After reading that title you’re probably wondering what a blog post and your Thanksgiving turkey could possibly have in common. Actually, properly roasting and tending to your turkey can be a lot like creating a great new and engaging blog that has guests showing up to joyfully consume your content. Follow these fun holiday themed tips to wine and dine, not only the search engines, but your blog visitors alike.
Fresh Free-Range Turkey
The turkey represents fresh content and the meat of the matter (pun intended). Search engines are always on the lookout for new and engaging content to provide their users. If your website blog can’t deliver, and you are basically offering dry old leftovers, nobody’s going to be interested in your stale content and you’re going to have a quiet and lonely Thanksgiving.
Organic, kosher, natural, heritage, pre-brined… What should you pick?
If you’re not sure what to write about, think about who your target audience is. Are there questions that you’re asked on a regular basis that you could post about? Go right to the source and ask your customers or clients want they would find interesting. Write how-to’s and tips. Think about interviewing someone in your field. What is your competition blogging about? There are tons of ideas out there to be found!
Size Matters
You better have enough turkey to go around! Readers and especially search engines prefer a meatier piece to make clicking through worth their while. The longer the better. At a minimum, 300 words is okay, but 500 is even better.
Longer blog posts will naturally be more detailed and better likely to answer the reader’s questions. This doesn’t mean you can’t feature shorter pieces or that you should ramble on to meet a word count. Just that, when you can, go for that large 24 lb. turkey.
Preparation
From removing the giblets, drying, and rubbing with butter… there is key preparation that needs to be taken into account. Same goes for putting your blog post together. Now that you have a topic, ask yourself, what is the purpose of the piece? What do you want your blog post to achieve? Gather all those great ideas in a clear and concise way to best get across your information. Come up with a structure that makes sense and has a good flow.
Seasoning
Be sure to salt and pepper in strategic keywords throughout the content. Having the right words represented is an essential element of search engine optimization (SEO). Without them, the failure to be found in the search results is assured. Think about using important keywords in headers and alt tags when it makes sense.
Baste That Bird
Just like a tasty turkey, you can’t rush a good blog post. You wouldn’t come home from the store and toss a turkey directly into the oven. If you push out a blog without basting you’re going to end up with dry and burnt information that no one will want to consume. Re-read it several times and see if you can get others to read it as well. You may find things to edit or add to make a good post even better.
Turkey Thermometer
Once your turkey, I mean blog post, is complete, you will want a way to gauge how it’s doing. Are people spending the time to read the post? Check your referrals for inbound links and your social metrics. Check your traffic to get an overall understanding of how popular a post is and whether it is gaining traction over time. If certain topics are not resonating with your audience, it’s likely an indication they aren’t as important to your audience as you thought.
Presentation
Garnish your blog with images or include a short video when you can. People are very visually stimulated! Be sure to include helpful links that support your blog post whether it’s a reputable source off site, or a companion piece within your own website.
But remember, presentation is not only about the garnish, it’s about putting your best face forward. Be yourself and relatable. Let your readers get to know you. Your content is what got them there, but your voice is what will keep them there, and have them coming back for more.
Time to Eat
Don’t let your delicious content go to waste! Be sure to tell everyone you know. Post to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and anywhere else you can. Use social media to make it easier for your audience to find your blog. Friends and family count as readers too!
Leftovers
Who doesn’t love leftover turkey? In our family, you’ll find my mom in the kitchen the next day making the best turkey jook (pronounced “chook”) ever!! Which some would say, even overshadows the actual Thanksgiving Day meal… The same can be said with great past blog posts that had a lot of buzz at the time of posting. It can pay to check those stats, say a year out, and revisit them if their traction is dwindling. Perhaps do a spin-off. Same topic different bend.
Happy Thanksgiving to All
We here at Meyer Computer, Inc. want to say that we are all #SEOGreatful for our clients and followers – past, present and future. Aloha!