In 2019, the content marketing industry was estimated to be worth $300 billion according to Quora Creative. The crazy part is, this is up from $195.58 billion in 2016 and in just 3 years, the content marketing industry has added another $100 billion to the mix!
So what does this mean for new bloggers who are looking to get into the market and make a successful year?
It means the sooner you get your blog to rank in Google, the quicker you can get your piece of the $300 billion pie as it continues to grow in 2020.
So How Do You Get Your Blog To Rank On Google?
You need to follow search engine optimization best practices (SEO). If you just make a website and throw up a couple of blog posts, it won’t be enough to generate organic traffic to your blog. In order to attract visitors and gain success, you’ll need to make sure you’re following the best SEO practices in 2020.
In this article, we’ll go over what SEO is, how it works, and how to get your blog on Google by following the best SEO methods. Even if you’re a beginner and you’re just about to start, after reading this article you’ll have solid knowledge on how to successfully rank your blog this year.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the best SEO practices so you can start growing your blog right now!
What is SEO and How Does it Work?
Well, it’s actually quite simple. SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is the practice of optimizing your website pages so that they show up on the top of the search results in search engines like Google and Bing.
While some websites will pay Google to put their ads at the very top of the search results for a specific keyword, many bloggers find the majority of their users coming from organic (unpaid) traffic. The best way to get more organic traffic is by improving your search engine results.
SEO simply involves making adjustments to your website content as well as design so that it shows up higher in Google’s search engine. According to Backlinko, the top 3 organic search results receive 75.1% of clicks on any given search. This means if you’re in position 4 or lower, only 1 out of 4 people will click on your website. The further back you are, the lower the chances that someone is going to click.
This is why it’s so crucial for you to make sure you build up your SEO skills to ensure your blog’s success. SEO is simple, but often it can be difficult to execute.
How Does SEO Work?
Though SEO can get complicated when it comes to the various factors that can affect your search engine ranking, the basic process is quite simple.
Search engines, like Google, are in the business of providing the best service for their users. This means that they want to make sure every time someone searches for something, they receive the most relevant, high-quality results possible. Therefore providing the most valuable content should be a priority of every blogger.
In order to make sure Google shows the best and most relevant content, they will scan or “crawl” various websites to understand everything they can about each site. This will allow them to figure out the best website to show to a user for a given keyword or topic they search for.
Search engines will also scan a site to determine how easy it is to read and navigate things, rewarding user-friendly websites with better rankings in the search engine results.
How to Get Your Blog On Google
There are several ways you can get your blog to appear high on Google’s search results. By improving your search engine optimization, you will be able to increase visibility on Google.
SEO essentially involves taking what Google says a good search result is and then tweaking your site to match their guidelines or rules. The best way to do this is by using specific keywords within your website to rank higher for those keywords.
For example: Let’s say you have a website about building dog houses.
To ensure you get your content in front of the right audience, you want to try and optimize your blog posts to make sure they appear at the top of Google’s search results for anyone searching for the keyword, “build a dog house.”
Let’s look at specific SEO practices you can use to get your blog on Google.
4 Important SEO Practices to Get Your Blog on Google
There are a variety of SEO practices to get your blog to rank on Google in 2020. Today we’ll take a look at 4 of the most important practices that you can start implementing to grow your audience this year. While this list doesn’t cover every SEO practice, it covers the most important tips to start with.
- Focus On 1-2 Long-tail Keywords
- Use 1-2 Keywords Specifically Throughout Your Post
- Make Mobile-Friendly Blog Posts
- Use Internal & Inbound Links On Your Blog
Let’s get right into it!
1. Focus on 1-2 Long-tail Keywords
You may have heard that you should try to fit in as many keywords as you possibly can in each blog post. However, this isn’t the case anymore. In fact, this can actually decrease your SEO, because the search engines will consider this practice as “keyword stuffing”.
It also isn’t the best way to read a blog as a user. Remember, Google cares about high-quality, relevant content. They want to give their users the best experience, so you shouldn’t force extra keywords into your content as that doesn’t feel natural.
One great rule of thumb is to choose 1 or 2 long-tail keywords in each blog post. Even though you can use more than 1 in each post, by focusing on a single one, you’ll be able to increase the relevance of the post.
You might be thinking, ‘Why should I use long-tail keywords?’
Long-tail keywords are great because they are often related to questions your audience is searching for. Focusing on the keyword: “how to build a dog house” is more impactful for SEO than “dog house”.
Plus, website visitors searching for these types of long-tail keywords are much more likely to read a post that’s relevant to them. Plus, they’re likely to stick around to read a whole post. Long-tail keywords help you generate specific traffic – which means better audiences.
Another and very important reason why you should focus on long-tail keywords is that they often uncompetitive, and it is easier to rank for this type of keywords, especially if your website is new.
2. Use 1-2 Keywords Specifically Throughout Your Post
Now that you’ve chosen your 1 or 2 keywords, it’s time to put them in the right place within your blog post.
There are 4 main areas you want to put your keywords:
- Headers & Body
- Title Tag
- URL
- Meta Description
– Headers & Body:
You should mention your keyword naturally throughout the body of your blog post and in your headers. Don’t go overboard, stuffing the keywords wherever you can.
