Not only in the BtoC area, but also in the BtoB area, it is now said that the existence of owned media is important for attracting customers and acquiring leads. Isn’t there a lot of companies that regularly post and manage their own blog articles? An important factor in getting more people to see your blog is ” SEO = search engine optimization”. This means that it will appear higher in search engines .
For that reason , what should I be careful about when writing individual blog articles and continuing to operate? In this article, we will discuss SEO strategies for blogs .
Let’s understand the basics of SEO
Even if you write a blog , it is meaningless if many people do not see it. It is important to be displayed at the top of the search engine in order to be seen by many people . SEO measures are measures to create a page that can provide high-quality information to users who are searching for “something information”, and as a result, get a high evaluation from Google and display it at the top of the search. Therefore, it is not something that will go well if you only hold down some technical or mechanical points.
Specifically, let’s first understand the following two points.
① Understand how Google evaluates
Search engine rankings are never random. It is designed to display high-quality content, which is meaningful to search users and has high viewing value, in other words, high-quality content .
For example, let’s say a user searches for the keyword “What is SEO ?”
At this time, it is said that the evaluation criteria for modern search engines are that the content is sufficiently comprehensive with useful information about SEO (= information that can solve problems for users who are looking for information), that is worth reading from the user’s point of view, that the user experience is high, and that the information is new .
Conversely, if the content of the search keyword is small, has little relevance, or is outdated, the evaluation will be low, and it will be difficult for it to be displayed at the top of the search results.
What is crawler countermeasures?
Google automatically crawls robots called ” crawlers ” on the Internet and registers a large number of pages in its database . From among them , we have adopted a mechanism to display highly rated pages that are highly relevant to the search keyword at the top of the search results .
Therefore, it is also effective to take this ” crawler countermeasure” and have the crawler quickly find your page (=improve crawlability) and get a high evaluation.
When the crawler crawls the page , it reads various information such as text , images, layout , links , etc. and evaluates the page . Again, the emphasis is on page quality .
For example, if you provide useful information, it will be referred to by many people and backlinks will gather (= increase in popularity), making it easier for crawlers to find you.
Just by updating and operating your blog with attention to points such as “updating (correcting) useful information”, “deleting unnecessary information”, and ” text- centered content ” , you can improve the quality and improve crawlability.
As I mentioned earlier, pages with “low quality content “, “small amount”, “outdated information”, and “contains spam information” are considered low quality, and even if there are other good articles on the same site, crawlability will decrease and SEO effects will not be expected .
(2) Consider the user’s point of view first
I mentioned the evaluation mechanism from Google earlier, but even with that in mind, the important point of view is to “create a page that puts the user’s point of view first.” It can be said that it can be summed up in the following points: “You will be able to understand what you don’t understand”, “Don’t convey incorrect information”, “Don’t convey outdated information”, and “Don’t convey irrelevant information”.
If you compare SEO measures, you can say that ” the spirit of hospitality to those who see your blog ” is important.
What are the results of SEO measures?
So, what specific results and benefits will you get if you take SEO measures on your own blog ?
There is also a possibility that you can expect to attract more customers than advertising!
In order to display the content that your company wants to promote at the top of the Google search results screen, you can also consider a measure called “ listing advertisement (search advertisement )”.
However, it is said that there is a big difference in the click-through rate of users when comparing the “advertising area” where listing ads are displayed and the “ organic area” where pure content is displayed on the search results screen.
According to an overseas survey, the following data have been clarified.
There is a research result that the rate of clicks on search results is 13% for the advertising area of the listing, and 52% for the SEO area ( organic search area), which is four times as many.
In other words, it can be said that improving the quality of the content of your blog and taking measures to be posted at the top of the search results can be expected to attract more customers than placing listing advertisements .
Time consuming, but no monthly operating costs
Let’s think again from the above-mentioned point of view that ” it has the effect of attracting more customers than listing ads “.
For example, if you keep posting listing ads all the time, you will need to keep paying for advertising over the long term, which will incur monthly running costs.
On the other hand, SEO measures require in-house human resources, content planning, and production, but basically do not require operating costs.
