It would go against everything you learned about writing in school, wouldn’t it? 

You learned about using a hook, literary devices that improved the flavor of the writing, and being creative with the structure of writing, to attract and engage readers. 

But if we practice these things consistently, even if we don’t always use the same devices or vocabulary, isn’t that a practice in scientific repeatability? 

The point is, there is a science to blogging. You can call it creative writing if you want, but there’s a method to this. 

Let’s break it down to the details. 

“Teach Me How to Blog”

To talk about the science of blogging, we need to cover a few basic principles that are necessary to build and then subsequently run a successful blog. Here are some of the most important maxims relevant to blogging. 

Know Thyself and Thy Subject 

Before you can decide on the type of blog you want to run, you need to know your own strengths. 

For instance, don’t plan on writing a killer blog teaching people how to play music if you can’t do so yourself. Don’t expect to pass as a proficient collector of military history if you lack experience and education in that sphere, either. 

The best approach is a natural approach. Don’t see dollar signs and let that drive your decision making. Many markets can be lucrative but that doesn’t mean you have the experience to capitalize on them. That’s just the cold hard truth. Blogging requires experience and demonstrable proficiency. 

So to keep this as basic as possible, pick something you know a lot about. Something you can write about, and lend opinions on, in such a manner that you feel comfortable doing so. 

Know Thine Audience 

The good thing about blogging is there are no hard rules. The bad thing about blogging is there are no hard rules. 

If you want to write about digital marketing one day and fashion trends the next, no one is going to stop you.

But you will confuse search engines, you will likely confuse readers, and you will most likely not cultivate a strong brand.

The thing is, you need not only to be aware of, but respectful of, what your audience wants to read. If you get started writing op-eds on current events and pivot to recipes, you’re going to lose readers. 

Therefore you need to be sensitive to the tastes, preferences and even prejudices of your readers and honor them accordingly. Rebranding may be possible but it will cost you. 

One other aspect of knowing your audience is being aware of opportunities for material.

Say you run a cooking blog.  Maybe for the most part your readers will want recipes, but every now and then there might be an opportunity for an informative piece on the history of a specific dish or ingredient. 

Or perhaps, you can exercise some flexibility and publish about cocktails every now and again. 

My point is there’s always opportunity. While you’ll want to be consistent with the material you cover, recognize that there are always different angles you can take, and one single idea or topic can yield countless actual blog posts.

Consistency Is Key 

If you launch a domain and start a blog website and after creating the website only publish once per month, don’t expect to get anywhere, at least not fast. 

Consistency is one of the most important aspects of blogging, and if you plan to grow through social media marketing or an email list (not through SEO) you really need to give readers something to work with. 

A good rule of thumb is to publish once per week at a bare minimum. It’s better to publish twice to three times per week, and some hardcore bloggers do so every single day. 

That’s a big ask, to be fair, but if you expect growth, you need to keep readers interested. 

Of course if your goal is slow growth through evergreen copy and SEO, you can disregard the urgency to publish frequency – with the caveat that it is still better to publish frequently than to be inconsistent about the whole affair.

Data and Reference 

While it is the case that original information performs well on the internet because it is an inherent authority unto itself (if what you’re writing original, you are the source; there’s nothing else for you to cite) in all other cases, making references and including links can be a good thing, not a bad thing. 

There are some SEO experts that would tell you to eschew external links but I am not one of them. Yes, it is true that outbound links transfer authority away from your website, but this only hurts your website if you’re linking away for information that is contained in your post. 

If your outbound link only corroborates a claim you make or a figure, then the link will actually validate your extrapolation or interpretation of that data. So, ultimately, if you can corroborate what you publish with data, links to, or references of other publications, that will increase your credibility rather than harming your efforts. 

The Science of SEO

For what it’s worth, there’s a little science to SEO, too. In this respect, what I’m referencing is how to format and structure the post for best results in the search engine, or, if your post is lucky, as a part of the search generative experience (SGE). 

I’ve posted about this numerous times and it’s information that’s also readily available on the internet, so I won’t burn too much space with it here. To be as brief as possible: 

• Include the main target keywords for which you want the post to rank in the title of the post. 

• Include main target keywords in your headers as necessary.

• Try to answer questions in the headers. 

• Write using concise, short, pointed sentences where possible. 

• Write your own meta descriptions.

• Enrich images with alt text and captions that answer queries and contain target keywords. 

• Compress images so they don’t slow the post down.

• Bullet digestible information as and where possible.

This is a very high level view of how to “do SEO.” For a more detailed breakdown, see my recent post, How to Structure a Blog Post for Best SEO Results. 

A Picture Tells a Thousand Words

High-quality imagery is also a must for successful blogs, and this couldn’t be about the science of blogging without addressing some aspect of the visual component of blogs. 

Here’s the deal. Your blog posts may derive the vast bulk of their value from your written word, but for better or worse, blogs are not just all about language. They are also about visuals. 

 My best advice for you is to take your own photography and make it relevant to the post. That ensures originality and you can optimize the images you like. Also, compress them before uploading to avoid slowing down your website. 

I’ve read (and heard it said) that stock photography can be used to run a successful blog, and that may be true, but my personal experience is that original images perform better, and also see a better chance of ranking independently in the “Google Image” search. 

Now, if you can’t take your own pictures, and aren’t willing to use stock photography, consider using an image generator. There are plenty of AI models out there that will do so and can make (somewhat) serviceable images for your blogs. That route is likely better than using stock photography.

The Proverbial Hook 

There’s one thing that pretty much all successful posts share in common. They attract, and then ensnare, attention.

In school, you may have learned this as a “hook” that writers use to attract attention and hold onto it. It could be an enticing opening line or a bit of bait in the first paragraph of a post that makes readers want to continue. 

It doesn’t have to be your first line, but it does need to be initial. In fact, it could be your title. You’ve heard titles called “clickbait.” Well, a good title won’t just command a click, it will deliver on the bait that it used to attract attention in the first place. 

But my point is this: good writing uses flavor and intrigue to keep readers engaged, and it starts with the strong opening salvo, whether it’s the opening line or the title. You can’t expect readers to stick around if you can’t even get their attention from the start. 

The Seasoning of Science Blogging

Now, once you’re into the meat and potatoes of your post, as we are here, it is important to remember that good writing is less often than not, formulaic. 

There is a time and place for technical writing and it is not usually blogging. Blogging can be scientific but the self-defeating realization of that is that “the science of blogging” often entails very precisely honed artistic acumen. 

My point? Use literary devices to add sweetness and savor to your diction. Personify your words till they loom larger than life. Don’t be afraid to let loose with the metaphors (similes?) till your writing seethes with motion like a boiling sea. Practice prideful pronunciation, proliferation, promulgation and proponency of your consonance. Let the liquor of language wet your lust for knowledge like the sweet nectar of revelation. Engage metonym and allusion and hyperbole and synecdoche and euphemism and juxtaposition and…polysyndeton. 

Have fun with it. There may be a “science of blogging” but it doesn’t have to be boring. 

Maybe Science Blogging Is More Art Than Science 

All in all, these are the rules according to the “science of blogging.” Know your audience, know your subject, know your own strengths as a writer, follow a few SEO best practices, and have fun writing. That’s basically what it boils down to – and remember, sometimes, science is more art than science. 

The post The Science of Blogging appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

The long and short of it is this: quality content will rank in time and generate views, whereas a thin, watery post that is structured according to SEO maxims will ultimately fall off the map. 

But a post that has good information and is structured properly? That is a thing of beauty. 

So if you got here looking for how to structure a blog post for best SEO results, here’s your primer. 

The Title 

While lots of ranking factors are important, if I had to assign a single most important one, I might say the blog title. 

This title is your one prime opportunity to let Google and search engines know exactly and succinctly what the purpose of the blog is. 

Shorter and to the point is better for SEO and probably for UX, too, so state your blog’s purpose as briefly and directly as you can.

If you have a target keyword in mind, include a perfect match of that in the title. If not, just be as concise as possible. 

Refer to the title of this post for inspiration. I took no poetic license. It won’t win me a Pulitzer Prize but “How to Structure a Blog Post for Best SEO Results” definitely sets a high bar for “what is this blog going to tell me about,” and there’s no arguing there. 

It just so happens that the title is a chance to get readers’ attention and vie for clicks, too, so keep that in mind. 

The Page Subsections 

Once you have a title squared away, try to break up your blog post according to digestible sections that are relevant to the subject matter, sort of like I’ve done here. 

You see, if you want to know how to structure a blog post for best SEO results, some things you’ll have to know how to do are how to optimize the title, page subsections, meta data, and a few other things. 

Now scroll through this post and see what my page subheaders are. See what I did there? You need to do the same thing. Break it out into steps if you can, and make each step its own subsection if you’re doing a how-to. 

One more thing: use header tags, and add them in manually if your page editor won’t do it for you. I mean <h2> and <h3> tags. Google scrapes pages looking for these as it indexes a page because it looks at the header tags for context relevant to the page. 

To Bullet or Not to Bullet 

Not every piece of content in the world lends itself to “bulletization,” and that’s just a fact. News articles, for instance, don’t generally yield good bullets. 

