A blog is a great marketing tool. It might feel like an ‘old-school thing’, but it’s still a really strong SEO tool in 2022. Google just loves great content! So if you’re thinking about starting a blog, I only have one thing to say: go for it! Let’s make 2022 the year in which you finally start your blog! But what kind of things should you think about before starting a blog? If you take a little time to think about how to set up your blog before you begin, you’ll have less work later on. Which things could really use some extra SEO love? In this post, I’ll tell you all about why a blog is so important for SEO and give you practical tips on how to set up a blog on your site.
Why is a blog important for SEO?
Google reads text. That means that sites with a lot of great content have a higher chance to rank high in the search engines. A blog is a perfect way to write about what you know. It’ll give you the opportunity to write things that your audience will want to read. You probably want to rank for some very competitive terms. If you write all kinds of blog posts on different aspects of those competitive terms, you’ll make it much easier to rank for those competitive terms too. All you need is (SEO) love and some great internal links to get ahead in those search engine result pages.
Tips on how to start a blog
If you start from scratch and you don’t even have a site, you’ll need to dive into things such as hosting, themes and installing awesome SEO plugins. But let’s just assume that you have a site, but don’t have a blog (yet). How do you start that first post? Let’s go through some practical tips together!
1. Choose your niche
You should always write about what you know. But you should not write about everything you know. Pick a niche! Decide upon the main topic and write posts related to that topic. It’s more likely that your audience will come back and read your other posts if you’re writing about similar topics. People will know what to expect. Starting a mom blog implies that you write about all things concerning your children and family life. Starting a travel blog implies you write about traveling. You can write about something slightly off-topic once in a while of course, but try to stick to your niche. An audience of a travel blog doesn’t expect a blog post about gardening.
2. Do your keyword research
Once you’ve chosen your niche, read up on the basics of keyword research. Try to find out what people are searching for. What words are they using when they want to read about your niche and your topic? You should really get inside the heads of your potential audience. If you do your keyword research properly, you should end up with a long list of keywords you would like to be found for. Try to come up with competitive, head keywords as well as with less competitive long-tail keywords. And, don’t
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This article was written by Marieke van de Rakt and originally published on SEO blog • Yoast.