ONION HEALTH PROPERTIES, BENEFITS, AND NUTRITIONAL VALUE INCLUDE COVID-19, EYE, SKIN, AND HAIR CARE.

ONION HEALTH PROPERTIES, BENEFITS, AND NUTRITIONAL VALUE INCLUDE COVID-19, EYE, SKIN, AND HAIR CARE.

 

Onions are an ancient food with many nutritional and medicinal properties. Eating purpose onions with honey and a little turmeric and applying it to your chest overnight can work wonders for covid -19.

What Exactly Are Onions?

What is Onion

What is Onion

Onions are vegetables that are also known as common onions or bulb onions. Onion is a member of the same genus as garlic, shallots, leeks, and chives, which is allium. And all of these vegetables contain a variety of vitamins, minerals, and powerful plant chemicals that are beneficial to health in a variety of ways. Onion benefits for men, in particular, are receiving more attention.

 It’s typically served cooked. They can also be eaten raw and used to make pickles and chutneys. The onion has a strong flavor that is sharp and pungent. Though it is a temperate crop, it can be grown in a variety of climates (temperate, tropical, and subtropical).

As previously stated, a bulb onion is nothing more than a short stem with fleshy leaves. It serves as a food reserve for the plant, allowing it to survive in harsh weather conditions.

The most negative aspect of the onion is definitely that it makes us cry, but otherwise, it is a true nutritional treasure and an integral part of our gastronomy. It hides many nutrients and medicinal properties under its layers, minerals, and trace elements (calcium, magnesium, chlorine, cobalt, copper, iron, phosphorus, iodine, nickel, potassium, silicon, zinc, sulfur, and bromine). it is also found in vitamins (A, B, C, and E).

Onions contain a volatile sulfur essence that gives them their unique spicy flavor. One of these ingredients dissolves quickly in water to produce sulfuric acid, which causes tears when cut.

In addition, onions contain a volatile substance called allyl, which has a bactericidal and sterilizing effect. It is also called “vegetable insulin” due to its interesting content of glucokinase, a substance that lowers blood sugar levels. For all these reasons, the Spanish Nutrition Foundation recommends its consumption, emphasizing its diuretic and antiseptic properties.

It is very versatile in the kitchen and the best way to reap the benefits of onions is to eat them raw. You won’t lose much.

When buying onions, you need to choose ones with firm bulbs, no sprouts, and intact skins. To store them, they should be kept in a dry, well-ventilated place and prevented from accumulating.

fiber:

 Onions are a source of dietary fiber that contributes to the intake of soluble dietary fiber. The type of fiber found in onions may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure, stroke, heart failure, and heart attack. In addition, according to the Spanish Heart Federation, it helps lower cholesterol levels.

vitamin:

100 grams of onions provide 11.5% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 helps the body produce serotonin and myelin, so onions are good for cognitive and neurological function. Additionally, one serving of onion provides 5.9% of the recommended daily allowance of folic acid and 3.9% of the vitamin C your body needs.

 mineral:

 100 grams of onions provides 8.5% of the daily calcium needed for strong bones and teeth. Additionally, onions also provide manganese.

Properties and Benefits of Onions

Properties and Benefits of Onions1

Properties and Benefits of Onions1

 

Good for the circulatory system

 It helps prevent blood clots from forming, promotes blood circulation, and fights diseases caused by circulatory disorders.

 diuretic

 It is highly recommended for patients with renal failure, gout, kidney stones, and edema as it promotes fluid drainage. Sterilization, expectorant

 Along with garlic, it is one of the best natural remedies for combating respiratory infectious processes due to the high sulfur compounds it contains. Leave a finely chopped onion by your bed at night.

 digestion and detoxification

 It aids digestion by stimulating the liver, gallbladder, and pancreas, but should be avoided if you have heartburn. Onions can remove toxins and ferments produced in the stomach after digestion.

Onion Information

Onion Information

Onion Information

Slicing onions make you cry because the onion emits a sulfur-based gas when cut. Sulfuric acid is formed when the gas reacts with the water in your eyes. Your tear ducts work overtime to clear your eyes of this fiery irritant. If you want no more (or fewer) tears, move your face away from the onion so the gas dissipates before it reaches your eyes.

Another tip for reducing tears is to chill the onions for 30 minutes first. Then, cut off the top and peel the outer layers away from the root end, leaving the root end intact.

Bulb onions are available in yellow, red, or white. Yellow onions account for approximately 87 percent of the commercial onion crop in the United States; red onions account for 8 percent, and white onions account for 5%.

Scallions, also known as green onions, are immature yellow, red, or white onions harvested before the bulb forms. Immature onions are also known as “spring onions” and “salad onions.”

A scallion is not the same as a shallot. This is most likely because “échalion” is another name for shallot, derived from the French échalote. Shallots have a distinct flavor, but it is more similar to that of mature onions than to that of scallions.

 

What Are the Various Onion Varieties?

What Are the Various Onion Varieties

What Are the Various Onion Varieties

Onion is so widely used that it can be found in almost any culinary dish from around the world. There are many different types of onions, but we’ll focus on the most common ones here.

Green onions – They are immature onions that haven’t yet formed a bulb.

Leeks – They are shaped like overgrown scallions (the long-necked onion with a small bulb) and are usually used in sauces and soups.

Red onions – Sweet to be eaten raw. The exterior skin and flesh are deep magenta.

Purpose onions – They are smaller and brown-skinned and have purpose flesh.

Yellow onions – They have a strong and sulfur-like aroma. It is ivory white flesh that is surrounded by heavy brown skin.

Sweet onions – They have a lighter, less-opaque skin that surrounds the larger and slightly fatter body of the vegetable.

White onions – They have papery white skin, and they are milder and sweeter than their yellow counterparts.

 

SOME OF THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF ONIONS

the health benefit of onion benefits

the health benefit of onion benefits

 

Onions Are Good for Your Health?

Eat raw onions or cooked onions, they are loaded with benefits. And you can eat them whenever you want – day or night. Vegetables are an excellent source of vitamins C and B6, folate, iron, and potassium. Onions are also rich in manganese which offers protection against cold and flu.

Onions also contain quercetin, another antioxidant that fights inflammation. More interestingly, cooking onions in soup doesn’t diminish their quercetin value but simply transfers the antioxidant from the vegetable to the soup broth.

And not just the vegetable, even the essential oil from onions has benefits. The oil has antiseptic and antibacterial properties.

When combined with garlic, could have greater benefits. The two, together, are known to be effective antidepressants, painkillers, anticoagulants, and anti-inflammatories.

It may not induce weight loss directly but substituting them for high-calorie foods can make some contribution.

 

Is It Better to Eat Onions Raw or Cooked?

Is It Better to Eat Onions Raw or Cooked

Is It Better to Eat Onions Raw or Cooked

Whether raw or cooked – onions are super healthy. However, raw onions have higher levels of organic sulfur compounds that offer numerous benefits.

Boiled onions have benefits. They serve as a good source of fiber and copper. Fiber helps keep digestive issues at bay while copper aids brain communication. Even pickled onions have most of the benefits onions provide. One point to be noted about pickled onions is – most brands contain additives that could be harmful.

All of what we spoke about, all of these benefits, are because of the nutrients present in onions. Which is what we will look at now.

 

What Is the Nutrition Profile of Onions?

Onions are rich in sulfur, fibers, potassium, calcium, vitamin B, and vitamin C and they are low in fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Here is a piece of detailed information about onion nutrition facts:

One small onion contains about 28 calories and 7 grams of carbs. Onions are also rich in vitamins A, B6, B-complex, and C, as well as iron, folate, and potassium. They are excellent sources of sulfuric compounds, flavonoids, phytochemicals, and polyphenols.

 

IMPRESSIVE HEALTH BENEFITS OF ONIONS

impressive health benefits of onions

impressive health benefits of onions

 Fight Cancer

It Contains Cancer-Fighting Compounds. As per a study conducted by the University of Guelph, red onions are the most effective in destroying breast and colon cancer cells. These onions have high levels of quercetin and anthocyanin – two compounds that contribute to this characteristic. Onions activate the pathways that provoke the cancer cells to kill themselves. They make the environment unfavorable for cancer cells to communicate, and this inhibits their growth.

Improve Heart Health

The flavonoids in red onions can contribute to heart health. Onions are also rich in organosulfur, which can help prevent heart disease. According to one Argentine study, intake of the organosulfur compounds found in onions can cut the risk of cardiovascular disease. Onions contain thiosulfates that act as natural blood thinners and reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Lower Blood Sugar Levels

Onion helps us to control lower blood sugar levels. The study was conducted on diabetic rats, and the results were encouraging. One of the sulfur compounds in onions and quercetin can have beneficial effects on blood sugar. However, it was found that onions exhibited a positive effect only when taken along with metformin, the antidiabetic drug.