But a post like this? I could bullet the information in here. Let’s give it a go. Here’s the bulleted information for how to structure a blog post for best SEO results:

• Optimize your blog post title with exact match keywords

• Use H2 tags in your headers 

• Bullet information where possible

• Compress images and optimize with alt data

• Add keywords into your URL slug if possible when creating the page 

• Add a meta description for the blog after you write it 

• Add internal links from existing pages to the new post to boost authority 

• Answer as many user queries as possible, if they are relevant to the post subject matter 

Well, the proof is in the pudding there. This just happens to be a topic that can be summarized well through bullets, so it worked for me. It may for you, depending on what you’re writing about. 

Another thing: to a computer, bullets are code, and Google’s algorithm “understands” that bullets are used to concisely convey information. There’s a good chance that bulleted information increases the likelihood that your post will get a featured snippet, show up in the Google AI Overview, or in other search features. 

Image Optimization

Image optimization is another important area of blog structure that will impact performance, though it will mainly impact the post’s rankings in the “Image” section of the search results. 

This is something I covered fully in a recent post, “How to Get Images to Rank (Image Optimization Guide)”. Ultimately, it comes down to compressing images to increase page load speeds, and then adding alt text – plus a few other small things. 

Check that previous post for an easy to follow, step-by-step guide on getting images to rank, as this will impact SEO results. 

URL Optimization 

In my personal experience, this is probably the ranking factor with the most insignificant amount of pull when it comes to how to structure a blog post for best SEO results. Nonetheless, it is technically a ranking factor, so it behooves me to say a word or two on it.

For my own purposes, I generally just title blogs so that the URL slug is whatever the blog post title is. If your post title is optimized, your URL slug will then automatically be optimized, too, especially if you’re using WordPress. 

If your editor lets you make granular adjustments to the page URL slug, make sure you customize them before the page goes live, because if you change the URL slug ex post facto, then anywhere there’s a link on the web to that post, you just created a 404 on your website – and that is not good for SEO.

Meta Descriptions 

Meta descriptions, like URL slugs, are not a huge deal, and Google will automatically generate them from the text on the page if you haven’t specifically written and assigned one.

With that said, meta descriptions are a small ranking signal and they can affect click-through rates, so it’s in your best interest to write your own, include any keywords for which you want the page to rank, and say something to entice any viewers to click and read. 

A Note on Internal Linking

You may have heard it said 1000 times that links are important for SEO. Well, it’s true, and if you’re looking for how to structure a blog post for SEO results I have a hack that can help get your new post to show up in the search engine results pages faster than it would have otherwise. 

If you’re posting on a domain where you have editor access, and other posts you’ve already published, include a link from one of your posts that’s already ranking, so that it sends traffic to this new page. 

A link from an old performer to a new post tells search engines like Google that a “respectable” piece of content views a “new” piece of content as an authority, and may get it to show up higher in the SERPs than it would without the link. No need to thank me!

The Use of Bolding

Way back when (like 6 years ago, an eternity in digital marketing) when Google’s algorithm was a much simpler thing, SEO experts used to bold keywords and important search terms in their copy. 

Google would see that bold tag, go straight to that phrase, and then see that the keyword was embedded in it. That was like a double whammy (in a good way) and Google would be like “Wow, this page is really an authority on this keyword, better put it right at the top of the SERPs.”

Over time, this practice has fallen off as SEO “experts” have increasingly relied on this tactic to get copy to rank, which has resulted in a net increase of nonsense on the internet. And now, today, bolding doesn’t really matter as much as it used to. 

But it doesn’t hurt, either. What I did there was bold a piece of important information that, even though it doesn’t contain any important target keywords, is relevant to the query posed by this section. 

You may also notice that I bolded my bullets, above. It adds a little bit of emphasis, which doesn’t hurt and might help. It certainly affects the user experience, and arrests attention, and since time on page is officially a ranking signal, getting users to stop and stare doesn’t hurt me, it does help. 

So the takeaway here is that bolding keywords can’t be relied on as a strategy in its own right to get a piece of content to rank, but using bolding sparingly to emphasize important nuggets of information can be beneficial to blog structure. Notice that part is also bolded. So take that for what it’s worth. 

Large Paragraphs or Single Sentences?

A debate has been raging in SEO central since time immemorial: is it better to write walls of text or publish really short, one-sentence “paragraphs.” 

Honestly, it really depends. 

If you’re writing a study and publishing it to a scientific journal, you definitely want to follow accepted guidelines that generally dictate that one paragraph should propose and answer a single, small thesis. You can’t do that in one sentence. 

At the same time, we are writing for people to read what we publish. Most readers have short attention spans and skim, rather than read, entirely articles. 

It is this latter part that makes “short and sweet” paragraph structure appealing to search engines. 

Really, consider your audience. If you’re writing a recipe or a fashion listicle, keep it short. If you’re submitting to an accredited news organization or a medical journal, follow MLA or APA guidelines for paragraph structure, or whichever else applies to your publisher. 

Long or Short?

Another serious debate in the world of SEO has been whether or not long, exhaustive articles, or short nuggets of information were better. 

The answer is yes. 

I mean to say, they’re both excellent. What matters here is search intent. 

If a user looks up a post on “how to tie shoelaces” a 500-word post with pictures and captions is likely going to outperform a 10,000 word behemoth of an article that not only covers how to tie laces but also every different pattern and profile of boot and shoe. 

On the flipside, if you look up a “guide to the different styles of dress shoes” you’re probably going to get a lot of long posts in the search results. 

Again, it’s all about what people are looking for. There are some short posts that rank very well, and also many long ones. The only right answer here is this: think about the information relevant to your target audience, cover it thoroughly, and be done. 

If that requires 400 words, that’s all you need, seriously. But if you end up with a 7,000 word banger, that’s also good, as long as there’s no fluff. 

Blogs (or Other Content Creation) as an Immutable Component of Effective SEO

At the end of the day, if I had to give suggestions this granular for technical SEO, I’d pull my hair out. That’s only partly because I’m a copywriter. The main reason is that content is the definitive pillar of SEO. 

I can say confidently, and without exaggeration, that I’ve seen websites with a domain authority of zero hit page one with optimized content alone – without any technical SEO, without any backlink strategy, and without any keyword research. 

That is how important content is, and why it’s so important to understand what you need to do in order to get a blog (or other page) to rank organically. If you can, everything else related to search engine optimization will fall into place.

The post How to Structure a Blog Post for Best SEO Results appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

While this particular client is not laboring under the restrictions of some of our other clients that cannot leverage paid search or social marketing to their advantage, there were unique hurdles to clear here. 

Here’s how we did it and what the aftereffects were. 

The Client and Industry

This client is one that specializes in selling high-end, luxury fashion items – notably, dresses to be used for memorable occasions like high school homecoming, cotillion, and promenade dances. 

They are expensive, unique, and subject to the whims and vagaries of the fashion market. What’s popular one season might experience an even more meteoric rise the next – or it might fall out of common parlance like a byword. 

While there might be plenty of search volume associated with a particular keyword or fashion trend, what’s in this month might be wiped off the map next – which presents unique challenges for eCommerce SEO.

The thing about SEO is that it usually takes a long time, a year or more, to start generating appreciable results. The problem there is how to identify keywords and search terms that will be popular – or are more likely to be popular – in a year’s time?

That is – how do we find the evergreen keywords? In an industry like this, there are precious few. 

Despite the lack of technical challenges in this industry, the unique circumstances surrounding the industry made it particularly difficult to settle on a coherent fashion SEO strategy. 

The two keys to success here were keyword research and the copy.

Special Considerations 

The strategy we ultimately settled on was one that was custom tailored for this client and its unique considerations. 

Namely, we bifurcated our strategy to create two main larger groups of target keywords. One large group consisted of high-volume, short-tail keywords that should in theory be evergreen – even in the fashion industry. 

The other was much more closely targeted and aligned with specific fashion trends and even fads. This approach enabled us to create a unique cultivated approach that would leverage the long-term benefits of SEO in multiple ways, despite the inherent risks associated with shifting consumer preferences. 

Here’s why. 

The one cohort of search terms and keywords was sufficiently broad that, even if and when trends shift, it will still bring them visibility for those general clusters, expressly because of their nonspecificity. 

For instance – take the keywords “prom dresses” and “evening gowns.” These two keywords are non-targeted according to trend, only according to event. This enabled us to build authority for this client for those event-related keywords without getting too specific. 

They’re also general enough that they offer us the flexibility to use those keywords in much more specific pieces that actually do follow the current trends. 

Presumably, “prom dresses” and “evening gowns” will still be in demand in five or even ten years, even when the trends shift – and this approach has enabled us to position this client with perfect precision. 

The other prong of this strategy was one that focused on much more targeted search terms – like “red prom dresses” and “Cinderella prom dresses.” It’s a lot riskier and the volume associated with these keywords could shift dramatically from month to month, but it’s a winning approach nonetheless. 

Let’s say we hit the mark and red prom dresses are popular this year (or next year). By leveraging content focusing on those keywords, the client will be perfectly positioned, and get the visibility and traffic right when they need it. 

Now let’s say that keyword flops this year and for the next few. At some point, red prom dresses will be back in – and at that point, the client will have all the authority they need, plus historical content, to compete for it.

So it’s basically a win-win, even though it’s a very long-term strategy that isn’t guaranteed to bear fruit in the short term. Either way, it worked, as substantiated by increases in organic metrics. 