It is possible to attract customers on the web without monthly running costs by operating your own blog with SEO measures and continuing to create high-quality content .
Improving the ability to disseminate information on specific genres leads to branding effects
From the user’s point of view, imagine a situation where you want to find out about a specific genre (e.g., ” marketing “, “trends”, etc.) or search for a solution.
When you encounter a situation where the same site or blog is frequently hit, you may find that your credibility increases, saying, “This blog often provides helpful information about the genre of ●●. “
In other words, it can be said that increasing the ability to disseminate information on a specific genre or theme will have a wide influence on general search users, increase trust, and eventually lead to branding effects for the company.
Points to keep in mind when implementing SEO measures
takes time and effort
In order to increase the SEO effect of a blog , it takes human time and effort to continue planning and producing high-quality content that users want, steadily increasing the number of blog articles and gradually enriching it.
If you have just started a blog , it is better to understand that it will take some time for crawlers to find you.
Realize that it will work in the long run
For example, in cases such as “your company’s posts go viral on SNS” or ” advertising plans become hits”, it may lead to explosive customer attraction and sales in a short period of time.
On the other hand, increasing the SEO effect of your blog means, as mentioned above, “Anyway, steadily and gradually, by accumulating small things, you will gradually increase the trust in your company over the long term, and it will lead to the effect of attracting customers.” Let ‘s understand .
Understand that it is difficult to clearly measure the effectiveness of advertising measures
If it is an advertising measure, it is possible to clearly measure the effect, such as “When did you convert through this advertisement ?”
However, it is difficult to clearly track the fact that “the customer saw this article on our blog, which led to the purchase of a product or request for information materials. “
However, by using free analysis tools provided by Google such as ” Google Search Console” and ” Google Analytics” ,
- Number of traffic to your own blog from search
- Ranking for search keywords
- The path through which users entered your blog
-
Understanding Content SEO
Let’s think of ” content SEO ” as one of the strategies for developing content marketing (= attracting prospective customers by continuing to transmit your own content ) . ” Content SEO ” is a measure to display your own content at the top of search results .
From here, I will tell you about the specific steps to practice “ content SEO ”, that is, to display your blog at the top of the search results.
3 things to do before embarking on content SEO
① Clearly define the target user image
Before you start writing articles, clearly define who you want your blog to be.
By having them read your own blog posts when submitting individual articles
- “Whose”
- “what”
- “How to solve”
It is necessary to hold down points such as
For example, if we replace
- “Who’s” = “the person in charge of SNS operation of a company”
- “What” = “Hints to avoid flames”
- “How to solve” = “Be able to learn and understand from concrete failure cases”
And so on.
In the part of “clearly defining the target user image”,
let’s focus on the “who” part of the above.The trick* is to think deeply about “who, what, and how we can solve the problem”, “what kind of people we can provide hints to,” and “what kind of people we want to see our blog and take an interest in our company” based on the know-how of our own business .
② Accumulate articles while paying attention to the URL structure
Before accumulating articles, be careful about the URL structure of each article. In terms of blogs , it means what kind of ID or alias (common name) is assigned to the end of the URL of each article .
<Example 1> When applying the “ID” of each article to the end of the URL
https://△△△.com/article/1100<Example 2> When assigning an “alias (common name)” to each article at the end of the URL
https://△△△.com/article/how-to-seoGoogle recommends assigning an “alias (common name)” as in <Example 2>. In other words, if your blog post is about SEO , add a nickname like “how-to-seo” at the end of the URL so that you know what you’re talking about. This is because it is easier to understand what the article is talking about even if you stand in the user’s point of view.
If you are using an existing blog service such as Amoeba Blog or note, it may be difficult to use your favorite alias here.
Depending on the blog environment you are using , if you can arbitrarily assign the end of the URL, it is recommended to assign “alias” instead of “ID” or “date” as much as possible .
③ Set goals
SEO measures are difficult to measure clearly compared to advertising measures, but if you do not set some goals, you will not see any improvements during operation .