 Promote Healthy Digestion

The digestive benefits of onions can be attributed to inulin, a fiber present in the vegetable. Inulin acts as a food source for the beneficial bacteria in the intestines. Consuming this fiber helps your body maintain good levels of healthy bacteria. However, the thiosulfates in onions can cause harm to these beneficial bacteria (as they have antibacterial properties). Hence, if you are sensitive to the antibacterial properties of onions, do consult your doctor.

It maintains Bone

Onions can prevent age-related osteoporosis. Eating onions can regulate 5 percent more bone mass than those who ate less onion. Onion consumption was also found to have a beneficial effect on the bone density of women older than 50 years.

Prevent Inflammation and Other Allergies

We have already seen quercetin (and other flavonoids) in onions can help prevent inflammation. Onions also treat allergies by preventing the cells from releasing histamine.

Cooking with onions can help open and drain your sinuses. And the antihistamine properties of quercetin can also aid in reducing nasal congestion. Even eating raw onion at night can help relieve congestion – the sulfur compounds in the onion can break down the mucous.

Improve Immune System

Onions contain selenium that stimulates immune function. The mineral also prevents excessive immune response, which can have adverse effects. Immune cells deficient in selenium develop and reproduce inefficiently, and here’s where onions come into the picture. Such cells also have difficulty producing important proteins and transporting calcium.

Sleeping with onions underneath your feet, placing them in your socks. Does this have benefits? Certain sources say that it eradicates infection and hydrates your body; the reason behind this could be that the feet contain the nerve endings of all the organs of the body. Placing onions beneath the feet transfers their beneficial properties to your interiors. However, there is no research on this – and we don’t know how far the information is true.

Cure Ear Disorders

As per one report, though research is limited, most parents swear by onions to cure ear ailments. They insist that onion juice can work great to relieve earache. One way to do this is to heat the onion, extract some of the juice, and pour a few drops into the infected ear. All you need to do is place the onion in an oven. Let it be for 15 minutes or until it becomes soft. Take out the onion – once it’s cool, cut it in half and squeeze the juice into a small bowl. You can strain the juice once, and using a medicinal dropper, pour a few drops of the juice into your infected ear.

You can also place onion packs on the infected ear. Though the remedy is not scientifically proven, some people believe it might work.
 

Enhance Eye Health

The sulfur in onions improves the health of the lens of the eye. It stimulates the production of a protein named glutathione, which acts as an antioxidant. Higher levels of glutathione mean a reduced risk of glaucoma, macular degeneration, and cataracts.

The selenium in onions supports vitamin E in the eye (which protects the cells in the eye).

Prevent Blood Clots

Onions contain a compound called rutin, which can help prevent blood from clotting. In numerous mice studies, it was found to be the most potently anti-thrombotic compound.

The rutin in onions helps block an enzyme (protein disulfide isomerase), which is released very quickly when blood clots form.


Onion Boost your Energy

The fiber in onions slows digestion and keeps energy levels stable. The inulin in the vegetable helps maintain your stamina levels.

Improve Sexual Health

Onions are one of the herbal medicines used in western Uganda for managing sexual impotence and erectile dysfunction. Even otherwise, vegetable is known to have benefits for men. Taking onion juice with honey is known to increase fertility in men.

Enhance Brain Health

Onions bind with the harmful toxins in the brain and flush them out of the body. And the sulfur-containing compounds in onions can slow down age-related memory loss. The extracts of onions have been found to maintain the hippocampus. However, a part of these memory-fighting properties might be lost upon cooking. Hence, try your best to eat the fruit raw.

Help Cure Fever

Onion can be included as a food ingredient to cure fever. It can also prevent or treat nose bleeding, given its natural fumes, which can help the blood clot (externally).

Onions for Hair Growth:

  • Onions have antibacterial and anti-fungal properties, that’s why onion juice helps reduce dandruff and as a result, enhances hair growth
  • They enhance collagen production that’s why beneficial for hair growth.
  • Onions are a rich source of many minerals that are essential for hair growth

Eating Raw Onions Daily:

Onions are a good source of multivitamins like Vitamin C and Vitamin B. On the other hand, they are rich in minerals like potassium, selenium, chromium, calcium, and phosphorous.

Red vs White Onion:

If you are thinking about which variety of onions has more health benefits, the answer is so simple, All of them. But red onions are healthier as they have Anthocyanins flavonoids in them.

Cool Facts About Onions?

In the Middle Ages, onions were used as a form of currency.

  • Guess why sliced onions cause tears? Because sliced onions release sulfuric acid that reacts with the moisture in our eyes and causes tears.
  • The world’s largest onion weighed about 18
  • As per folklore, the thickness of an onion’s skin can predict the severity of the following winter. The thinner the skin, the milder the winter.
  • New York City was once known as the big onion – as it was the kind of city where one could peel layer after layer and still not reach the core.

 

SIDE EFFECTS OF ONION

effect of eating onion

effect of eating onion

 

1.  Skin Irritation

Some people may experience face or skin irritation and rashes on applying onion juice to the skin. So, it is advisable to test it on a small area of your skin before its application.

2.  Drastic Decrease In Blood Sugar Levels

Onion decreases blood sugar levels, so diabetics should check their blood sugar before consuming it because it might lower their blood sugar levels too much.

3.  Gastric Burning

Although onion is used in treating several gastrointestinal disorders, excess consumption may cause gastric irritation, vomiting, nausea, and burning. If you experience any such conditions regularly from onion usage, it is advisable to consult your healthcare provider.

4.  Pregnant And Nursing Women

Pregnant and nursing women should limit the amount of onion consumption as it often causes heartburn during these stages.

5.  Heartburn

Uncontrolled intake of onion can lead to heartburn. It can cause adverse effects on people with heart ailments. Quick medical attention is required in such situations.

6.   Bad Breath

Onion often leaves a bad breath after its consumption due to its strong aroma, which can be attributed to its high content of sulfur.

7.  Blood Pressure

Onion may reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Thus, those taking medications for blood pressure should exercise caution in their consumption.

8.   Increased Sensitivity

People who are allergic to onion should not take aspirin and onion together as aspirin increases onion sensitivity.

9.   Increased Lithium

Onion may decrease the capability of the body to get rid of lithium. So, it is recommended to consult a doctor before taking any lithium medications while consuming onions.

 

Conclusion Tips

The onions are great. You must include them in your daily food. It is daily medicine.

 

 

 

 

10 THINGS THAT WILL HELP YOU RAISE EXTREMELY INTELLIGENT AND SUCCESSFUL CHILDREN

10 THINGS THAT WILL HELP YOU RAISE EXTREMELY INTELLIGENT AND SUCCESSFUL CHILDREN

In this topic, you’ll learn 10 things that will help you raise very bright and successful kids in life if you can take action now. Train your brain

Raise Emotionally Intelligent and Successful Children

Here are 10 things that will help you raise highly intelligent and successful children. All parents take pride in raising children with flexible, resilient, and intelligent brains. Children who fail to meet these expectations usually worry their parents. But according to Lisa Barrett, a neuroscientist and psychologist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, a child’s intelligence is largely determined by their parents, not the child themselves. “A child’s brain is not a miniature version of an adult’s brain.” It is the developing brain that wires itself to the outside world.

What parent doesn’t want their child to succeed in school, stay out of trouble, and grow up to be a successful adult? As I discovered while raising my daughter, this is easier said than done. It’s tough.

The truth is, there is no one-size-fits-all formula that guarantees parenting success (trust me, I’ve tried). However, some important studies provide guidelines to significantly improve the chances.

Here are 10 things that will help you raise highly intelligent children.

Be a gardener, not a carpenter.

Be a gardener, not a carpenter

Be a gardener, not a carpenter

When it comes to parenting, Barrett suggests taking a “gardener’s approach” rather than a “carpenter’s” approach.

“The carpenter cuts the wood into the desired shape,” she explains. Gardeners encourage natural growth by maintaining a fertile landscape. Similarly, parents can match their children to a particular person. B. Concert violinist. Or you can create an environment that encourages healthy growth, no matter what direction your child goes. One day you might want your child to play the violin in your symphony orchestra but forcing them to take lessons (the carpenter’s approach) makes the child see the master and music as a chore. One gardening method is to place different musical opportunities around the house and see what music your child is interested in. Do you like banging pots and pans?

Barrett continued, “If you know what kind of ‘plant’ you’re growing, you can ‘condition’ the soil so that it can take root and thrive.”

Talk and read with your child often.

Talk and read with your child often

Talk and read with your child often

According to Barrett, research shows that your brain uses words even if you don’t understand what they mean by the first few months of life.

This is how psychologists lay a neural foundation for later learning, and the more words you hear, the greater the effect. She also says her vocabulary and reading comprehension improve.

“Teaching the ’emotion language’ (sad, happy, frustrated, etc.) is especially beneficial,” she says. The more you learn, the more adaptable you become.

“Practice this advice by responding to other people’s emotions.”