The Role of Targeted and Optimized Content 

Secondary to the bifurcated keyword strategy aforementioned was the role of high-quality, engaging content in this campaign. 

Our copywriters had to take some time to get familiar with the client’s vertical and then compare notes with the copy being published by other industry competitors, especially those with high organic rankings for the desired target keywords.

From there they could back-form a content strategy that would outperform the best work of their competitors, outpacing their visibility in the search engines. 

Without giving away any secrets about the topics and trends they covered in the content stream for this campaign, suffice it to say that standard “SEO” copy would not cut it. 

This copy had to be more akin to content marketing copy that was specifically optimized not only for the user experience but also according to SEO best practices. 

Addressing popular trends in prom styles and fashion, as well as trends in dress design, as they became ascendant, was the only way to generate authority, and therefore visibility, for this client. 

Which is precisely what our copywriters did – and in time, the results showed. 

The Results 

Probably the best indicator of success for this client has been the positive movements in some of their target keywords, as you can see below. 

Many of their target keywords, as you can see, are in the page one, spot one position, which is largely the cumulative result over the better part of the last two years.

Google Search Console also tells a compelling tale. While we can’t see back all the way to the beginning of the campaign (GSC only lets you look back 16 months), you can see that there has been positive growth in both impressions and clicks over that time period, particularly in the latter few months. 

This is even more considerable when you weigh the reason for it; this is a seasonal spike directly associated with the prom-related keywords we’ve made targets for this campaign. The spike is not aberrant; it is by design. 

All of this is to suggest that, in a word, our industry-specific fashion SEO services are highly effective when paired with a unique strategy that is tailored to meet the needs of the client in question.

Industry-Focused SEO Services That Perform 

These are the sorts of results that data-driven, strategic eCommerce SEO services deliver for clients, even though in extremely competitive industries. If you’re operating in the fashion industry and are wondering how SEO services can benefit your business, get in touch with our SEO experts for more information. 

The post Fashion SEO and Organic Successes: A Case Study appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

But mostly, I’ve learned about copywriting; what works and what doesn’t work, and how to get my work to perform. The vast, overwhelming majority of my work gets posted to websites with low domain authority scores that don’t focus on the UX afforded by the blogs. 

Which means the work rests squarely on me to generate traffic for those blogs. I need to find the keywords, search terms, and topics that are associated with genuine interest, convince Google to index and rank those posts favorably, and then, to get a live reader to click on my result and actually read the post. 

Sometimes it flops. And sometimes I write a post so good it gets thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of views per month. 

Here’s just about every little thing – call them copywriting hacks, if you will – that I’ve learned about how to get content to rank and get readers to show interest in my writing. 

Forget What You’ve Heard About AI 

AI is increasingly being leveraged by digital marketers, as well as by mediocre copywriters, because it is allegedly a panacea for all of creation’s woes. 

It is not. Granted, I have used and benefited from AI in the past but I have still not encountered a model that is effective at drafting copy that will perform. 

What AI does well is formatting; you can ask it to structure a blog and it will knock it out of the park. What it fails to do is get the information right. 

The problem, so far as I can see it, has nothing to do with “tone,” or “warmth,” although those are things commonly cited as issues with AI. Quite the contrary, large language models are becoming increasingly and convincingly realistic.

The issue is that it hallucinates. I’ve asked AI some pretty basic questions and been downright alarmed at how factually inaccurate the outputs have been. 

When we’re talking in generalities, this is not a big deal notwithstanding the fact that increased reliance on the outputs of AI models is probably going to bring down the collective intelligence of our species – but once we get to specifics, the issue is much broader, and much more serious. 

See, the majority of writing I do, I do for clients in the outdoor sphere. I have to furnish real information about shooting and fishing and outdoor sports in general. I simply can’t use AI for these things because (for whatever reason) it doesn’t give me accurate answers. 

I tell you the same thing. If you want your copywriting to rise above the rest of the average results in the search engine pages, write it yourself, the old fashioned way. 

Here, let’s put it this way. If you’re reading this post because you found it in the search engine results pages, that should substantiate my cautions against AI. 

I did not use AI at all for this post; not for keyword research, not for formatting, and certainly not for generative copy. 

Yet you, dear reader, found me in the search results and presumably are reading anyway. If that is not proof of my claim, I can say no more. 

The Value of Specificity  

Suppose you want to write a blog about – copywriting hacks. 

You need to give specific, actionable advice. Don’t speak in platitudes or generalities. You want to avoid telling people things they either already know in the backs of their minds or could figure out through minimal deduction. 

For instance, I’m not here to tell you that your copy needs to be personable and should be free of grammatical errors. Perhaps you weren’t actively thinking about that but even a little bit of cogitation would have brought you to that conclusion, with no help from me or anyone, else for that matter.

Taking this a step further, you need to actually write about something people need to know about and then tell them something they don’t know. 

So, for instance, let’s just say you wanted to teach your readers how to…clean a pair of leather boots. We’ll keep this in my wheelhouse since I specialize in writing about outdoor sports. 

I could tell you to brush your boots off and store them somewhere clean and dry. That’s true but it’s also kind of common sense. That means it’s probably going to be in every other article on the same topics. 

But, did you know that you should unlace your boots and meticulously clean out the tongue, where debris can hide? 

Did you know that if your boots are wet you should never place them next to a heat source like a furnace or a fire, which will dry the leather out too aggressively, and which can cause it to crack? 

Did you know that leather periodically needs not just to be cleaned, but conditioned with an oil like neatsfoot, which fills the leather’s pores, driving out water and keeping the leather fibers supple, so they don’t warp or crack? 

And did you know that compound neatsfoot oil should be avoided because it can be damaging not to the leather, but to the threads that hold the whole boot together? 

I could go on but I think you get my point. Whatever you’re writing about, make sure you are specific and carefully detail your observations. The more thorough you are in your exposition and explanation, the better your copy will perform organically, in the wilds of the internet. 

Understand Your Audience 

I won’t harp on this one too much because it’s a generality and I told you to avoid those. I will say a few words however since it is important to know your audience even though that’s sort of common sense. 

It’s often been said that an “SEO copywriter” can write about any industry, without any specific expertise. 

That is, lamentably, and categorically, true. I can write about theoretical physics or ballet, and I can structure that article according to best-practices for content marketing or SEO. What I can’t do is pass convincingly as though I know what I’m talking about – even if my research is good. 

Let me see if I can find an example. Take the following post on fly fishing basics. Here is an excerpt from this:

“These flies can be found in any specialty store in thousands of models. Knowing the right one to buy is related to the fish you are trying to catch and the type of water you are fishing.”

There are a few issues with this. One is that the writer calls fly patterns “models.” Anyone that knows a 3 weight from 5 weight will know that that terminology is staccato and, while not technically wrong, jarringly off-putting. 

Digging further, we have:

“Fishing freshwater fly requires you standing in the water, mostly in waders casting your rod in a way that imitates a dancing fly on the surface of the water.”

I’m not sure if I’ve ever read a worse, though technically not inaccurate, categorization of fly fishing. You most certainly do not need to wade in order to fly fish, and in some instances, it might be advisable not to do so – for instance, if you want to avoid spooking wary or skittish fish. 

Secondly, the manner of your casting, and the techniques you employ while doing so, have utterly less than nothing to do with the action of the fly once it hits the water. You cast to present (or place) the fly – what you do after is what gives the fly action. 

Anyway, I don’t want to get too deep into beating up a writer I do not know and probably never will. I’m just making a very important point that I hope you understand: if you want to understand your audience, you will need to do more than 5 minutes, or even an hour, of research. 

Here, let’s take a slightly different approach with a stock image that I found:

Look closely that image, and you’ll see that the “fisherman” in it is using a massive, conventional big game reel. Those reels are reserved for fighting the biggest and strongest of fish – sturgeon, tuna, swordfish, sharks, and species like that.

I don’t know what that guy in that image is doing on that little creek, but I know what he isn’t doing: fishing. To make matters worse, he has the reel basically inverted. It’s literally upside down. That’s the icing on the cake.

So you can see, lack of authority in a vertical doesn’t just come across in copywriting. Photographers are guilty of it too, and a photograph that doesn’t understand his or her audience will take glaringly unconvincing, even cringey, photos, like the one above.

Truth is, there is no substitute for experience, and this alone is the single best way to become a good copywriter. Know what you’re talking about; that’s how you’ll know your audience. 

Don’t Get Too Hung Up on Keywords

Let me be clear: keywords are important. They are still the single most important (and primary) way that Google determines whether to index a page and where to put it. That’s just the nature of the beast. 

But if you write something so damn good that readers find it, stay on the page, and even, dare I say, link to it, Google will get a lot more flexible with what it indexes that page for and where it places it in the rankings. 

Point is, if what you write is really good, it may eventually rank for keywords that aren’t even directly present in the article – or at the very least, which don’t appear in it as an exact match. 

Don’t get me wrong. Focusing on keywords is a good way to get started and it will help you build authority. But once you have a bunch of posts ranking on a domain, you can start to lay off the SEO-stringency a little bit. Write about what you want your readers to know about and what you know will provide interested readers with value. 

If you can do that, that post will most likely get indexed, most likely be ranked favorably, and if found, will more than likely generate positive interaction metrics like a high CTR and time on page. 

