episode, we went over the S, which is Select Target Keywords. This episode, we’re going to go over W, work on a blog post. If you’d like to download a copy of the workbook to follow along, visit compassdigitalstrategies. com slash pdf. There’s a download there for a free copy.
There’s also a link in the show notes so that you can grab it easily. Additionally, I’ll be explaining everything. So if you just want to use paper and pen or your own digital method, you are of course welcome to do that as well.
Let’s get into the second section of this workbook, the W, which is work on a blog post. Refreshing existing content can signal to Google, Well, that your content is up to date. So let’s find a blog post to refresh. There are two ways to identify what kind of blog post or which blog posts you would like to work on.
One is using Google search console and two is just going by gut feeling, picking one that you want to work on. Here’s how to use Google Search Console to find a good candidate for updating. We’re gonna go look for a page that shows up on the second or third page of the Google search results, but doesn’t get a lot of clicks to your website.
So first, you’re gonna go into Google Search Console. Make sure that the boxes up at the top, show color for total clicks, total impressions, and average CTR. If it’s not showing color in that box, then click the box and it will toggle on. When the boxes are colored, that means that they show up in the reporting part underneath the graph that you see at the top.
Next, click Pages in the middle white area. This will show you all the pages that Google is showing to people searching and is sending traffic to your website. If you click the word Impressions in the columns, it will sort by Sort the impressions by descending order.
So it’ll go from most impressions to least impressions. Pick a page that has a high number of impressions, a CTR under 1%, and an average position between 11 and 40. You can pick the first one that shows in the list, or just go through the list and pick one that just speaks to you.
Once you’ve decided on a page to update, Let’s identify improvement opportunities. Let’s see where they could use some sprucing up. There are three areas that break down to 15 questions that we can look at, that we can look at around target keyword, where that goes on the page, image optimization, and then the guts of the page, the overall look and feel.
Question one, is the target keyword in the main headline? Logically, it would be because you’re talking about it, but something to double check. Okay. Two, is the target keyword in the URL?
Usually this is auto generated based on the headline that you enter. Three, is the target keyword in the page title? The page title is typically pulled in from your main headline. However, you do have the option to change it if you’d like to tweak it so that it looks just a little bit different on the search results.
Page
four is the target keyword in the meta description. This is the copy that shows up as a summary in the search results page. So funny story, Google doesn’t actually look at the meta description for the keyword as a ranking factor,
but if you’re thinking about it, if you’re looking at the search results page, wouldn’t you expect the target keyword to show up in that description? It’s a summary that encourages the reader to click over somebody else’s listing on the search results page.
Questions five and six. Is the target keyword in the first 100 words? And then does it appear again every two to 300 words throughout the post? As it fits naturally, of course
it’s logical that it would be because you’re talking about that topic. But this is just a helpful guideline as you’re going through the blog post to see, to make sure that the target keyword is showing and that you’re checking all the optimization boxes. Alright, let’s shift a little bit and look at the images on the page.
Many times we get images from a source and then we upload them as is without considering the file name or the size. So before uploading your image to your website. Ask the following two questions, number seven and number eight in our list. Is the target keyword in the image file name? And is it appropriately sized for the space that it’s going to be put in?
Some systems may allow you to change the file name after uploading, but more times than not, that’s only the surface level changing and it’s not actually changing the file name. And some will let you alter size, but again, it’s better to make all these image adjustments before loading them. Because if you do that after, it could add code bloat that’s behind the scenes.
Question 9. Is the target keyword mentioned in the image alternative text? The image alternative text, or more commonly known as alt text,
is used for screen readers mostly, but it can help Google understand more if you can add keyword if it fits naturally, of course, the alt text. description should first and foremost describe the image as if someone were trying to verbally describe what it is someone is looking at. A flexible guideline is about 10 words or less and then end it with a period as if you’re reading it sentence structure wise.
For the remainder of our questions, we’re going to take a look at the guts of the blog post. Question number 10 is the post at least 800 words. Now there’s a lot of controversy around this particular tactic, and here’s where I’m going to insert like a splat and asterisk disclaimer.