“Did you see that crying boy? He’s in pain because he fell and scraped his knee. He is sad and probably wants his parents to hug him.”

“Imagine being your children’s tour guide through a mysterious world of people and their movements and sounds.”

Explain everything to them.

Explain everything to them

Explain everything to them

It’s hard to have kids who always ask “why?”, but when you explain something to them, you take something new and novel out of the world and make it predictable.

Barrett discourages answering “because I said so” to the “why” question and is more likely to adjust his behavior when he understands why children behave in certain ways. says it will be possible.

“If they knew, ‘You can’t eat all your cookies just because someone in power said so. “Maybe not,” she says. It is better to. This reasoning helps them understand the consequences of their actions and fosters empathy.

Assist your children in imitating you

Assist your children in imitating you

Assist your children in imitating you

Have you ever noticed that tasks that seem right for you (such as cleaning the house or pulling weeds) look like games to your child? We observe that children naturally learn by playing and, most importantly, by imitating adults.

“This is a quick way for them to learn and gives them a sense of mastery. So give them toy brooms, garden plows, and lawnmowers and start imitating them,” she says. increase.

Similarly, American psychologist and author Jenny Marchal observe that when parents act intelligently, so do children. A worldview that observes adult behavior. “Kids who see you reading, writing, or doing something creative will imitate you and get smarter,” Marshall writes on lifehack.org.

Avoid overprotection.

Avoid-overprotecting-them

Avoid-overprotecting-them

In today’s fast-paced world of parenting, U.S. child development expert Eric Dodge notes the fact that many parents find it difficult to get their children to solve problems, instead of rushing to solve them.

Additionally, children expert and author Julie Lyscott Haymes, citing Harvard University research, argues that allowing children to make mistakes can help them develop resilience and resourcefulness, and argues that it is essential for preparing children to succeed.

“It’s not easy. “We all have to walk a fine line between protecting our children and allowing them to face problems to learn from them,” she wrote to time.com. I’m here.

Similarly, Marchall believes that allowing children to take risks and make mistakes can help them develop basic life skills from an early age.

“If children do not experience failure early on, they may have low self-esteem and be reluctant to create and learn on their own,” she says. It’s one of life’s strongest emotions and one that prevents you from taking bold action. Allowing children to make mistakes at an early age reduces the anxiety they develop.

“Teaching children that failure is not necessarily a bad thing is a valuable life skill that enables them to make wise decisions and learn from life’s ups and downs.” We need to experience emotions to understand them and shielding them from them only undermines our ability to adapt and make sense of the world.”

Limit their screen time.

Limit-their-screen-time.

Limit-their-screen-time.

Excessive childhood screen time is linked to obesity, irregular sleep patterns, and behavioral problems, according to Lythcott-Haims.

Additionally, a 2017 study conducted by researchers at the University of Montreal in Canada found that playing “shooting” games can cause brain cell loss and damage to the brain.

So what can we do about the ubiquitous digital babysitter that so many of us rely on?

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, he should limit his recreational “screen time” to two hours a day. “Another useful suggestion is to encourage children to become content creators rather than passive consumers. Encourage them to make their viewing time more productive,” says Lythcott-Haims.

Dodge also recommends teaching children social skills rather than screen time.

In his 20-year study, conducted by researchers at Pennsylvania State University and Duke University, he found a link between children’s social skills in kindergarten and success in early adulthood. speaks.

“Teach children how to resolve conflicts and share their feelings with peers.”

Spend less time complimenting your looks

Spend-less-time-praising-their-looks

Spend-less-time-praising-their-looks

Experts advise against praising children for their innate traits, such as intelligence or beauty. “Wow, you got an A without studying?” is one of those grateful remarks. “You are very smart!”

A Stanford University study found that praising children with intelligence-focused statements like the one above can lead to poor grades.

As another parenting strategy, parents are encouraged to offer praise that focuses on the efforts children make to overcome problems and challenges by demonstrating courage, perseverance, and determination.

Try to create a peaceful and loving environment in your home.

Some studies have found that children from conflict-affected families perform worse than those from happy parents. Therefore, creating a loving and supportive environment is essential to raising healthy and productive children. It should not be too hard or too soft.

Try to create a peaceful and loving environment in your home.

You should not be too hard or too soft

Dont-be-too-harsh-or-too-gentle.

Dont-be-too-harsh-or-too-gentle.

 

In her landmark 1966 study, Diana Her Baumrind distinguished between authoritarian (very strict), tolerant (very generous), and authoritarian (equally disciplined and loving) parents.

In short, authoritarian parents are too strict, permissive parents are too permissive, and authoritarian parents are spot on.

When children model authoritarian parents, they learn emotion-regulation skills and social understanding that are essential for success,

Allow children to be exposed to large crowds (in a safe manner).

exposed

exposed

With people, your child is likely to meet, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, and other children, let them be exposed to as many types of things as possible, especially if they are toddlers.

Studies show that babies who regularly interact with speakers of different languages ​​can retain important brain wiring that will help them learn other languages ​​in the future.

“Similarly, babies who see a variety of faces develop the ability to distinguish and remember a wider range of faces later in life,” writes Barrett.

Dodge, on the other hand, encourages giving children chores, claiming that it helps them become smarter. “There is ample evidence that household chores are beneficial for children’s development,” he says. However, according to a Braun Research study, he is only 28% of parents regularly assign chores to their children. A data analysis conducted by the University of Minnesota found that the best predictor of success in young adulthood was whether a child was doing chores by age 3 or 4. ”

HOW TO WRITE THE BEST ARTICLES FOR YOUR BLOG

HOW TO WRITE THE BEST ARTICLES FOR YOUR BLOG

Having a blog is an essential part of a successful marketing strategy. Blogs have proven to be one of the three most used communication tools in content strategy.

If you have already decided to create a blog for your business, you should know that these articles should be of high quality and target the right audience. This allows you to convert your visitors into leads.

What is a post?

A blog post or publication is an article, message, or guide published on the blog section of a website. They typically cover a specific topic or question, are educational, ranging from 600 to 2,000+ words, and include elements such as images, videos, infographics, and interactive charts. Blogs allow you to post your ideas, thoughts, and stories about any topic on your website. It helps increase brand awareness, credibility, conversions, and revenue. Most importantly, it helps drive traffic to your website.

Today, people and organizations from all walks of life use blogs to share analyses, how-tos, reviews, product information, industry results, and more.

 

What makes a good blog post?

Before writing your blog, make sure you know the answers to the following questions.

“Why would anyone keep reading this entire blog post?” and “What keeps our audience coming back?”

First of all, good blog posts are interesting and educational. A blog should answer questions, help solve challenges that readers are experiencing, and do so in an interesting way.

It’s not enough to answer someone’s question, you should also provide actionable steps. For example, your introduction should captivate your readers and make them want to continue reading your post. Then use examples to pique the reader’s interest in what you have to say.

 

To create a blog post: the simple formula to follow

  1. Define your strategy.
  2. Choose the main topic.
  3. Consider all on-page SEO.
  4. Organize your content.
  5. Develop blog content.
  6. Write a compelling (engaging) introduction.
  7. Insert a call to action (CTA).
  8. Review, correct, and edit posts.
  9. Measure your blog’s performance.

 

  1. define a strategy

Before you start writing a blog, you need to decide what industry you want to be in, who you want to target, what your users and customers should achieve with your posts, and the subject area you want to establish yourself as an opinion. leader…

Knowing the target group, you’re trying to address is also important. What information are you interested in? what do you identify with? Therefore, it makes sense to generate buyer personas (consumer profiles). When defining your publication strategy, consider what you know about your buyer personas and their interests.

For example, if you want to attract millennial readers who are looking to start a business, you probably don’t need to provide important information about their social media.

Even so, it would be advisable that you give them information on how to adjust their social media dissemination to move from a more informal and personal vision to one that is more business, professional and focused. That kind of tweak makes the difference between posting generic stuff on your blog and posting what your audience wants (and needs) to hear.

But you can only know this and achieve it when you establish a strategy that allows you to see the complete panorama of opportunities that your blog can take advantage of, taking into account what you want to achieve. And, of course, when you strive to create buyer personas as close as possible to your target audience. 

To create buyer personas, you must think about the type of target audience that your company and blog want to address.

  1. Select the main theme

Before you unleash your creativity, you need to choose a topic for your post. 

Depending on the topic you want to position yourself with, you should ask yourself how many more articles on the same topic you can write. A great way to represent this is to resort to the topic clustering strategy, as it will help you deconstruct your main theme into sub-themes and complementary themes.

This allows you to define the angles with the greatest organic potential and those most related to your product, even if they do not have as much search volume. In addition to the creation of different content, this strategy also helps you to have blogs ready for internal links and thus connect readers between articles in the same cluster. 

We know that generating ideas for blog posts can be a bit exhausting, but with a little effort, you can get a great list of alternatives to develop. 

To get you on the right track, we recommend creating a search metrics report that revolves around the topic you want to address. This will be the best way to plan the content of your post to improve the organic traffic of your blog. 