Here’s another proof-is-in-the-pudding moment. You found this post in the organic search results, right? I did no keyword research for it. Let that be a lesson.

Post Structure Matters 

Keywords don’t matter that much. Post structure does. 

What I mean, specifically, is that the way your post is laid out will have two big impacts. One is on how crawlers interact with it and thereby how it gets ranked, and the second is on actual user behavior. 

In the first instance, a post that is laid out appropriately, sectioned off with headers that break up all the relevant sections, Google and other search engines will look on it more favorably than one that is just a solid wall of text. 

Granted, a solid wall of text can still rank well, if it contains good information. But if you write in stream-of-consciousness, you will be fighting against the current. 

Secondly, breaking up your post into short, digestible sections (as I have done here) and according to subtopics, readers will find the whole thing more palatable, too. The chances are that some of them only landed on your post looking for one small specific thing you were writing about and will skip reading the whole thing just to home in on what they want and read that section. 

Breaking up your posts makes them friendly to skimmers and also makes it easier for readers to find the most relevant (or just the most interesting sections). 

Pose Questions, and Answer Them, in Headers 

On the topic of post structure, the single most important piece of actionable advice I can offer is this: take advantage of headers by making them into questions, and, where possible, answers. 

For instance, let’s say I wanted to write a post about how to get an article to show up in the search results. 

My title might be something like:

• How to get your post to rank in the search results.

It’s simple, straightforward, and structured like something someone would actually type into the Google search bar. 

Then, in that same post, I might have some of the following as subheaders: 

• Insert keywords in your H2s and H3s
• Answer common questions in the headers 
• Take questions from the people also ask section 
• Skyscrape the titles of the top 5 entries in the SERPs 

In each case, the header is offering a small bit of digestible and highly actionable information. Direct and succinct, they are all perfect in their own way. 

Know What Tools to Use for Inspiration 

You can learn from what posts are performing currently in the search engine results pages, whether you wrote them or not, to make your writing better. 

Here are a few ways to gain some inspiration:

• Look at the top several posts in the search engine results pages. Look at the title, the topic, then dive into the post and see what sorts of topics they’re covering and questions they’re answering. Use that information to fill out your post. This will increase its chances of ranking well. 
• Look at the People Also Ask section of the search results. This will show you what questions you need to answer in your post. Answer as many of these as possible to increase the chances that you show up. 
• Log into Facebook or Instagram and see what posts a company you follow has created. Consider taking the subject matter of a post that got a lot of attention on social media and reconfiguring it into a blog to increase the chances that it ranks well and gets attention. If it did well on social media there’s a good chance there’s buzz on search engines surrounding the topic. 
• Use tools like “Answer the Public” and other social listening tools that will give you some insight into the sorts of topics that are trending around search terms, as well as what questions people have. 
• Look up a keyword you want to write something about, find a forum entry that’s in the search results, and reverse engineer a long-form blog post or news article about what you see people talking about in the forum. It’s effectively guaranteed to be interesting information since people are talking about it of their own free will and volition.

These are just a few of the tools that you can use to come up with questions that you can then answer in your copy surrounding a topic cluster. 

Use Facts and Figures 

I can write an article about basically anything without including any facts or figures, but the more figures you can include, the more convincing your article will be because it will be inherently substantiated by data. Just make sure you understand the implications of the data you’re publishing because, as they say, figures lie and liars figure. 

Anywhere you can get away with including data, be sure to do so. It will benefit your writing and Google will be more likely to respect your post as an authority. 

Fall-Back on Proven Post Techniques and Formats 

Sometimes, you need to write something that you expect to perform and are just fresh out of ideas and creativity. As a copywriter I can sympathize. I pride myself on interest and proficiency but I’ve still been there. 

On those days, I just use what I know works. Here are some ideas you can put into practice that don’t take too much effort. 

• Create a list of FAQs and answer them all in sequence as thoroughly as you can. This is a proven format that offers a lot of value and has a good chance of generating a lot of visibility. 
• Create a listicle of “best of” products, practices or ideas.
• Write a how-to on some process; it could be basic and high-level or highly detailed and specific. The concept is a proven performer in both cases even though specific is usually better. 
• Write a Q&A on the topic. 
• Do a review of a specific product or technique relevant to the topic. 
• Write a checklist for people looking to get started with something relevant to the topic about which you want to write. 
• Write a high-level “Everything You Need to Know About…” type of guide. 

This is of course just a short list of ideas, but they are all low-hanging fruit and proven to work by results. 

Learn from Your Past Posts 

As a copywriter, maybe you don’t spend too much time in Google Analytics or Google Search Console. Let’s change that. 

These are arguably your two best tools as a copywriter, hands down. In them, you can see which of your posts is getting visibility, what it’s ranking for, what its average position is, and how many clicks it’s getting. 

Through Google Analytics, you can glean even more information, such as the number of sessions and how long people are spending on the page. If you write for eCommerce clients, as I do, you can even see through GA4 if the blog page has any conversion value. 

If you see that a post has no sessions and no time on page, well, little explanation is needed there. For some reason or other, it flopped. I hate to be the guy to tell you this, but you’re going to have posts like this. Don’t let it discourage you. 

On the flipside, Google Analytics will also show you which of your posts are top-performers, how people are landing on those pages, and how they’re interacting with the page once they get there. 

Filter by time on page or sessions, then see which blogs have the best user engagement metrics. Those blogs are performing for some reason or other – visit them and see what you wrote about (if you can’t remember) and then structure a new blog on a totally different topic, but using the same format or technique. 

You will find that you can write more and more effective blogs down the line by learning from which of your past entries did not perform – and which did. 

Leverage the Authority of Those Previous Posts 

Here’s a quick copywriting hack, and one that I won’t beat to death. If you have a post that is performing well and are planning on writing a post for that same domain, go into that previous post and embed a link in there to your new post once you get it posted. 

That will leverage the authority of a post that is already ranking, and ranking well, to transfer some authority to the nascent post in order to give it a leg up in the world. 

Just use this copywriting hack sparingly, because you don’t want to ruin the UX of an old but good post with a bunch of outbound links to new posts that readers might not be too interested in – yet, at least. 

Be Sparing with Outbound Links 

Last but not least, here’s one more copywriting hack – not quite a copywriting technique – to apply to your articles. 

You can use outbound links to increase the credibility of your post, but be very sparing with them, especially if you’re taking ideas from the post to which you intend to link. 

Google will see that and then will sort of see your post like a copy, even though it might not be. Therefore, use outbound links as little as possible because you want your post (not some other) to be the authority. 

By the way, this does not mean not to use outbound links. Just keep them to a minimum and use only where they will make your post better and more believable. 

Want More Copywriting Hacks from Yours Truly?

There you have some of the best copywriting hacks – if I can call them that – that I’ve learned in my time as a professional copywriter. All I can tell you is I’ve leaned on all of them at some point or other and they have definitely helped me produce copy that generates sessions, time on page, and leads for my clients. They can do the same for you. 

If you’re looking for more actionable information, check out: 

• How to Get Images to Rank
• How to Write to Get Featured in a Google AI Overview
• How Do Blogs Help SEO?
• Answering User Queries for Better SEO
• How Many Blog Posts Does It Take to Get Traffic?

Alternatively, you could get in touch with one of our SEO specialists and they may be able to help you out.

The post 12 Copywriting Hacks to Improve the Performance of Your Work appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

Why Are Natural Backlinks Important for eCommerce?

Before diving into strategies for acquiring natural backlinks, it’s important to understand their significance:

• SEO Boost: Search engines like Google use backlinks as one of the top ranking factors. When reputable websites link to your eCommerce store, it improves your SEO and signals to search engines that your site is trustworthy and offers valuable content.

• Increased Traffic: Backlinks from popular websites can lead to a direct increase in traffic. When your store is featured on a well-trafficked blog or resource page, curious visitors are likely to click the link and explore your products.

• Brand Authority: Earning backlinks from industry leaders helps establish your eCommerce business as an authority in your niche, leading to better brand recognition and trust among consumers.

Now, let’s explore some effective ways to earn natural backlinks for your eCommerce store.

Create High-Quality, Shareable Content

The foundation of a successful backlink strategy is high-quality content. For eCommerce websites, this often involves creating content that not only promotes your products but also provides value to your audience.

Blog Posts

Regularly publishing blog posts relevant to your niche can attract links from other sites. Create content that answers common questions, solves problems, or offers advice related to your products. For instance, if you sell eco-friendly home goods, writing an article like “10 Simple Ways to Make Your Home More Sustainable” can attract backlinks from sustainability blogs or online magazines.

Product Guides and Tutorials

Create detailed product guides, tutorials, and how-tos that explain how your products solve specific problems. Video tutorials, in particular, can be very engaging and link-worthy, especially if they are visually appealing and informative.

Infographics

Infographics are a fantastic way to present complex information in an easily digestible format. If you create an infographic that resonates with your target audience, it can be widely shared, increasing the chances of earning backlinks.

Case Studies and Research

Original research, case studies, and reports are excellent for acquiring natural backlinks. If you’ve conducted a survey or have exclusive data related to your industry, publishing these insights can attract links from news outlets, bloggers, and industry publications.

