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Looking to improve your blog posts? Below are five great ways to get the readership, the comments and the traffic you are looking for:

1) Revamp your Title Tags and URLS Format

You want your title to be catchy but you also want to highlight the keywords in your phrasing. This can be tricky. One way to keep your title informative but also throw in the keyword phrase is to make use of your title tags. You also don’t want to discount meta descriptions which appear under your title in the SERPS. Don’t waste the opportunity to rephrase your title and add another keyword phrase. It is also important to keep your URL’s short, sweet and to the point of your content. Try to remain in the 3-5 word range and get rid of any of those unnecessary “its”, “and’s” and “I’s” which are ignored by the search engine.

2) Pull Quotes

You’ve seen this tactic done before – somewhere in an article, the author will take a certain piece of text, make it better, use different colored text and wrap the rest of the text around it and viola, pull quotes! These quotes are eye-catching and break the article apart in the same way a picture does. Furthermore, you can use these quotes to highlight something particularly interesting in your piece to attract readers to the rest… or you could always use the quote as a great way to highlight a specific keyword phrase without looking too spammy.

3) Include Images

Like quotes, images will automatically attract reader’s attention and break up the writing for easier reading. Images can highlight your words and make your page look pretty. But this is not the only great thing about images. Used properly, images can also help with your search engine ranking. You need to use the alt text key to describe the image (placing a keyword in there wouldn’t hurt either). For those trying to sell something, an image is a great way to connect to your visually enhanced customers and for those offering advice through a blog, images can make the posts much more readable.

4) Highlight your Internal Linking

Internal linking is central to any successful SEO campaign. It will connect your posts to one another for the maximum traffic possible. To benefit from internal linking, use a cross-linker to automatically interlink a number of keywords together.

5) Focus on Keyword Research

We’ve saved the best for last and that is your keywords. You always need to focus your posts around a central keyword phrase or two. Once you have an idea about what to write, check out Google Adword Keyword Tool to find the most popular and most relevant keywords to use in your posts. It may only take a couple of minutes but it will be worth the time in the end.

Keep in mind that there are a number of other great ways to update your blog and attract the traffic you are looking for. Contact us today for more information on how we can improve your business or create your company a web presence that will dominate the search engines and deliver results. Call today at (612) 558-1020 for a free phone consultation.

One of the hardest aspects of writing any search engine optimization content is finding that balance between keyword enriched and interesting. You do not want your posts to read like a walking advertisement but you also do not want to exclude those much-needed keywords in order to get your point across. After all, if your posts are too keyword-riddled then you will not get the readership that you need. However, without these keywords your readers will have a hard time finding the article and your great writing may never be read. There needs to be a happy medium between both. So how do you do it?

First of all, never underestimate the power of subtitles and headings. Not only will a subtitle split up your text to make it more readable but it can also be a great place to add in a keyword phrase. People will automatically turn to the subtitles when scanning an article. You will be able to explain what the post is about but will not disrupt your writing with a keyword-riddled phrase. It is also always a good idea to include a keyword phrase in the title, even if you think it does not belong there. Restructure your wording and try to find a balance between edgy and useful.

Another great way to combine great content with keyword phrasing is to adopt the head and tail content strategy. You will need to write two articles – one of them based on a commercial keyword phrase (the tail piece) and one of them based on really interesting content (the head piece). Next, interlink the head and tail articles on publication. Once the head piece has gained links and the traffic begins to slow down, you can focus the anchor text used to connect to the tail pieces.

If you are having trouble coming up with keywords for your post, then it’s time to do your keyword research. There are a number of tools out there for free that can help you determine what keywords to use for your posts. One of the best ones (that is also free) is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool which can help you determine the weight and popularity of keywords that could work in your post.

Another excellent way to really see the difference in your articles is to use Scribe SEO. Yes, you have to pay for this service but it really is worth your while. Why? Scribe SEO analyses the different SEO factors in any post. It works as an editor that goes over your article and points out what is missing or overused. Scribe SEO will give your post the once over (something you should be doing anyway) and point out any SEO factors so you know exactly what to expect from your posting.

It is completely possible to write an informative or opinion based piece of writing that is also keyword enriched. Contact us today for more information on how we can improve your business or create your company a web presence that will dominate the search engines and deliver results. Call today at (612) 558-1020 for a free phone consultation.

We are all a little guilty of over-using social networking sites. When this is for pleasure, there is no real harm. After all, you are not really hurting anyone if you are chatting on Facebook rather than cooking dinner (except your stomach perhaps). However, when using Facebook for professional purposes, you could end up destroying your business by relying too much on Facebook and not enough on other marketing tools.

Facebook Fever

While there is no denying that Facebook is a hot marketing tool right now, there is still a lot of danger in putting too much effort into making Facebook the center of your marketing campaign. Facebook is easy to use and it seems like almost everyone and their dog have a page now. This means you can reach a wider audience with one simple marketing tool. Furthermore, Facebook is actually fun and addictive to use. Even so, it is important to spread out and see what’s out there. Relying too heavily on Facebook could result in complications and controversy down the road.

Facebook should most certainly be used in your marketing strategies; however, it should be the only thing that you focus on. Why? Because, essentially, you are giving control of your business to someone else. When you allow your pages to be re-directed to another site, such as Facebook, you are giving the power to another Web 2.0 company. You are under their control, their guidance, their regulations and their terms of service. This means that if Facebook suddenly closes its cyber doors, you are left with nothing.

Facebook is getting bigger and bigger by the day. However, eventually, it will all come crashing down. There are already a number of rumors suggesting that Facebook will shut down, that people will need to pay for its services and that Facebook will be governed more strictly. Furthermore, Facebook could soon be competing directly with Google which could not end well for Facebook. In fact, you may have heard about the recent de-activation of several high profile Google engineers Facebook account. This was no accident. Both Google and Facebook want to rule the World Wide Web, and, unfortunately, this is one war that Facebook cannot win.

Stepping outside the Facebook Circle

Instead of putting all your marketing efforts into Facebook, it is a good idea to take a number of publishing paths and tailor your content to a few different websites. That way, if Facebook does take a turn for the worse, you still have a number of other marketing tools to fall back on. The reality is you cannot control the fate of Facebook so don’t let Facebook control the fate of your business.

Interested in establishing your web presence outside of your Facebook page? Contact us today for more information on how we can improve your business or create your company a web presence that will dominate the search engines and deliver results. Call today at (612) 558-1020 for a free phone consultation.