  1. Consider all your on-page SEO

There is a step before writing your blog that you cannot leave last and this is the SEO of your post. We recommend thinking about SEO insights and then developing your content around that. This process will help you to know what aspects your user is interested in knowing and then complement them with other more specific ones in which you are an expert; for example, something more related to the functions of your product or service.

Some of the aspects in which you should improve the SEO of your blog are the following: 

Meta description

Meta descriptions are the descriptions that follow the post title on Google search results pages. They provide searchers with a summary of the post before clicking on it.

They are usually between 150 and 160 characters long and start with a verb like “learn”, “read” or “discover”. While meta descriptions are no longer a determining factor in Google’s keyword ranking algorithm, they do give searchers an overview of what they’ll get from reading your post, which can help improve your clickthrough rate. in searches.

Page title and header

Post and page titles are the most important part of on-page SEO. For now, you can decide on a temporary title that helps naturally include keywords and phrases that are interesting to your target audience.

If you’re a plumber, you might start with a practical title about leaking faucets. Later, you can fine-tune your title with various preliminary ideas. So different approaches to the subject help guide your writing. For example, you can focus on “Tools for fixing leaky faucets” or “Common causes of leaky faucets”. A working title is specific and lays the foundation for your post so you can start writing. Notice the progression from topic to working title to final title. A tentative title may not be the final title, but it provides enough information to focus the post on a more specific topic rather than a general or overwhelming topic (see more on that later).

Please note that the title must contain the keyword. Also, keep your headings short (preferably less than 65 characters) to avoid truncating them in search engine results.

Anchor text (or anchor text)

Anchor text or anchor text is a word or words that link to another page of your website or another website. Choose the keywords you link to from other pages on your site carefully. Search engines take this into account when ranking pages for specific keywords.

It’s also important to check the sites you link to. Consider linking to pages you want to rank for that keyword. You might rank on page 1 of Google’s search results instead of page 2, but that’s not easy.

Mobile optimization

Having a website that is responsive or designed for mobile technologies is becoming increasingly important. To improve the SEO of our website by optimizing our technology for mobile devices, in addition to providing the best possible experience for our website visitors (including visitors to our blogs) I can.

You already know how important mobile optimization of your website is. From 2015 until the last Google algorithm update in 2022, sites that are not mobile-friendly will be penalized.

About 61% of organic search engine traffic comes from mobile phones. This makes it abundantly clear that mobile optimization is essential if you want your content to rank well for the search intent you want to cover. If you need help with on-page SEO, you can improve both your entire website and your blog with SEO recommendation tools included in our free CMS.

  1. Organize your content

Posts can contain overwhelming amounts of information for both readers and writers. The trick is to organize the information so that the reader is not overwhelmed by the length or amount of content. You can organize your information in many different ways.

Sections, lists, tips, or whatever works best for you. However, the post should be organized.

Take a look at our guide post on using Snapchat for your brand. Due to the amount of content in this post, we have divided it into various sections using the following headings:

How to set up a Snapchat account, how to use, send and view Snaps, and how to use Snapchat for your business. Sections are divided into more detailed subsections, making the content more dynamic.

To complete this step, simply create a draft post. That way, before you start writing, you’ll know the points you want to cover and in what order they’re best unfolded.

  1. Develop blog content

The moment of truth has come:

I write the content myself. Of course, we couldn’t forget it. Now that you’ve covered the main points of SEO and a set of topics to focus on, feel free to use the outline as a guide and elaborate on each point as needed. If you’re writing about a topic you’re familiar with, you can do a little more research to gather information, examples, and data to support your point.

When integrating external sources, remember to correctly state the source. For example, if you write a digital marketing blog, you can weigh your posts by including recent and compelling stats about marketing trends.

If you’re having trouble connecting sentences, you’re not alone. Finding your way can be difficult for many. Luckily, there are hundreds of blogging tools you can use to improve your writing skills.

Likewise, taking into account the essential characteristics of your blog will allow you to have a better structure and the right tone for your target group, in addition to his excellent SEO optimization.

  1. Write a compelling introduction

Now that you’ve covered your blog’s main topic and subtopics, it’s time to start writing an effective introduction. Admittedly, this is the first section readers will see, but many writers and copywriters build on it until they’ve written the entire post. why? Since you already know all the details of your blog, you can explain and present it in more detail and make it more engaging.

You can start your blog with an introduction, but as you develop your subject, you may want to wait a little longer, as you may add subtopics or interesting facts not covered in the introduction. Do you make a lot of unnecessary modifications?

Another point that usually generates a lot of conversation when writing a post is the ideal length of your blog post. However, a certain word count is meaningless if you can’t craft a compelling introduction based on your goals and buyer persona. First, you need to grab the reader’s attention. If you lose readers after seeing the first few paragraphs or first sentences of your introduction, they will stop reading before giving your post a chance. This can be done in various ways.

Tell stories and jokes, show empathy, and captivate your readers with interesting facts and statistics.

Next, explain the purpose of your post and how you will address any issues readers may encounter. This gives them a reason to keep reading and connect on how your post can help them improve their work and life. Here are some examples of posts that are sure to grab your reader’s attention right away.

  1. Insert a call to action (CTA).

Calls to action are generally believed to benefit marketers. When a visitor reads your post and clicks your CTA, sooner or later a lead is generated. However, a call to action is also a valuable resource for anyone reading your content. Use CTAs to provide more content similar to the topic of the post you just read. CTAs should be placed in key places in all content. There’s no limit to the number of CTAs allowed, but it’s best to match the length of the text and what the section is about.

For example, in the middle of your blog, you can add an invitation for readers to read other content from your cluster. That way, you can keep them on your site longer and they will continue to learn more about the topics that interest them.

Her essential CTA concludes each post and tells readers what she wants them to do next, whether it’s subscribing to your blog, downloading your ebook, or signing up for a webinar or event. For example, our post, 16 Best Blogging Platforms (And How To Choose Which Is Best For You), gives readers a practical idea of ​​which platform is best for you. Finally, he has a CTA urging readers to download a comprehensive guide to creating a blog for your business.

If you’re wondering about the best placement for your CTA, you can run an A/B test to see how your readers react to different options. That way there’s less room for error and you know what type of CTAs to add for her and where to add them strategically based on user behavior.

8. Review, correct, and edit posts

Not finished yet but will be soon. The verification process is an important part of any blog, so don’t neglect it. Ask a classmate who knows grammar to proofread and proofread your post. He’s also considering making a list of key points that shouldn’t be overlooked during reviews.

When you’re ready to review formatting issues, consider: Choosing attractive and relevant images for your posts. The visual element has a lot to do with the success of the blog content you share on social networks, as social networks like to enrich their content with images. According to a recent study by HubSpot, posts containing images and photos in addition to videos are the most commonly used content types across all social channels to increase audience engagement.

Exterior

No one reads ugly publications. Also, it’s not just the images that make a post visually appealing, it’s the format and structure of the post that matters. Well-formatted and visually appealing blogs use headings and subheadings to divide up large blocks of text and find that these headings follow the same style. Here is an example from one of our posts.

Also, screenshots should always define similar frames so they don’t look like they’re floating in space. And this style should always be respected in all contributions.

Maintaining this consistency makes your content and brand appear more professional and engaging to your readers.

Topic/tag

Tags are specific public keywords that describe your post. Readers can also search for more content related to the same category on your blog. Avoid adding long lists of tags to each post and instead take a closer look at your tagging strategy. Think of tags as “topics” or “categories” and choose 10-20 tags that represent the main topics you’ll cover on your blog. Then try to stick with them.

 

  1. Measure contribution performance

Once your publication or contribution is ready, published, and shared in your communication channels, it is important to answer the following questions:

  • Are you getting the traffic you expect?
  • Are you meeting your goals?
  • Do you need to optimize?

This can be determined by evaluating a post’s performance against several marketing outcome metrics. For example, conversion rate metrics can help you determine whether your posts are meeting your goals and whether the rewards you’re offering (such as e-books or toolkits) are appropriate.

Knowing what you’ve done well and what you need to improve can help you get the most out of your blog and prevent the content you’ve put in so much time from going unrewarded.

For example, with his free CMS, you can use Blog Analytics to identify posts with the most clicks and identify the features that are most engaging for your readers. This allows you to optimize your poorly performing posts.

Remember:

How to write your first blog post

There are technical and practical details.

It’s time to write your first blog post. No, this is not the place to introduce yourself or introduce a new blog (e.g. “Welcome to my blog! This is the topic I’ll be covering. Here are my social media addresses. Could you follow me?”).

Your first blog post is never a guide. Remember you need to build authority in this area. Instead, start writing on very specific topics that will help a small percentage of your readers. This seems counter-intuitive. Because more people searching for a term or topic means more readers. But it’s not. If you choose a generic, commonly searched topic that is covered by your main competitors or more established brands, your post is unlikely to rank on the search engine’s first result pages (SERPs). lower. Try your nascent blog by choosing a topic that few other bloggers have written about.