Leverage Partnerships and Influencers

Another effective way to earn natural backlinks is through partnerships and influencer marketing. Building relationships with other businesses and individuals in your industry can open doors for collaborative content creation and link-building opportunities.

Partner with Complementary Businesses

Find businesses that complement your eCommerce store and propose collaborations. For example, if you sell coffee equipment, you could partner with a local coffee roaster to create joint content, such as blog posts or product guides. When they publish this content on their site, they can link back to your store and vice versa, benefiting both parties.

Reach Out to Influencers

Influencer marketing is a powerful tool for eCommerce businesses. When an influencer reviews your products or mentions your store in a blog post or social media post, they often include a link to your website. While influencer marketing typically focuses on social media exposure, it can also generate valuable backlinks.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is another great way to leverage partnerships. Reach out to bloggers in your niche and offer to write a guest post for their site. In exchange, they can include a link back to your eCommerce store in your bio or within the content itself. Ensure that the blogs you target are reputable and relevant to your industry.

Get Listed on Resource Pages

Many websites curate lists of valuable resources, such as product recommendations, tools, or guides. Getting your eCommerce store or content listed on these resource pages can be a great way to acquire natural backlinks.

Find Niche Resource Pages

Search for resource pages in your industry by using search terms like “best [product category] tools” or “[industry] resources.” Reach out to the site owner and suggest your product or content as a valuable addition to their list. Make sure to personalize your outreach and explain why your store deserves to be included.

Directories and Review Sites

Submitting your business to reputable directories and review sites can also help you earn backlinks. Industry-specific directories often provide high-authority backlinks, and review sites give you the opportunity to gain more exposure. Be cautious with directories, though—stick to high-quality, well-known directories and avoid spammy, low-quality options.

Utilize Social Media and Online Communities

While social media links don’t directly affect your SEO, they can still help you earn backlinks indirectly by increasing your brand visibility. When people share your content on social platforms, it can get noticed by bloggers, journalists, and website owners who may link back to your store.

Shareable Content on Social Media

Post your high-quality content on social media platforms to encourage shares. Social sharing is a great way to get your content in front of a wider audience, some of whom may have websites and blogs where they can link to your content. Use appropriate hashtags, engage with followers, and participate in discussions to amplify your content’s reach.

Engage in Online Communities

Participating in online communities such as Reddit, Quora, or niche-specific forums can be another source of natural backlinks. When you provide valuable input in these communities, you can include a link to your content or products, as long as it’s relevant and not overly promotional. This works best when you’re genuinely contributing to the conversation.

Reclaim Unlinked Mentions

Sometimes, your brand might be mentioned in blog posts or articles without a link back to your eCommerce store. Reclaiming these unlinked mentions is an easy way to build backlinks.

Monitor Brand Mentions

Use tools like Google Alerts or Ahrefs to monitor mentions of your brand across the web. When you find unlinked mentions, reach out to the website owner and politely ask them to add a link to your site. Most site owners are happy to comply since they’ve already mentioned your brand—it’s just a matter of adding the link.

Broken Link Building

Broken link building involves finding dead links on other websites and offering your content as a replacement. This strategy requires a bit of research but can be highly effective.

Identify Broken Links

Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify broken links on websites related to your industry. Once you’ve found a broken link, create or identify content on your eCommerce site that can serve as a replacement.

Reach Out to Site Owners

Reach out to the website owner and inform them about the broken link. Politely suggest your content as a replacement, making sure it’s relevant and adds value to their audience.

Build Relationships with Journalists and Bloggers

Lastly, building relationships with journalists, bloggers, and industry influencers is a long-term strategy that can lead to natural backlinks.

Pitch to Journalists

If you have a newsworthy event or product launch, reach out to journalists and bloggers in your niche. Pitch your story and offer them the opportunity to feature your business in their publication or blog. If they find your story interesting, they’ll likely include a link to your eCommerce site.

HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

Signing up for services like HARO can connect you with journalists looking for expert opinions. Respond to relevant queries, and if they use your response, they may link to your eCommerce store.

Earning natural backlinks for your eCommerce store is a gradual process that requires effort, creativity, and relationship-building. By creating valuable content, leveraging partnerships, utilizing online communities, and strategically reaching out to site owners and journalists, you can steadily grow your backlink profile, improve your SEO, and drive more organic traffic to your store. Stay patient and consistent, and you’ll see the long-term benefits of a strong backlink strategy.

The post How to Get Natural Backlinks: A Guide for eCommerce Businesses appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

I will break down all the details in this blog, starting from the bottom up.

What Is SEO?

Let’s start with the basics. I can’t imagine you’ve gotten to this post without having at least a baseline knowledge of what SEO is, but if that is the case, here: 

• SEO stands for “search engine optimization” and is a collection of practices that, together, make a website more favorable to search engines, for specific terms. Well-optimized websites are the ones that show up at the tops of the search engine results pages when you search something. 

SEO is also, all things considered, one of the most important digital marketing channels, and even in this era of influencer marketing, probably the best in terms of ROI. 

The one drawback to SEO is that it is exceptionally resource and effort intensive, and does not work quickly. Most websites that have what marketers might call “good SEO” have been working at it for many years. 

Moreover, SEO is organized into four main pillars:

• On-page SEO: This consists of concrete adjustments you can make to ranking signals on your website, such as title tags, headers, URL slugs, metadata, internal links, and image alt text. 

• Off-page SEO: This basically consists of reputation management and link building. Where social media management is involved in SEO, it can also be considered off-page. 

• Technical SEO: Technical SEO consists of page speed, site security, site structure, and other technical facets of a website that impact the user experience, such as the usability of the sitemap, whether or not integrations have been made properly, and so on and so forth.

• And content, which is the focus of this article

All content on your website, including product and category page content, meta descriptions, CMS and FAQ page content, and other evergreen content like “About Us” page content, can all be used by search engines for the purposes of indexation and assigning rankings (unless a page is expressly barred to web crawlers by the site admin).

This, of course, includes blogs, and since blogs generally constitute the most valuable content on a given website, they represent the best opportunity to make improvements for optimization. 

How to Optimize a Blog for SEO?

Now let’s talk about how you can optimize a blog for SEO.

The first and most important thing – the only thing that really matters, at the end of the day – is if the blog answers a question that people are searching for. 

For instance, you probably got here by searching for something that has to do with how to optimize a blog for SEO, right? 

Let me tell you a secret: I did little to no keyword research before writing this post. All I did was look up (in the search results) what sorts of questions people were asking Google about blogging and SEO and answered as many as I could. 

That’s the most important thing. 

It does help, however, to go after keywords that have high search volumes and low difficulty scores. This helps your blog post get to the tops of the search results sooner. 

These are the two main things you can do to give a blog a lot of value for SEO.

Here are a few insider tips:

• Enter your target keywords in Google and see what comes up in the top 3 to 5 spots, organically (skip the ads). Take what information is in those posts and use it to augment your own.

• Look at the People Also Ask section of Google for more content ideas. 

• Reflect on what customers have asked you about your products, compile some of these and publish the answers in a blog.
• Publish information about your products, experiences, or their maintenance or upkeep that doesn’t exist elsewhere on the web. There may not be a lot of search volume in the form of queries regarding this information, but publishing information that doesn’t appear elsewhere is basically a sure-fire bet that your post will be the only one that shows up for it in the results. 

These are four solid tidbits of advice for how to construct a blog for SEO. Now let’s talk about how to optimize at the post level, in the most granular level possible. 

What Tips or Tricks Can Boost a Blog’s Value?

To be as curt as possible, I’ve already told you everything you need to know about how to get a blog to work for SEO. 

But, if we’re talking about just the actual optimizations to ranking factors themselves, here are some other things you can do: 

• Include the target keyword in the post title.

• Include the target keyword in headers and subheaders throughout the post.

• Keep keyword density to about one instance per 500 words (not necessarily including headers).

• Include the keyword in the target URL.

• Before uploading any images, compress the files (there are lots of free image file compression tools on the internet).

• Use original imagery or something user-generated. Do not take images from the manufacturer or distributor.

• Draft copy that includes the target keyword in the alt text field of the image file

• Write informative captions for any images you include in the post.

• Include internal links in your copy to claims you want to back up, or to specific products.

• Adding external links to support a claim is not a bad thing. Actually, in my experience, it can actually help a post perform. Just try to keep external links to a minimum. You can also make them no-follow links if that makes you feel better. 

• Write your own meta descriptions and use them as an opportunity to advertise the post with a hook to draw attention. 

There are other optimizations you can make, but this is by and large the bulk of them, and by a long shot. If you do everything I said to do, there’s a good chance you can generate a post that’s done to a proverbial “T” for SEO.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You can make every single one of the optimizations I recommend in this section for SEO, but if you don’t make sure to target a lucrative keyword (that has search volume and reasonable difficulty) and if you don’t answer questions, there’s no chance that your post will do well. I know this from experience.

Answer the question first, optimize with keywords and other adjustments second. 

So How Do Blogs Help SEO?

In a nutshell, if you do everything I mentioned here, your blogs will probably rank effectively in the organic search results. People will see the listings, see that the page answers questions they have, and when all goes swimmingly, they will click and read. 

Some of them may even be intrigued by your products and services and convert into paying customers. 