There is no hard rule around how many words a blog post has to be. And I’m going to say that again. There is no hard rule for how long a blog post has to be in the number of words. And here’s how I know. Because I see pages appear in the first page of Google with only a snippet of information and then a link elsewhere.
And I’ve also seen some with just slideshows and ads.
Some people will have you believe that you need to write a 2, 000 or 3, 000 word article because some random report said that those are the ones that appear on first page the most. Sure. There are those two because there are more words for Google to have context around.
So here’s how I like to approach this. I use 800 words as a bare minimum because it feels like it’s the very least number of words that feels like when I’m reading it. It’s actual substance to the article.
Articles that are 350 to 600 words just feel too surface level to me. I prefer 1200 as a guideline. Question 11. Is it clear to the reader what they should do after reading the article? Is there a clear call to action or a CTA? Send them to another article or put the contact form at the bottom. And here’s a footnote for this particular question.
You may be tempted to put a last sentence like contact me for more information and then link to your contact page.
That’s actually not an ideal CTA for two reasons. One, that’s a lazy approach to a next step. Offer what they will get if they contact you, the benefit of contacting you, or send them to another article with more information, or even a form to download, or your newsletter signup.
Anything other than always contacting you. You likely have ways to contact you all over your site, so there’s no way that they don’t know how to do that. And yes, some blog posts, this does make sense for, but for the majority of them, it does not.
The second reason why putting a sentence like that, contact me for more information, isn’t a good idea is because it throws quote SEO weight to the contact page.
If most of your page is linked to the contact page, Google is going to think that it is an important page on your website. And it’s not, it’s going to think that it’s more important than your homepage or your service page or your product page. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled questions.
Number 12, is the post easy to read with headings and subheadings and visually appealing?
Question 13, are there at least two links to external websites? Two is my preference based on a normal blog post, but do what makes sense.
It might be more, especially if you have a heavily researched topic that needs to cite more sources.
The main reason for external links is that it adds relevancy to your page for Google. You can think of this like more content for your page and for your website, but in a way that you didn’t even have to create. 14. Do links using natural language like SEO services, linking to a SEO services page, rather than just using click here.
And last but not least, question 15. Has any new information come to light that can be incorporated into your blog post?
This may involve doing a bit of research around the article’s subject. Can you include any studies, quotes, or updated research to make it more timely? If you can, consider changing the main heading and page title. And another splat here, asterisk, disclaimer. Not everything needs changing.
And one thing you shouldn’t do is delete the old post and create a new one.
New content creates a new URL, which can harm your current rank and it makes reporting harder in Google Analytics and Google Search Console because they show up as two different URLs. If you do decide creating a new URL is the right option for this particular project, be sure to include a redirection from the old URL to the new URL.
Okay, once you’ve gone through this list and decided where improvements could be made, and make them,
keep somewhere a note where the page or the keyword currently ranks, and come back and check the numbers in two weeks. Here’s the kicker. There is no absolute when it comes to when rankings can change. It can be anywhere from two weeks or right away, even to two years. Not kidding. Conjure up a strong stomach, find patience and wait. Generally speaking, I like to wait at least two weeks. And usually I’m working on so many things, it’s usually longer than that before I decide I can’t wait anymore and I’d like to try some other optimizations or changes to try and affect the rankings. That covers the W in the SWEET framework on how to get your next 1000 website visits.
Remember to download your free copy of the workbook at compassdigitalstrategies. com slash PDF. And the link is also in the show notes so that you can grab it easily. Alrighty, that is it for this episode. If you found it helpful, remember to share with your friends and leave a review. And if you’ve got any questions or future topics that you’d like to talk about, you can reach out to me over on Instagram at compassdigitalstrategies.
And stay tuned for more episodes on making your business thrive online. We’ll see you in the next sweet spot. Cheers.
Thank you for sticking around. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If you’re looking for SEO and content marketing help, consider joining the small business sweet spot. It’s a group coaching program where you can get answers to your questions about your business directly and clarity around the marketing strategies that you would like to implement in your business.
You can find all kinds of information at compassdigitalstrategies. com. And if you liked the episode, please tell a friend. Cheers.