Before you begin writing your blog post, you should start thinking about how you will fit your keywords into your content. While it’s good to plan where they will go, it shouldn’t be your main focus. A quality blog post should always be your number one priority.
Whenever you create a blog post or any content for that matter, your main focus should always be to create something that your audience will find valuable. Create something that solves their problems. Be informative, helpful, answering questions, and going the extra mile. When you do that, you’ll find that your keywords will naturally flow throughout your blog posts.
– Title Tag
The title of your blog post will be the first thing someone sees on a Google search, making it the main determining factor on whether they will click it or not. Including your keyword here is non-negotiable. This title is called a “title tag” by Google.
You should place your keyword within the first 60 characters (not words). Only so many characters can fit on the search engine before Google cuts it off with an ellipsis “…”
If you have a longer headline, you should make sure your keyword is placed near the beginning of your title tag, as it may get cut off, decreasing relevancy.
Also, it’s important that you put your keyword in a title tag in a creative and engaging way. It’s because Google cares about the Click-Through-Rate (CTR) – a difference between how many people see your title tag on search results and an how many of them click on it. CTR was and still remains an important SEO factor in 2020.
– URL
Search engines will also analyze your URL to understand what your blog post is about. It’s one of the first things Google will crawl on a page. Remember to include your 1 or 2 keywords in the URL.
For example, if your site is called “Build The Best Dog House”, and you created your first blog post called “How to Build A Dog House”, here is an example URL:
buildthebestdoghouse.com/blog/how-to-build-a-dog-house
– Meta Description
The final place you will want to put your keyword is in what’s called a “meta description”. This snippet is made to give your audience a bit more information about your blog post. You need to put your keyword here once again to make sure both your audience and Google are clear on what your blog post will be about.
You need to remember that your meta description should still make sense. It should easily readable, and also engaging.
Bonus tip: Invoke some curiosity in your reader by hinting at what’s to come.
3. Make Mobile-Friendly Blog Posts
According to Global Stats November 2019 Statcounter, the mobile market share is 51.7% versus desktop at 45.4% (with the remaining on the tablet). This means that more people are making searches on their smartphones rather than their computers.
As more and more people search from their phones, you’ll need to ensure your blog is mobile-friendly to give them the best experience possible. Google will rank websites that are mobile-friendly higher than those that aren’t optimized for mobile.
The best way to make your website mobile-friendly is with a responsive design. A mobile-friendly blog page will only have 1 URL rather than 2 (one for desktop and one for mobile). By having just 1 link, it will allow for easier inbound traffic, since inbound links will be focused rather than split.
By building up a single link, Google will see it as more powerful, and rank you higher.
Bonus tip: Keep in mind that Google is constantly changing. Their algorithm is always updating which means you need to keep making adjustments to keep your SEO game up. For more up to date information on how Google is changing, you can check out the official Google Blog.
4. Use Internal & Inbound Links On Your Blog
One of the easiest ways you can improve your SEO to rank on Google is to use inbound and internal links.
Inbound links (also called backlinks) are when another website links to one of your web pages on your blog. This is one of the best ways you can improve your reputation in Google’s eyes. It also shows the relevancy of your content. If your blog is about how to build dog houses, Google will better understand what you offer if you have links coming to your site from other websites in the dog niche like dog blogs.
According to Google, generating backlinks should be a natural process, and it’s against Google’s terms and conditions to build those links manually. However, even big SEO companies do that, and for a new website, generating backlinks naturally seems to be quite impossible.
Therefore, doing some safe link building by yourself can be a good idea. The best option is to reach out to high authority websites, and ask if you could submit guest posts with links to your website. Also, being active in forums, and social media sites work well when you provide valuable content and leave a link to your website.
Other than that, there are several other methods to build inbound links to your site. However, we are not going to talk about them as they are not considered safe anymore and can eventually harm your website.
Internal links are links that you post on your blog that take the user to another place on your blog. For instance, if you’re writing a blog post titled, “How to Build Dog Houses”, and you have a second blog titled, “How to Maintain Your Dog House”, it’s easy to put a link to the maintenance blog post within your first blog post.
Not only it will increase your relevancy and authority on Google, but it’s also helpful for keeping people on your blog longer. Anyone interested in also learning how to maintain their dog house will love being able to click on the link and learn more. This further boosts your SEO score since when a user spends a long time on your website, this tells Google that your website is higher quality, providing more valuable content.
Conclusion
When you’re first trying to figure out how to grow your blog, your main goal should be to understand how to get your blog on Google. The best way to do that is by following these SEO best practices for 2020.
Remember to:
- Focus On 1-2 Long-tail Keywords
- Use 1-2 Keywords Specifically Throughout Your Post
- Headers & Body
- Title Tag
- URL
- Meta Description
- Make Mobile-Friendly Blog Posts
- Use Internal & Inbound Links On Your Blog
Before you know it, by following these tips and adding in a little SEO elbow grease, you’ll begin to rank your blog in Google, grow a following, and gain success in the $300 billion content marketing world.