The more organic leads you generate, the less you need to rely on paid search marketing like PPC services, or on social media marketing, email marketing, and even influencer marketing. 

So, in a way, blogging, when done effectively, can do more for your marketing efforts than any other single initiative. 

But it’s not just that blogging helps SEO. Good copy on your website can also substantially boost the user experience (UX).

Beyond SEO, Why Is Blogging Important?

Now that you know how blogs help SEO, it’s worth expounding on how blogging is not just about bringing in organic leads. 

Blogging – if the copy is well-written, accurate, and helpful in some way or other – is central to the user experience. Remember, not everyone that lands on your website is going to become a paying customer. Some of them just want answers. 

If your blogs are good and people read them, they will spend more time on your website. This metric is important for Google to analyze the user experience. Moreover, the more you blog and the better your copy is, the more users will trust what they find on your website. 

This will position your organization as an authority in your industry, a leader with experience and expertise, not just a company that sells something. That’s huge. People buy from brands they trust. 

Moreover, developing greater brand awareness will solidify your position in your market as a competitor and make it more difficult for others to vie for your business, even with effective social media campaigns and through other paid channels. 

All in all, blogging, when done right, will improve customer engagement, and that is never a bad thing.

What Else Can You Do to Optimize Content for Organic Visibility 

As important as blogging is for SEO, it is far from the only thing you can do to improve your overall SEO performance. 

Other things you can do include: 

• Scrubbing Google Search Console for broken links and removing them.

• Make sure your category and product pages use original imagery and copy, never take from a distributor or manufacturer.

• Integrate your homepage with your social channels.

• Work with an eCommerce web developer or use a plug-in to display your reviews on your homepage as well as on your product pages.

• Include target keywords in page titles, headers, and URLs, as well as elsewhere in metadata.

• Make sure your sitemap is updated regularly and submitted.

• Install and configure an SSL.

• Make sure your website’s pages load quickly (you can check performance on PageSpeed Insights or work with a developer to correct some of these issues).

• Include internal links on your website for cross-selling and upselling opportunities. 

This is, however, just a short list of items you can knock out to help boost your website’s overall performance for SEO. I’m not going to get too far into the weeds because I want to keep on the topic of blogging and SEO specifically. 

How Long Does a Blog Need to Be for SEO Purposes?

This is actually something I’ve personally addressed before, and at length. For the full breakdown, please see my previous post, “SEO Content Strategy: Is Longer Always Better?”

To keep things short and respectful of your time, the answer is no. Forget what you’ve read elsewhere. Longer is not always better. 

Here’s the truth: a post only needs to be as long as it has to in order to fully answer all aspects of the question it seeks to answer. That could be 250 words or it could be 10,000, and that is not an exaggeration. 

It’s also the case that a blog could be very high quality with only a few hundred words, and also very high quality with several thousand. The thing you need to keep in mind – the only thing – is search intent. 

A few years ago, prominent marketers all started to realize that one way to differentiate their content marketing in the face of increasingly stiff competition was to make it longer, since anyone with patience can do that.

Unfortunately, this flooded the front page of Google with content that was long just for the hell of it. As Google’s updates got more refined, they started to weed out the fluff that was on page one in favor of more concise, brief and accurate posts. 

Do not take this the wrong way: most topics warrant a post that will cover between 2000 and 3000 words. Scan this one, for instance, and you will see it is right in that range. 

I have not written this post to meet that criterion because it, itself, is a criterion, but because if I wanted to answer all aspects of the question “how do blogs help SEO?” I would have to flesh them all out. 

It’s just how the cookie crumbled. I could easily draw this post out to 5000 words but there would be no point. Similarly, if I tried to cram it all into 600 words, it wouldn’t answer any one question contained herein adequately, and would suffer for it. 

So let that be a lesson to you. When you sit down to write a blog, put length out of your mind. Draft your outline, and start writing. Once you’ve finished thoroughly examining the subject, you’re done. Doesn’t matter if the post is 500 words or 15,000. 

How Often Do You Need to Post to Get Traffic 

This is another question that I’ve addressed at length. For more detailed information, please see my previous post, “How Many Blog Posts Does It Take to Get Traffic?”

Unfortunately, in this case, there is no simple answer. A single blog can generate tens of thousands of views in a year, or none. Or, you could have 20 to 30 blogs that each bring in a few hundred per month, accounting for a total much higher. 

Consistency is good, but there is no hard or fast answer. Ideally, if you can, you should post one to two pieces per week, but that’s a hard pace to sustain, as it can account for more than 100 posts per year, and moreover, the more you post, the more burned out you will get. 

It’s better to not post than to put up something that you know is both fluffy and thin. However, it’s also important to be routine. Google doesn’t like to see websites that put up a ton of posts in a short period of time and then go radio silent for weeks or months. 

So, as long as you can be consistent – even once per month is better than nothing as long as you keep at it – and what you publish is quality, you’re doing everything right. 

The most important thing I can tell you here from experience is to be patient. Sometimes you will publish a post that you have perfectly optimized and which answers 15 high-value questions, and it goes nowhere. Sometimes you publish something and think “there’s no way this will perform” and it generates hundreds, thousands, sometimes even tens of thousands of views. There’s really no way to tell for sure without trying.

The other reason you have to be patient is that this will take several years. That I promise, personally. Nothing worth having comes easily, and you should expect to work hard at SEO blogging for about two years until you actually start to see appreciable results. 

Just keep working. The views, and sales (if applicable) will come in time.

Why Is SEO Important for Lead Generation?

The last question I want to attempt to answer is why SEO is important for lead generation. The reason is that blogs you write solely to answer questions will bring in viewers that might never have a need to convert. You’ll just have to be OK with that – it is the price of publishing free information. 

On the other hand, you will definitely attract some readers that might, under other circumstances, become paying customers. And, while you’re educating and engrossing, you’ll be passively building brand equity in their minds, whether they know it or not. 

Therefore, SEO blogging performs best when you pair it with other lead-capturing initiatives. Give readers an option to subscribe to the blog, ask for email or other contact information, or invite users to follow you on social media. You can then use those captured leads for remarketing purposes – and some of them, if all goes well, will end up loyal customers.

The post How Do Blogs Help SEO? appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

Legal SEO You Need For Your Practice

Law firms are often focused on creating genuine interactions with customers, usually face-to-face, in an attempt to gain repour and better understand their needs. But sometimes this focus on old school connections and communications means that law firms are missing out on a huge way they can find and retain new customers: SEO.

Short for search engine optimization, SEO is the process of optimizing a website’s content and technical configuration in an attempt to not only get more eyes on your site but gain trust with content. This often includes using powerful keywords on your site, adding hyperlinks to inspire authority, and writing a blog with useful information. But with law firms, there’s some specific things you should be doing if you want to truly take advantage of SEO to reach new customers.

So what are the essential SEO focus areas for law practices? Here are the key SEO needs that firms should prioritize:

Localized, Relevant Content

Location is everything in the legal world. Potential clients are typically searching for law firms that serve their specific geographic area. Optimizing for local SEO by creating location-based content — such as city/state-specific practice area pages, lawyer bios, and FAQ sections — can help law firms rank higher in local search results.

Authoritative, Informative Blogs

Establishing thought leadership through a well-optimized blog is a powerful SEO strategy for law firms. By publishing informative, educational content related to their practice areas, firms can position themselves as trusted experts and improve their organic search rankings. Blogs should be regularly updated and structured around relevant keywords.

Remember to make these blogs more than just info dumps. You want to make sure your law firms’ personality shines through, including personal anecdotes, real life examples, and your brand’s voice. This will help create an authentic connection between you and your readers, like they’re talking to an old friend with the best advice.

Optimized Attorney Profiles

Individual lawyer profiles on the firm’s website are a prime opportunity for SEO. Ensuring these pages are fully optimized — with bio content, practice area details, awards, and other relevant information — can help drive more traffic to specific attorneys and the overall firm.

Structured, Detailed Service Pages

The core service and practice area pages on a law firm’s website need to be thoroughly optimized. This includes incorporating the right keywords, providing comprehensive explanations of each legal service, and structuring the content in a user-friendly, scannable way.

Technical Website Optimization

The technical side of a law firm’s website also plays a crucial role in SEO. Aspects like site speed, mobile-friendliness, schema markup, and clean URL structure all contribute to better search engine visibility and rankings.

Review and Citation Management

Online reviews and citations (mentions of the firm’s name, address, and phone number) are SEO gold for law practices. Actively managing these digital signals of credibility and authority can significantly boost the firm’s local search presence. People want to see that others have enjoyed working with you, what their experience was like, and how you were able to help them. Creating that sense of relatability and transparency will win you new customers.

The purpose of these specific SEO-related strategies is to create familiarity and trust. The service pages and attorney profiles let customers fully understand what it is you offer but also get to know the people who will be by their side throughout the process. Informational blogs will give them much-needed advice and center you as an expert in your field. Through all of these SEO practices, your law firm can stand out online, allowing you to reach even more people in your area who may be in need.

What People Look For in a Lawyer

Wondering what type of content to include when you are working on your various website pages — including the home page, about me, and lawyer profiles? Here are some things that clients are looking for when searching for a law firm to handle their serious and personal matters.