Your first post should cover a niche, low-volume topic. As you blog more and more and build your topical authority, you can start covering more search keywords.

Let’s see this process:

  1. Find topics with low volume

The first step is to find topics with low Google searches (we recommend 10-150 searches per month). These topics have less competition, which makes it easier for new blog posts to rank. To select

topics, you can do a traditional brainstorming session or keyword research. I recommend the latter because you can see how many people are searching for this topic.

Don’t let the term “keyword research” fool you. It is useful not only for marketers but also for new bloggers. And it’s so easy. To start your keyword research, start by identifying the overall topic of your blog.

Let’s go back to the plumber example. A popular high-level topic might be “plumbing” (67,000 searches per month).

Then paste that term into a keyword research tool like this:

 

Go through it and choose terms with low search volume. In this example, we’re using “plumbing under the sink” (1,400 monthly searches).

Try this keyword again in the keyword research tool. Look at the results. Find terms with low search volume. do it again.

For this example, select “Plumbing problem under the kitchen sink” (10 searches per month). That’s the subject of our first post.

  1. Search the term on Google to see your search intent.

topics retrieved (your theme). Double-check if the user’s search intent is being met with your blog post.

What does that mean? A user searching for “plumbing problem under the kitchen sink” may be looking for a guide, diagram, article, or product to solve the problem.

If you’re looking for the first three, that’s fine. You can cover it in a blog post. However, products are different and blog posts are not ranked.

How is search intent verified? Search Google for the

term and review the results. If other articles and blog posts rank for that term, no problem. If all you can find is a product page or a list of important posts, find a new topic to cover in your first post.

Consider the term “bathroom fixtures under the sink” (30-month search). Given the low number of monthly searches, this seemed like a perfect match.

A Google search for this term found product carousels, Home Depot product pages, and guides written by major publications. (You should also avoid topics that have been covered in major publications, at least for now.)

Before writing your first blog post on a low-volume topic, Google your keywords to find out what your users are thinking. please. Also, don’t forget to check who has written on this topic so far. If you see a big brand, you should write about another topic.

  1. Find questions and terms related to this topic

You have a very unique subject that few people have ever covered. It’s time to develop it further, including related and adjacent topics.

 

Use the following tools:

  • Answer the Public – Add a keyword to this tool to see a list of questions related to that term.
  • Google:

Google is your best friend. Search for terms and browse related questions and related searches. Be sure to address these issues in your post.

  1. Sketch and write your post

Now let’s sketch and write our first post.

Using niche topics and related questions as a guide, you can write posts that are relevant to your niche and have low competition.

Do not forget:

  • Get at least 1000 words. Longer posts generally have higher ranks.
  • Enter your target keywords in the title. Remember the niche topic you chose in step 1? Try to include it naturally in your title. • Include at least two H2s in relevant search terms. Remember the related topics you found in step 3? Use them as H2s to build your article’s current authority.

 

  1. Promote your first post

As a new blogger, you probably don’t have a social media following yet. solution? Start posting by creating some backlinks to your post.

Backlinks are an important ranking factor, but you don’t want to use the wrong method like this: B. Spam the comments section of other blogs. Instead, reach out to people and let them know that this new resource exists so they can link to your post.

For example, if you are a plumber, you can contact your local plumbers’ association. Want to get started as soon as possible? Download the blog post template for free now.

 

8 Post example

  1. Posting to the list
  2. Management
  3. Collection place
  4. SlideShare Presentation
  5. Newsjacking and posting news
  6. Infographic Post
  7. Submission method
  8. guest entry

 

  1. List of posts

List-based posts are articles that provide information in this way. Lists use subheadings to divide your blog posts into discrete parts to help readers more easily scan and digest your content.

As you can see in the blog example, lists can offer a variety of tips and methods for solving problems.

  1. Management

Leadership posts allow you to share your expertise on specific topics and share first-hand knowledge with your readers.

Written in the first person, these articles help build trust with your readers, and people will take your blog seriously while you continue to blog.

  1. Collection location

A collection is a special kind of list blog post. In this type of blog post, rather than sharing tips or how-tos for doing something, we share a list of real-life examples that have something in common to illustrate the larger point.

  1. SlideShare Presentation

SlideShare is a presentation tool that helps publishers organize more information into shareable slides.

Think like PowerPoint. But for the web. With that in mind, this media blog post can help promote SlideShare and generate a steady stream of visitors. Unlike blogs, SlideShares typically don’t rank well in search engines, so you need a platform to get your message to the people looking for it. By embedding SlideShare into your blog post and summarizing it, you can share a lot of information while giving it a chance to rank on Google.

Need a SlideShare idea? In the example above, we turned our corporate culture code into a SlideShare presentation for everyone to see and learn from, and promoted it in a blog post.

  1. Newsjacking or publishing news

“Newsjacking” is a technique aimed at attracting attention to flashy or novel news. If you use your blog to post important news related to your industry, but not specifically about your industry or products or services, you may be resorting to newsjacking.

Therefore, the release of the new Jack is a kind of article intended only for the attention of consumers.

  1. Publish infographics

Infographic posts serve a similar purpose to SlideShare posts, conveying information that isn’t best formatted in simple blog copy. For example, if you have a lot of stats to share (without boring or confusing your readers), wrapping that data in a well-designed and engaging infographic can help keep readers interested in your content. You can continue. It also helps readers remember information long after they leave your site.

  1. Post your method

For this example, you don’t need to look beyond the blog post you’re reading. Guides like this help readers solve their problems. They are like a cookbook for your industry, guiding readers step by step to improve their knowledge of the target audience.

The more you create posts like this, the more your readers will want to work with you and invest in the services you provide.

  1. Guest Posting

A guest post is a type of post that you can use to include other voices on your blog. For example, guest posts are great if you want to hear outside experts’ opinions on a topic.

Additionally, these posts bring different topics and perspectives to your blog. Guest posting is a great solution when a client has an unsolvable problem.

Once you start accepting guest posts, establish editorial guidelines to meet the same standards as your posts.

Now that you know all the steps of creating a post, I believe that over time you will gain an audience and become an expert in search engine positioning.

Finally, we recommend using blog post templates to save time every time you publish. It also adds a lot of visual consistency to your blog in general, making it a distinctive feature your readers will recognize.

HOW TO START A BLOG IN 2023. THE FREE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO STARTING BLOGGING AND MAKING MONEY TODAY

HOW TO START A BLOG IN 2023. THE FREE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO STARTING BLOGGING AND MAKING MONEY TODAY

How to start a blog (and make money) in 6 easy steps:
The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog and Making Extra Money

  1. Choose a blog name and niche of your blog
  2. Get your blog online (web hosting)
  3. Design your blog with a free WordPress theme
  4. Write your first blog post
  5. Promote your blog and get readers
  6. Earn money with your blog

Many people ask questions that: 

  • What is a blog?
  • Should I start a blog?
  • Can I start a blog without technical expertise?
  • Is it still possible to make money with a blog nowadays?
  • how to make money blogging for beginners?
  • How much does it cost to start a blog in 2023?
  • how to start a blog for free and make money?
  • how to start a blog and make money?
  • how to create a blog for free on Google and earn money?

 

The Free Ultimate Guide to Starting Blogging and Making Money Today, How to Start a Blog in 2023.

If you’re ready to take the leap and learn how to start a blog that can become a real source of income online, then let’s dig deeper.

 

  1. Choose the name and niche of your blog

 

First, it’s time to choose a name and niche for your new blog.

 

The name of your blog is what readers will see first (such as daeravision.net) so ideally, it should represent the general topics you’ll be writing about, or it could be your name, that of your company, a clever combination of words, or otherwise.

Your blog niche is the general topic area on which you will focus your content. Examples include topics such as travel, food, fashion, lifestyle, technology, and others. Incorporating a word or two that indicates what your content is about, within your blog name (such as fashionbyjane.com or watchryanhike.com), will be very useful for future readers of your blog.

  • What if I still can’t decide on the name (or theme) of a blog?
  • What if the name I want to use isn’t available?
  • Can I change the name of my blog later?

 2. Get your blog online (web hosting)

The second step in starting a blog is to put it online. That’s what a web hosting company will do for you. In this step, you will select the blogging platform and web hosting plan that you will use to publish your blog online.

visits: google analytics

  • What is web hosting?
  • How much does web hosting cost?
  • What is the best web hosting service to use?

 The combination of blogging platform and web hosting that I use personally (and that most bloggers use) is a WordPress blog, hosted by Bluehost. WordPress is a free publishing platform that has been around since 2003 and now powers over 60% of all blogs on the internet. Bluehost is one of the most established and reliable companies in the blog hosting industry. This combination is what we will use to start your blog. Now, let’s set up your hosting.