So before you start, set your goals.
in particular
- Number of accesses
- number of clicks
- Number of daily, weekly and monthly content updates
- Number of rewrites per day, week, month
You can set up something like
In addition, it is also important to flexibly reconsider and change the target while observing the behavior of readers such as access status, rather than “Once set, do not change it”.
Practicing Content SEO
From here, I will tell you the points to actually plan and produce individual articles.
① Plan and draft keywords that match the needs of the target
First of all, we plan and draft a “keyword” that will be the main theme of the article. From the user’s point of view, set keywords as what the target wants to know and what you want to solve.
In addition, let’s protect * one keyword per article. *Since the information conveyed in the article is clarified and the theme stands out, it will be highly evaluated by Google and will be more likely to be displayed at the top.
It is more effective to consider “co-occurring words” that are searched in sets together.
For search users, “what can be understood” and “what can be solved” become clearer, which contributes to being highly evaluated by Google and being displayed at the top.
(2) Incorporate search needs into content and edit appropriately
After deciding on the keywords to be covered in the article, we will start the actual article production.
Create a table of contents and headings
Create a table of contents and add headings to each paragraph to help you understand the general content of the text.
Organizing the table of contents and headings not only makes it easier for the reader to understand, but also helps the writer to clarify what they should tell the reader and what they should write, so that they do not get lost in the middle of writing.● Readability of text
Here too, the “user’s point of view” is important. Avoid using difficult words, katakana terms, and technical terms as much as possible, and use simple, everyday words to finish your sentences.
● Insert appropriate line breaks and margins
We will add appropriate line breaks and margins to make the article easier to read. In addition, since a large percentage of modern web articles are viewed on smartphones, it is also important to pay attention to “font size, margins, and line breaks that are easy to read even from smartphones.”
●Using bullet points
It is effective when you want to give a concise and easy-to-understand explanation, such as when giving a specific example.
●Inserting images and diagrams
If it is easier to understand with diagrams or images, use them accordingly.
④ Post a blog article on SNS and have many people see it
After the blog article is finished, actively post it on other media such as SNS. It will be an opportunity for many people to see it, and it will also work positively from the viewpoint of acquiring backlinks
What to do and what not to do in continuing blog SEO measures
From here, I will tell you what to do and what not to do after entering the operation phase after you have actually started accumulating blog articles.
① It is better to keep working on measurement
As I mentioned earlier, it is better to use the free access analysis tools “ Google Search Console” and “ Google Analytics” provided by Google .
- Number of traffic to your own blog from search
- Ranking for search keywords
- The path through which users entered your blog
Let’s measure what kind of actions users are taking on your own blog on a daily basis.
This is because, based on the measurement results, points for improvement such as “What is lacking in the company’s blog ?” will be clarified, and the next steps will be clarified.
Even if you are using an existing blog service such as Amoeba Blog or note , it has a simple access analysis function .
For details on how to implement Search Console and Google Analytics, we have posted articles in the past on ferret, so please refer to that as well.
② It is better to update and rewrite articles frequently
It is better to update and rewrite articles that have been submitted once.
If you continue to post old information, it cannot be said to be useful information for users, and the evaluation from Google will also decrease.
Also, when a competing blog publishes a new article, it may be overtaken by the ranking.
If you update and rewrite frequently and have Google ‘s crawler discover the movement, the evaluation of your blog will improve.
3) Do not commit penalties
For example, actions that include unnatural text from the reader’s point of view , such as trying to increase the number of characters or wanting the crawler to detect keywords, abuse or enumerate the same keywords, fall under Google ‘s “penalty act ” and cause it to be considered as “low quality content “.
“User’s point of view first” is the royal road of blog SEO!
The key to blog SEO measures is to give top priority to whether the information is useful for users, and steadily create a blog that is easy for Google crawlers to find . A ” crawler ” is a robot, but the “quality of information” is also emphasized in its judgment criteria.
Therefore, when creating and rewriting your own blog articles, it is more important than anything to put yourself in the user’s point of view, rather than technical aspects. “Is this article sending useful information?”, “Is it an article that can solve things I don’t understand?”, “Are you posting old information?” Please help me and help me grow my blog .