• Expertise and Experience — Clients want a lawyer who has deep knowledge and proven experience in the specific area of law relevant to their case or needs. This could include criminal law, personal injury, estate planning, business law, etc. Seeing a lawyer’s track record of successful outcomes is important.
• Reputation and Trustworthiness — A lawyer’s reputation, both professionally and personally, is crucial. Clients want to work with someone who is respected in the legal community and seen as ethical, honest, and reliable. Online reviews, referrals, and the lawyer’s standing in the community all contribute to their perceived trustworthiness.
• Communication and Responsiveness — Strong communication skills and responsiveness are high priorities for legal clients. They want a lawyer who listens attentively, explains things clearly, responds promptly to calls/emails, and keeps them regularly updated on the status of their case.
• Empathy and Understanding — The ability to understand the client’s unique situation, concerns, and goals is valuable. Clients want a lawyer who is compassionate, patient, and willing to provide emotional support throughout the legal process.
• Accessibility and Availability — Clients expect their lawyer to be accessible and available when needed. This includes having office hours and meeting locations that are convenient, as well as the capacity to take on new clients in a timely manner.
• Cost and Fee Transparency — The cost of legal services is always a major consideration. Clients want a lawyer who is upfront about fees, offers flexible payment options, and provides clear explanations of all billing.

How to Improve Your Legal SEO

If you have a practice that’s in need of improved legal SEO, we can help. 1Digital has a team of legal SEO experts focused on law firms and their services that can help you connect with potential clients. We understand the complexities and challenges in the legal landscape and can provide you with reliable legal SEO solutions that are tailored to your specific focus. Our goal is to create online visibility and attract more traffic to your site, but also provide consistently updated and useful content to improve your connection with customers in your area.

The post Here’s Why You Need Legal SEO For Your Practice appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

Copywriting is a massive part of online marketing that cannot be overlooked. You’ll often want to utilize a team of experts that can focus on expert and meaningful copywriting. You’ll need impactful copywriting on your website, on your blog, and on your social media. Here’s why and how to do it!

Benefits of Great Copywriting For Your Blog

The first major use of copywriting for your site’s marketing is blog content. Blogs have evolved from personal diaries to powerful marketing tools that enable businesses to connect with their target audience, drive traffic to their websites, and establish themselves as authorities in their respective industries. Here’s what a great blog can do for your site.

1. Driving Traffic: One of the primary benefits of maintaining a blog is its ability to drive traffic to your website. Each new blog post presents an opportunity to attract visitors through organic search, social media shares, and referrals from other websites. When you offer useful information and genuine advice, you will boost your site’s SEO and also create an authentic space where customers can learn more about your brand, products, and services.
2. Building Brand Authority: Blogs provide a platform for businesses to showcase their expertise and establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry. By sharing valuable insights, industry trends, and expert opinions, businesses can position themselves as trusted authorities in their field. Over time, this helps to build credibility and trust with their audience, making it more likely for customers to choose their products or services over competitors.’ For example, if you’re a clothing brand, write articles on the latest fashion trends. Or if you sell refurbished tech, create blog posts about how to use certain products with ease.
3. Engaging with the Audience: Unlike traditional marketing channels, blogs offer a more interactive and personalized way to engage with the audience. When you create a blog, focus on your brand’s personality and story. You want to not only have authority in your space but share your voice. You can connect with potential customers by being real and authentic, allowing them into your world and to build a connection with your brand past your products. Share personal stories, insert jokes and opinions… You want your brand to really shine through.
4. Educating and Informing: On top of sharing your story, blogs serve as valuable educational resources for customers seeking information about products, services, or industry-related topics. By addressing common questions, providing how-to guides, and offering insights into emerging trends, businesses can help customers make informed purchasing decisions. Educational content also helps to build trust and credibility with the audience, positioning the business as a trusted advisor.
5. Measuring and Iterating: Blogging provides valuable insights into customer preferences, interests, and behavior through analytics tools. By tracking metrics such as page views, time on page, and conversion rates, businesses can gain valuable feedback on the effectiveness of their blog content and make data-driven decisions to optimize future posts. This iterative approach ensures that blog content remains relevant, engaging, and impactful over time.

Good blogs are essential components of effective marketing strategies in today’s digital landscape. By driving traffic, building brand authority, engaging with the audience, educating and informing customers, boosting SEO, fueling social media and email marketing, and measuring and iterating based on analytics, blogs offer a versatile and powerful platform for businesses to connect with their target audience and achieve their marketing objectives.

If you want to share your story but don’t have the time to consistently write education and informational blogs, you may need our experts! Our team of SEO writers will work with you to find out what your brand’s voice is as well as the type of content that your customerbase is searching for to get more eyes on your site.

Benefits of Great Copywriting For Your Site and Socials

On top of blog writing, copywriting should be powerful and quality across your entire site and socials. This includes your product descriptions, all across your homepage and about me, as well as any social platforms you’re using. Your copywriting should be consistent and represent your brand’s voice and story across every space.

1. First Impressions Matter: Your website is often the first point of contact between your business and potential customers. Powerful copy ensures that visitors are greeted with captivating language that immediately captures their attention and communicates your brand’s value proposition. Whether it’s a compelling headline, an enticing product description, or a persuasive call-to-action, impactful copy sets the tone for a positive user experience and encourages further exploration.
2. Building Trust and Credibility: In an era of skepticism and information overload, building trust with your audience is paramount. Powerful copy fosters trust and credibility by communicating your brand’s story, values, and unique selling points in a clear and authentic manner. By addressing customer pain points, showcasing testimonials, and providing transparent information, compelling copy instills confidence in your brand and establishes a foundation for lasting relationships with your audience.
3. Driving Conversions: Ultimately, the goal of your online presence is to convert visitors into customers or clients. Powerful copy plays a crucial role in this process by persuading visitors to take the desired action, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or filling out a contact form. By leveraging persuasive language, compelling benefits, and a sense of urgency on product pages, effective copywriting nudges visitors along the path to conversion and maximizes the return on your marketing efforts.
4. Optimizing for Search Engines: In the vast expanse of the internet, visibility is key to success. Powerful copy not only resonates with human readers but also caters to search engine algorithms, improving your website’s ranking in search results. By incorporating relevant keywords and phrases naturally into your content, compelling copy enhances your website’s discoverability and attracts organic traffic from users actively searching for products or services like yours.
5. Engaging Your Audience on Social Media: Social media platforms provide an invaluable opportunity to connect with your audience on a more personal level. Powerful copy on your social media profiles and posts captivates your followers’ attention amidst the sea of content vying for their attention. Whether it’s crafting engaging captions, sharing compelling stories, or sparking conversations, impactful copywriting drives engagement, cultivates brand loyalty, and expands your reach within your target demographic.
6. Differentiating Your Brand: Standing out from the competition is essential and powerful copy gives your brand a distinct voice and personality that sets you apart from competitors. Whether it’s injecting humor, demonstrating empathy, or showcasing expertise, compelling copywriting creates a memorable brand identity that resonates with your audience and fosters emotional connections.

Powerful copy is so important when it comes to a successful online presence, shaping perceptions, driving engagement, and ultimately, driving results. Whether it’s your website, social media profiles, or digital advertisements, compelling copywriting is essential for capturing attention, building trust, driving conversions, optimizing for search engines, engaging your audience, differentiating your brand, and adapting to evolving trends and platforms.

When you build a website, you’re often focused on the images, the UX, even the product listings. Copywriting can sometimes be forgotten in the grand scheme of things. But good copywriting can make all the difference for your marketing. Whether it’s an informational blog post, a fun social media status, or an inspiring product description, you need copywriting to find and maintain a large customerbase that trusts you and your products.

The post Why Copywriting is the Key to Good Marketing appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

The words you use on your eCommerce website have the potential to make or break a sale. In this blog, we’ll delve into the importance of writing good copy for eCommerce websites and provide some valuable tips on content writing to help you succeed.

The Power of Words in eCommerce

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of writing good copy for eCommerce, let’s take a moment to appreciate the immense influence words have in the online shopping experience. Words are not just a means of conveying information; they are tools for persuasion, connection, and trust-building.

First Impressions Matter

When a potential customer lands on your eCommerce website, they are greeted by your copy. The headlines, product descriptions, and even the calls to action are the first things they see. A well-written homepage can grab a visitor’s attention and make them stay, explore, and ultimately make a purchase.

Establishing Trust

In the absence of face-to-face interactions, words are your primary tool for building trust. Clear, concise, and authoritative copy assures customers that your business is reliable and professional.

Convincing and Persuading 

Your copy should persuade visitors to become customers. It should not just describe products, but also highlight their benefits and solve the customer’s problems. Well-crafted product descriptions can be the turning point for a potential buyer.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Good copy isn’t just for humans; it’s also vital for search engines. By incorporating relevant keywords and creating valuable, original content, you improve your website’s visibility in search results, potentially attracting more organic traffic.

User Experience

The way you present information in your eCommerce store significantly affects the user experience. Your copy should be scannable, concise, and easy to understand, helping visitors find what they need quickly.

Tips for Writing Effective eCommerce Copy

Now that we understand the importance of good copy in eCommerce, let’s explore some tips to help you write content that drives sales and enhances the customer experience.