 

Click Bluehost or qservers (if you are in Nigeria) to get started

 

First, you will select a hosting plan (then enter the name of your blog). I recommend choosing the Choice Plus plan because it comes with Domain Privacy, which will protect your personal information (your full name, email address, phone number, and home address) from being posted anywhere online.

 

The choice of your plan will look like this here. Just click on the green “Select” button on your plan of choice:

 

As I said earlier, I recommend choosing the Choice Plus plan, so that you get the Domain Privacy feature that will protect your personal information online, but any of these plans will work when you start your blog, and you can add domain privacy later during the checkout process for around $1/month.

 

Choose your blog’s domain name

Next, you’ll get to the page where it’s time to choose your blog’s domain name:

Once you get to this step in the checkout process, simply type in the domain name you’d like your blog to have.

 

If you want to perform a quick search to see if your domain name is available, you can do it quickly right here:

 

Check if your domain name is available:

 

Search for an available domain name:  Search domains

 

If the domain name of your choice isn’t available, you can try another option you can think of, or (which I recommend) select the option to choose your domain name later after adjusting the rest of your account and taking a little longer to think about the name. Also, later in this guide, I expand a little more on how to choose the right name for your blog if you haven’t decided yet.

 

This is where you can click to choose your domain later (it’s a pop-up window that will appear if you hover over this page long enough or move your mouse to the top of the page):

After choosing your domain name or choosing to select it later, you will be taken to the final step of the registration process: creating your account.

 

Create your Bluehost account

Start by filling in your account details, such as your name, email address (it is very important to use an updated email address because this is where your login details and account information will be sent), and address. If you don’t want to enter your information manually, you can connect your Bluehost account with your Google account. Anyone works!

 

Select the right hosting package

This is where you’ll choose an account plan based on the price you want to set and how far in advance you’ll pay.

 

Please note that Bluehost only offers options for you to pay 1, 2, 3, or 5 years upfront. They don’t offer a monthly payment option (because most hosting companies that offer monthly payments tend to charge a little more). Still, with the plan you choose, the price turns out to be a great deal to start your blog and put it online today.

 

Which pricing plan is best to start a blog with?

I recommend choosing the “36 Month Prime Price” if you want to set the lowest possible price for your accommodation. That’s what I use. And it secures your blog hosting at its lowest rate (and gives you domain privacy) for the next 3 years. And because this low price for new customers only applies to the first payment you make, if you chose the 1-year plan, your price could increase after that first year.

 

That’s why, if you choose the 36-month plan, your prices will remain fixed at this rate for 3 years. For that reason, I recommend opting for the longest-lasting plan your budget can offer.

 

Choosing the right package extras (skip all but one)

I recommend keeping the Additional Domain Privacy Protection, but you can skip the rest. Later in this guide, I’ll show you the many free and cheap plugins and tools you can use for things like SEO optimization, extra security, and site backups, which makes most of the other add-on packages un speed.

 

However, as I mentioned earlier, having the added privacy of the domain keeps all of your personal contact information (your name, email, phone number, and address) private. Now, if you chose the Choice Plus Plan on the previous screen, then your Domain Privacy Protection will appear as “Free” as this screenshot above shows, it is included in that plan.

If you choose a Basic or Plus Plan, then you’ll want to check the box to add Domain Privacy Protection to your order for around $2.8/month.

 

The total you will see now is the amount you will pay today. However, remember that you won’t have to pay again for 1, 2, 3, or 5 years, depending on the package you choose. Plus, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee in case things don’t go as planned with your blog.

 

Enter your billing information

You will now enter your billing information, check the box that accepts the Bluehost Terms of Service, and then press the green “Submit” button.

 

Court! It’s time for a mini celebration

 

You have officially completed the first important step to starting a blog.

 

With the initial registration process complete, it’s time to move on to the next stage to fully set up and optimize your blog.

 

On the next page, you will be guided step-by-step through the WordPress installation process on your blog through Bluehost. Later in this guide, I have a bunch of useful tips for optimizing your blog, for free. and inexpensive plugins you can install to help your blog look great and more.

Click Bluehost or qservers (if you are in Nigeria) and register your domain if you haven’t already.

 

Now, if you haven’t set up your web hosting yet and want to look at other options, there are other web hosting providers worth considering.

 

Top 2 Alternative Blog Hosting Platforms Worth Considering

  • Dreamhost: I’ve hosted dozens of websites on Dreamhost over the years (and still do). All the similar features aside, such as 1-click WordPress installation, free SSL certificate, and site security, one of the biggest advantages of using Dreamhost compared to other hosting companies, is that they offer a true pay-per-month plan that allows you to pay. for the cost of hosting your blog every month without conditions. Here are some other web hosting companies that also offer monthly payment plans.
  • HostGator – What sets HostGator apart from other hosting companies is their fantastic level of customer support and the fact that they also offer a true monthly payment plan (which helps if you start your blog on a budget). HostGator is among the largest hosting companies and now boasts over 8 million websites worldwide, making them a great partner to scale your blog over time.

 

If you still want to evaluate more of the top blogging hosting providers, check out my breakdown of the best web hosting plans for bloggers to review this year.

We are now at the point in this guide where everything from now on will be based on the assumption that you have already registered your domain name and chose the right hosting plan; so, if you haven’t already, take just a few minutes to set it up quickly.

 

Ready to register your domain name and set up blog hosting?

I made this video tutorial in depth to guide you step by step through the whole process:

Disclosure: Please note that when you buy hosting using my Bluehost affiliate link, I get compensated, which helps me make this ultimate guide to starting a blog at no charge to you. Know that I also use Bluehost hosting, and I would never recommend a product, tool, or service that you don’t personally use and defend.

 

I know firsthand that starting a blog on WordPress can be an overwhelming process.

 

So if you need a slightly more detailed guide, I prepared a free master course that distributes all this work into a series of action-packed lessons and goes into even more granular details than this tutorial.

 

While the crucial first step in getting your blog started today is to register your domain name and set up hosting, my free course expands to grow your blog. Throughout this 7-day course, you will go from scratch to publish (and promote) your first blog post. I can’t recommend it enough.

 

Do you want my free course: how to start a profitable blog in 7 days?

Enter your name and email address and you’ll get instant access to my course that has been featured in Forbes, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur.

  • Enter your name *
  • Enter your email address *
  •  Feedback

This field is for validation purposes and should not be modified.

 

  1. Design your blog with a free WordPress theme

Now that we’ve passed the crucial setup phase of starting a blog, it’s time to have a little more fun.

 

However, designing your WordPress blog is when you can start to feel a bit of friction with this process (if you’ve never worked on a blog before), but I promise you this won’t be too technical.

 

In addition… the last thing I want is for the minor technical aspect of starting a blog to derail your progress today. That’s why, in my free course How to Create a Blog in 7 Days, I break this technical setup process into an even more actionable step-by-step checklist for you.

 

If you want to start a blog and make money from it, WordPress is your smartest choice.

 

Let’s cover some basic terminology, so you understand why WordPress is the right platform (also known as Content Management System or CMS) to run your blog.

 

  • What is a content management system (CMS)?

 

  • What is WordPress?
  • Should I start a blog on WordPress (and is WordPress free)?
  • What if I want to create a blog with Wix?

 

Since I started blogging over a decade ago, I’ve been running my blog on WordPress and couldn’t be happier with the amount of flexibility, control, and long-term growth potential the decision has given me.

 

Now, one thing you need to be wary of is that WordPress comes on two very different platforms. There are WordPress.com and WordPress.org. They have almost the same name, but there are big differences between the two:

 

WordPress.com:

  • It is free to use (with strong restrictions)
  • It does not allow you to choose a custom domain name (i.e. your sitio.wordpress.com )
  • You have very limited monetization options (you can’t sell your ads)
  • Does not allow you to load plugins (for email capture and other things)
  • It has limited theme support, so it’s stuck with very basic designs
  • You have to pay to remove WordPress branding and get your domain as yoursite.com
  • Limited SEO and analytics

 

WordPress.org:

  • Fully customizable design, unlimited add-ons, and unbranded options
  • Full control over your monetization efforts
  • Powerful SEO features (so people can find your site more easily)
  • Let’s start or add an eCommerce store or membership site
  • Small monthly fee (from the budget hosting plan you use to publish your blog online)

 

While the choice is yours, if you want to get the most out of your blog, be able to grow it with you, and eventually make money from it, WordPress.org is the way to go (and the exact process we’ve followed at all times). this guide). It is the CMS of choice that will sit in the background and power your blog.

 

How to install WordPress (and configure your blog settings)

 

Here’s a step-by-step video tutorial on how to install WordPress on your new blog and configure the right settings:

 

Naturally, in this video, we don’t cover everything about WordPress but remember that these are the basics that you need to achieve first.

 

Take time to familiarize yourself with the admin area of ​​your WordPress blog. You will develop a much deeper understanding of how WordPress works and what things can quickly change about the visual appearance and functionality of your site over time.