• Know Your Audience: Before you start writing, you must have a deep understanding of your target audience. What are their needs, pain points, and desires? Tailor your copy to resonate with your ideal customers. Consider creating buyer personas to guide your writing efforts.
• Be Clear and Concise: Online shoppers are usually in a hurry. They skim through web pages looking for key information. Make your copy scannable by using bullet points, short paragraphs, and clear headings. Use concise language to convey your message.
• Highlight Benefits, Not Just Features: While it’s essential to list the features of your products, it’s equally important to emphasize how those features benefit the customer. How will this product make their life better, solve a problem, or meet a need? Paint a picture of the improved life your product offers.
• Use Persuasive Language: Incorporate persuasive elements into your copy. Words like “exclusive,” “limited time offer,” and “free” can create a sense of urgency and excitement. However, use them sparingly and honestly.
• Create Engaging Headlines: Your headlines are what capture a visitor’s attention initially. Craft headlines that are both informative and intriguing. A great headline can make a potential customer curious and encourage them to read further.
• Tell a Story: Storytelling is a powerful tool in copywriting. Use narratives to create an emotional connection with your audience. Share the story of your brand, product development, or satisfied customers. People relate to stories, and they can help build trust.
• Provide Social Proof: Include customer reviews and testimonials on your product pages. Positive feedback from other customers can significantly influence the purchasing decision. Encourage happy customers to leave reviews, and be sure to respond to negative reviews constructively.
• Address Objections: Anticipate and address potential objections or concerns that your customers might have. By proactively providing answers to common questions, you reduce the friction in the buying process.
• Create Urgency: Limited-time offers, countdowns, and the fear of missing out can be powerful motivators. If you have special promotions or sales, communicate the urgency effectively.
• A/B Testing: Don’t assume that your initial copy is perfect. A/B testing allows you to compare different versions of your content to see what works best. Test headlines, product descriptions, and calls to action to continually improve your copy.
• Focus on SEO: Optimizing your copy for search engines is crucial for driving organic traffic. Conduct keyword research to identify the terms your audience is searching for, and integrate them naturally into your content. Don’t overstuff keywords; keep the user experience in mind.
• Be Authentic: Authenticity is key in eCommerce. Be honest about your products, their benefits, and their limitations. Authenticity builds trust, and trust leads to long-term customer relationships.
• Professional Editing: Don’t underestimate the importance of professional editing and proofreading. Typos and grammatical errors can erode trust and make your brand appear unprofessional.
• Mobile Optimization: Remember that many customers shop on their mobile devices. Ensure that your copy is mobile-friendly and responsive, so it looks and reads well on all screen sizes.
• Testimonials and Trust Symbols: Including trust symbols such as security badges, industry awards, and association memberships can further enhance your credibility. Testimonials from well-known individuals or organizations can also add credibility to your brand.

In the world of eCommerce, writing good copy is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. Your website’s copy plays a pivotal role in attracting, engaging, and converting visitors into customers. By understanding your audience, crafting persuasive and authentic copy, and constantly optimizing your content, you can set your eCommerce business on a path to success. 

Remember, the power of words extends beyond just describing your products – they have the potential to build trust, establish a connection, and ultimately drive sales. So, invest in the art and science of writing good copy for your eCommerce website, and let your content represent your brand to your customers.

The post The Importance of Writing Quality Copy appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.

With everyone practically competing for attention amidst the shortening attention spans, creating content that not only engages readers but also ranks well on search engines is more critical than ever.

This is why structure (like design) is all the more important, not just for writers and content creators, but for SEO optimization as well.

That said, here are our best blog structure tips for better SEO!

There’s No One Magic Formula

Think of blog structure as a book of family recipes, each one containing some groundbreaking ingredient such as your great grandmother’s secret sauce, or the Krabby Patty secret formula

In the same way, there are certain principles and best practices when it comes to structuring a blog post both for reading and SEO. It’s all just a matter of making sure that the right ingredients are placed in the right order.

What are these ingredients? Here are a couple you might want to pay attention to:

1. The Main Ingredient: Identifying the Problem

You know how, in a lot of cooking competitions the judges would ask the competing chefs to come up with a dish that contains a specific ingredient?

Well, when it comes to content, this main ingredient is the problem that you’re trying to solve.

Why should you start with a problem?

Search intent is one of the most important aspects of both SEO and PPC. Knowing what your target audience is looking for, and providing that knowledge or solution should be the main purpose of any search engine optimized content.

Your customer’s problem or paint point is the foundation upon which the rest of your content is built. Readers should know why they should take the time to read through your post before they dive in. And the problem you identify should resonate with your target audience, making them eager to find a solution.

2. Crafting the Recipe: Covering Three Key Points

A recipe usually has a series of ingredients or steps that build on one another to create a delicious dish

Similarly, your blog post’s body should consist of at least three supporting ideas that reinforce your main point or thesis. Each point serves as a crucial ingredient, enhancing the overall flavor of your content.

For instance, if you’re running a food blog, and your main point is to teach your readers how to bake the perfect chocolate cake, your supporting ideas might include selecting the finest cocoa, using quality ingredients, and mastering the baking technique. Together, these elements create a comprehensive recipe for success in cake baking.

3. Plating: Coming to a Delicious Conclusion

Presentation plays a big part in fine dining (and chef competitions). It’s the final part of the process and involves putting the final touches on a dish to make sure it captures the recipe’s main theme or palette.

Just as a chef concludes a recipe with final steps and a delightful presentation, your blog post should wrap up with a compelling conclusion.

More than just being a formality, crafting a compelling conclusion is more about bringing your entire post together.

Because let’s face it, not everyone will be bothered to read through your entire article.

Hence, in your conclusion, you summarize your ideas, ensuring both Google and your readers get a taste of what your article is about

For those who skim through your content, the conclusion provides a quick and flavorful summary.

4. Listicles: The Bite-Sized Recipes of the Blogging World

What’s the last listicle you’ve read, and when did you read it? Chances are, it probably wasn’t too long ago.

Listicles continue to be a popular and effective way of both capturing readers and raising your search engine rankings, particularly because of their structure.

They’re the bite-sized goodies of the blogging world.

Their succinctness, brevity, and easy readability make them a go-to format for many bloggers. Not to mention they’re also very easy for search engines to crawl through because of their broken-down nature.

5. Spicing it Up with Frequently Asked Questions

Somewhat related to the listicle is another valuable blog structure that can significantly enhance your SEO: the Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ-style content.

When it comes to practically any industry or product, FAQs provide additional insights, troubleshooting tips, and variations for each recipe. In the same way, incorporating a FAQ-style structure into your blog can provide a valuable resource for your readers while boosting your SEO efforts.

When readers land on your blog, they seek answers and solutions. A well-organized FAQ section can quickly guide them to the information they need, improving their overall user experience.

FAQ-style content also allows you to target long-tail keywords naturally. These keywords are often specific and more closely resemble how people ask questions in search engines. By incorporating these phrases into your FAQs, you increase your chances of ranking for relevant queries.

What’s more Google’s featured snippets are akin to showcasing a frequently asked question as the star of your recipe book. When your FAQ answers align with these snippets, you have a higher chance of securing that coveted position at the top of search results.

6. Optimizing Headings: The Recipe Titles of SEO

Titles, subject lines, and headings: these nitty-gritty details are what can often make or break a piece of content or copy. You want them to be as clear and precise as possible, conveying the right message for the right reader.

Just as a recipe title conveys what a dish is about, your headings should communicate the main points of your post. Use relevant keywords in your headings, but avoid over-seasoning; they should flow naturally within your content.

7. Short Paragraphs: The Pringles Addiction

Who still remembers that phrase, “Once you pop, you can’t stop!” from those old Pringles commercials?

Think of your blog post as an entire container of Pringles. Your goal with each piece of content is to keep the reader going once they start reading.

Of course, your writing style and content play a big part in this process. However, another oft-overlooked factor is the length of your paragraphs.

Long-chunky paragraphs are incredibly difficult to read, especially if you’re reading on your phone (which most people are these days

Short paragraphs increase readability and encourage readers to consume your content more digestible.

Remember, readers often skim, looking for the juiciest parts of your content. Short paragraphs make it easier for them to find what they’re looking for.

8. Adding the Secret Sauce: The Call-to-Action

Every recipe ends with a secret sauce or special garnish that elevates the dish. Similarly, every blog post should conclude with a call-to-action (CTA) that guides readers to the next step. 

This seems like a given, however not everyone does for fear of sounding too much of a hard sell.

The fact of the matter is, though, that if you don’t recommend a next step to your reader, then it’s highly likely that they’ll simply bounce from your website onto another.

So whether it’s encouraging them to subscribe to your newsletter, explore related articles, or make a purchase, the CTA is your secret sauce for conversions.

In conclusion, just as a recipe book meticulously arranges its recipes to ensure a delightful culinary experience, structuring your blog with care ensures a satisfying reading experience.

By following these tips and viewing your blog as a recipe book, you can create content that not only engages readers but also ranks well in search engine results.

In today’s competitive digital landscape, your blog’s structure is the recipe for SEO success. So, start cooking up delicious content that your readers and search engines will savor.

If you’re interested in more blog structure tips for better SEO, or are looking for how to best optimize your website, then check out the rest of our blog, or schedule a call with one of our experts.

The post Recipe for Success: Blog Structure Tips for Better SEO appeared first on 1Digital® Agency.