Choosing the best WordPress theme (free)

 

When you’re still new to starting a blog, I generally don’t recommend buying a paid WordPress theme right away. Once you have some traffic and can justify the investment, then it is smart to go for a premium theme with more features and options. However, for now, a complex topic will be a distraction from your highest priority of attracting readers to your new blog.

 

WordPress comes with a ton of free themes to choose from, so start with one of the options you like under Appearance> Themes> Add New Theme> Popular without spending a lot of time on this for now. You can always go back and change it later.

I recommend choosing Kadence WP, Hello Elementor, or Astra (all of which are 100% free, fast, and can update later).

 

I like these three quick WordPress themes best because they’re sharp, clean, and simple, and they’ll help you set it up without investing in a paid theme since you’re just starting your blog. Later, you can further evaluate the other WordPress themes out there or upgrade these to their premium versions for more features.

 

  • What if I want to choose a different WordPress theme (or change it later)?
  • Why design is so important when starting a blog

 

Even if you don’t care about design, your readers will change their behavior dramatically based on the characteristics of your blog’s design. In fact, during a 2012 study by Google and the University of Basel, researchers found that users judge a website’s aesthetic beauty and perceived functionality in 1/20 – 1/50 of a second. Also, thanks to a little psychological bias called the Halo Effect, people will extend that judgment to all aspects of your blog.

 

“In less time than it takes to snap their fingers, readers decide whether or not to trust your blog.”

 

A good blog design builds trust. It tells people that you care enough about your blog to make it look good. This doesn’t mean you need crazy animations or tons of fonts and colors. The best designs are simple, clear, and easy to read.

 

Once you’ve decided on the right theme for your WordPress blog, it’s time to dive into the world of WordPress plugins, to help unlock even more customizations and prep work to give your blog a chance to become a real business.

 

7 Essential WordPress Plugins You Should Install On Your Blog Today

WordPress plugins play a crucial role in running your blog, and getting the most essential plugins bookmarked as quickly as possible is an important step that is designed to serve your audience and work well for search engines.

 

Are you starting a WordPress blog? You’re going to want these 7 add-ons right now.

 

What is a WordPress plugin and why are they important?

The only problem with WordPress plugins is that there are thousands of different blogging plugins and tools to choose from. However, to help you cut out all the noise … here are the must-have WordPress plugins to install when you start blogging today: 1. Yoast SEO: the more people can find your content, the better your blog will be. The Yoast WordPress plugin helps you optimize your blog post titles, descriptions, content length, and other elements throughout your blog so that search engines can find you more easily.

  1. WPForms – You’ll want your readers to be able to get in touch with you easily, which I highly recommend as it will encourage other bloggers who want to collaborate with you to have an easy opportunity to communicate. WPForms is an easy-to-use plugin that allows you to drag and drop contact forms onto any page of your blog.
  2. Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress – This is a 100% free Google Analytics plugin that allows you to view all of your relevant analytics data directly within WordPress. Connect the plugin to your Google Analytics account (you can sign up for a free Google Analytics account right here) to find out who visits your site, how long they stay, and what are their most popular blog posts.
  3. UpdraftPlus: Again, sometimes things will go wrong on your blog (and it won’t always be totally under your control). It’s always smart to have a backup plugin that will save you all your work regularly, and this free one stands out above the rest.
  4. WP Rocket – Faster websites rank higher in Google and give your readers a better experience. WP Rocket is a plugin that caches your pages, reduces the size of your files, and does a lot more to ensure your blog loads faster for everyone.
  5. MaxCDN: Speaking of speed, MaxCDN also makes the images and other static elements of your blog load faster, which gives this plugin the best marks to consider as a complement to the use of WP Rocket as well.
  6. Insert Headers and Footers – Sometimes to edit your theme, you will need to add code snippets to your header or footer (not as scary as it sounds). However, doing it in your theme code can cause problems. This plugin allows you to easily add small code snippets to select locations around your blog.
  7. Bonus – Lightweight Accordion: If you like the way I create collapsible content boxes (accordion style) here throughout this guide and in the FAQ near the bottom of this post, I highly recommend that you install the free plugin that I use to create that content. sections come to life: Light accordion. With just a few clicks with this plugin, you can quickly add collapsible FAQ box functionality to your WordPress blog.

 

Basic WordPress blog setup to get familiar now

There are many different reasons to start a blog, and the same number of unique goals you may have in mind. Regardless, it pays to have a basic understanding of the broader aspects of how WordPress works so that you can control the visual appearance of your blog.

 

Let’s take a look at some of the larger image settings you can find in your WordPress dashboard.

Permalinks (URL)

 

  • How to optimize WordPress permalink settings (click to expand)
  • Clear your default site URL
  • How to Clean Your Site’s Default URL (Click to Expand)
  • Set up your blog’s home page
  • How to set your blog home page (click to expand)
  • Setting up your blog’s menu
  • How to set up a menu on your WordPress blog (click to expand)

 

All right, we’ve covered the basic foundations of getting your blog’s WordPress settings dialed in. Now, let’s dig into creating a few of the main pages on your blog.

 

Creating the main pages of your blog (about, contact, hire)

From the moment you start a blog, you’ll want to showcase some basic information about yourself. Who you are. Why people should listen to you? How they can get in touch with you if they have questions or want to work with you?

 

These pages are all pretty standard, but they’re also a great way to have some fun and let your readers get to know you. I use my own About page to not only introduce who I am and tell my story but also to explain my value proposition (for potential clients looking to hire me as a freelance content marketer) and show recent achievements.

 

Here are step-by-step instructions for how to write an About Me page that does this on your blog, too:

 

How to write an About page for your blog

 

You might not think much about it, but your About page can quickly become one of the most popular pages on your blog.

 

How to write your blog about the page

 

Use your about page to show the value you’re creating for your readers, and work hard to earn that attention.

 

How to write a contact page for your blog

 

Another often overlooked page that you’ll want to include early on when starting a blog is an easy way for people to reach out to you.

 

While mine goes deeper, your contact page can be as simple as having your email and social media accounts on one page.

 

How to create a contact page for your blog

Think about the types of communication you want from your readers and use your Contact page to set those expectations right away.

 

This field is for validation purposes and should not be changed.

  1. Write your first blog post

You don’t read a blog because it looks good or because it is published frequently. (Although they both help).

 

You read a blog because you care what it says. Building solid content is what will bring you readers and help you make money blogging.

 

Do you want to start a blog? First, you need to worry about the topics you are covering.

 

Before you go too far down the road of creating a blog business plan, designing your content roadmap, and writing your first blog post, you need to answer a simple question… Why?

 

  • Why do you care about the topic you blog about?
  • Why should other people listen to what you say?
  • Why is this an issue you can add value to?

 

To answer these questions, I like to think of a blog like any other business and re-emphasize the importance of choosing a clear niche.

 

What is a blog niche?

Does my blog need to have a niche right away?

“When you write to everyone, you are not writing to anyone. If you start a blog, you need a clear niche”.

 

Now if you’re not sure, or no niche immediately comes to mind, that’s fine. We can convince you with a few questions.

 

Ask these questions to determine a smart niche to start a blog:

  • What interest or dream from your childhood seems exciting to you?
  • What is the best part of your day?
  • Do you have hobbies or hobbies that you want to learn?
  • What is a value deeply yours?
  • What is one accomplishment of which you are incredibly proud?

Right away, you should have an idea or two for a clear niche that you could start blogging about. It’s okay if your niche grows, evolves, and changes over time.

 

Going one step further: how to know if there is a business opportunity for your blog niche

 

If you want to make money from your blog, you will also want to do a little research to see if there is a market demand for your niche. What this means is: Are people actively searching for what you’re writing about? And can you add value and help them in a way that makes you money?

 

To create a business from your blog, you need to solve a real problem for people. To do this, I use a simple spreadsheet that I call a Niche Market Demand Checker (you can get a free copy in my course right here), which will help you make sure you create content that your target audience will find useful.

 

Take the blog niche you are thinking of and come up with 5-10 keyword phrases or topics within that niche you would write about. So if we wanted to start a blog about playing guitar, you could choose keywords like “best guitar books”, “how to play guitar”, “guitar chords for beginners”, “which guitar should I buy”, etc.

 

Now, let’s do some keyword research. Enter one of those keywords above in your Google search. If there are tens of millions (or more) of results, it’s a pretty strong indicator that people care about your topic. But to be on the safe side, I like to use a free tool like Twinword Ideas to check the monthly search volume (how many people search for this term each month).

Do this for each of your keywords and see the results. If all of your top keywords have a monthly search volume of 5,000 to 10,000, you have a potentially profitable niche. If you’re too much above that, in the hundreds of thousands of monthly searches, you may want to be more specific with your niche rather than compete with much larger established websites on more popular topics.

 

Brainstorming Smart Blog Posts (Using Keyword Research)

 

Even once you’ve established the niche you’ll be blogging about, you need to do some smart keyword research to come up with the right blog post ideas that will attract readers.

 

So what about the actual posts that you are going to write? The good news is that you can honestly write whatever you want! After all, this is your blog and one of the main benefits is that it is your platform for talking and sharing. But ideas don’t always come naturally.

 

This is where I think a simple editorial calendar is so important. It’s just a basic document to fill out that will give you a roadmap to always know what you’re writing next. It frees you up to spend more time on the fun of putting together posts, without banging your head against the wall trying to think of blog post ideas.

 

If I still need more ideas, I will resort to some more creative tactics…

  • See what other bloggers in my niche covered (and what you did well).
  • Take a look at my most successful posts to see what readers like best.
  • Make more citation summary posts that don’t require a lot of original thought and effort on my part.
  • Chatting with bloggers in my space and exchanging new ideas.
  • Talking about specific lessons I have recently learned (and my tips).
  • Reflecting on the blogging mistakes I’ve made and the tactics that work today.

 

At this point, I usually have a full content calendar. Still, need more inspiration for the content?

 

Now you are ready to write your first blog post.

 

Once you’ve decided on the first blog post you want to write, you’ll navigate to the “Add New Post” section from your WordPress dashboard.

 

Go to Posts> Add New, which will look like this right here:

You will then be taken to a new article page that will look like this (a blank canvas):

 

Write a blog post title that encourages readers to click

 

One of the reasons you blog is to attract readers, right? Well, it is worth the effort to learn how to write a headline that will engage readers and, most importantly, deliver on the promise of what your article is helping to achieve.

 

So let’s say you’ve determined that your hiking blog should start by looking at some underrated hikes in Northern California. Then click on the “Add Title” bar on your new post page and type a title.

 

As a starting point for writing a solid headline, learn by looking at the headlines of other successful bloggers in your niche:

 

  • Do you tend to lead with numbers?
  • How many of your article headlines include parentheses?
  • Is capitalizing the first letter of each word good practice?

 

Take a look at some of my latest blog headlines so you can get inspired on how you might want to structure your headlines (and read my ultimate guide to writing blog headlines).

 

If you’re still not sure how to title a new post, do a Google search for the target keyword phrase you’re looking for and get inspiration for the ways other titles are written; Make sure you don’t directly copy other bloggers, but that will point you in the right direction.

 

Choosing an SEO-friendly blog post URL

 

You must customize the URL of your new post if you expect it to rank well in Google’s organic search results.

 

 

Crafting a Compelling Introduction for Your New Blog Post

 

You have a sentence or two to convince readers that your new post is worth it. Here’s an example blog post introduction that I just wrote in under two minutes for our walking example:

 

As you learn how to write a blog post that will keep readers interested, here are some dos and don’ts to create a solid introduction.

 

 

The simplest strategy for writing a compelling introduction is to respond to the who, what, where, when, and why as soon as possible. This may seem counterintuitive, but another trick is to start with the conclusion first. In the era of short attention spans, people have gotten tired of wasting time on clickbait blog posts that lead nowhere.

 

The faster you can establish relevance to your reader, and give them a solid reason to believe that they will find what they are looking for in your blog post, the more likely they are to dig into your article and share it with others.

 

Optimizing the layout and layout of your blog post

 

Ultimately, what looks “good” is subjective and up to you, based on what you think your (future) readers will resonate with the most. But one of the most important lessons I’ve learned through starting a blog of mine is that design matters a lot.

 

 

Click publish on your first blog post

Once you’ve written your first blog post (ideally hitting the 1,000+ word range), you’re almost ready to publish!

 

  • Take a few minutes to check out Yoast SEO tips and make sure your blog post is SEO friendly, giving you the best chance of ranking well in organic search.

 

  • After checking the SEO settings, choose in which “Category” this new post will be included and check that box. So, you are ready to post!

 

 

Now if like me you appreciate great design, before posting your first blog post, there is one last step you can take.

 

Studies show that blog posts with images get 94% more views than those without. And when it comes to posts that are shared on social media, tweets with photos get 150% more retweets than those without one, while Facebook posts with images get 2.3 times more engagement. Adding a few visuals can nearly double the number of views and expand the shares a blog post receives.

 

Free Photography Resources for Blogs

One of the easiest ways to add visual flair to your blog posts is with beautiful images and designs. Fortunately, in recent years, there are now some high-quality sites that offer amazing photos that can be used completely free for your blog; my favorite is Unsplash:

 

Unsplash (for free blog images and stock photos)

Unsplash is the best online resource for completely free user-uploaded photos for your blog. Every photo that appears on Unsplash is selected by their team to make sure it is of high quality. Under the Unsplash license, you don’t even have to credit the photographer (they recommend that you do, however), making Unsplash the easiest option for free blog photography.

 

Other Great Free Blogging Photography Resources Worth Mentioning

  • Wikimedia Commons – Over 21 million photos and images from across history are now in the public domain and free to use.
  • Life of Pix: Stunning free photos donated by an advertising agency in Montreal, Canada.

 

Bonus: creating a blog content strategy

 

I’ve been lucky enough to work for some great companies and get paid to learn about the importance of having a content strategy for your blog. I have successfully applied those same lessons to my blog, making many adjustments and additions along the way. And if you’re having trouble with your content planning efforts, grab my free blog planner bundle and make things better today.

 

What is a blog content strategy?

 

Here’s how to create a basic blog content strategy today:

 

Define your blog goals: What is your purpose when starting a blog? What do you want to achieve with the content of your blog? This goal may change as your blog grows, but it’s still important to know about it early on.

Get to know your blog readers (and where they hang out) – Your readers will determine whether or not your blog is successful. To write for them, you need to understand them, so it helps if you are also writing for yourself. This is useful for doing a little research on the audience you are writing for. Think about the demographics and psychographics of your target audience. Demographics are the quantitative traits of your readers (age, gender, location, title) and psychographics are the least measurable traits such as values, interests, attitudes, and belief systems. Once you’ve written these qualities down, you can start to think of an audience person, a fictitious version of your ideal reader.

Decide on the main content pillars of your blog: When it comes to deciding what to write about, it is good to have a few targeting categories that you will refer to. I like to call these pillars of content as they are the foundation that sustains the rest of your blog. For example, if you are starting a personal finance blog, your pillars might be personal finance advice, expert interviews, industry news, debt settlement, or more. Each of these pillars can have hundreds of blog posts written under them. They also all work together to show that you are a thought leader in your niche.

Plan the content you’ll create shortly after starting your blog – Shortly after launching your blog, it’s worth taking a little time to plan your content feed for the next few weeks (possibly months). You never know when your first blog post might go viral. In that case, you’ll want to have at least one game plan to quickly attract the new readers you get. Even just one or two blog posts under each of your main content pillars are enough to get you started, ideally in the form of evergreen content that will stand the test of time.

 

 

“When you start a blog, start small and commit to growing steadily over the next few weeks and months.”

 

 

We have come a long way in this guide. You’ve gone from learning the technicalities to publishing your first post.

 

It’s time to talk about what happens after you’ve published your first blog post, promoting your content, generating traffic, and eventually making money from your blog.

 

 

Promote your blog and get readers

We will use my experience to go from starting a blog to quickly driving millions of readers to my content. What do you do once you’ve hit publish on your first blog posts? It is time to learn how to promote your blog content.

 

This is why companies like LinkedIn, Zendesk, Adobe, Close, Intuit, and more hire me as a consultant – to write content for their blogs, teach them how to promote their content and attract new readers.

 

If you want to create a successful blog, spend more time promoting your content than writing it.

 

 

Here are some of the best ways to start sharing your blog posts and introduce them to new readers. And if you want even more strategies, here’s my guide to learning how to drive traffic to your website, where we dig even deeper into the tactics I’ve used to grow my blog to millions of readers annually.

 

Use social media to promote your blog

The first obvious place to go when you want to find readers is social media. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are some of the most important networks today. Whichever platform best suits your niche interests and audience, it’s the right one for you. And that’s an important note. There’s no point in trying to promote your blog posts on all social media platforms.

 

“Share your blog content on the social media your audience spends time on.”

 

 

Look for the social channels that give you the best return

How to choose which social networks to promote your blog on

 

Use YouTube to increase your blog’s audience

 

3 tools to help you manage your social media promotion (click to expand)

The key information here is that you’ll need to experiment and see which networks work best for you.

 

Just because you’ve started a blog, you don’t have guaranteed readers. Here’s how to generate traffic.

 

Guest blogs on other blogs and relevant sites such as Medium, Quora, and Linkedin

 

One of the best things about starting a blog is that you’re joining a community of other bloggers who love to help each other. Guest blogging on other relevant sites is the #1 best way to connect with an already established audience. Check out my ultimate guide to guest blogging for a full tutorial, but we’ll cover the highlights here.

 

I’ve written hundreds of guest posts over the past decade, and it’s been the single best strategy for promoting my blog content.

 

 

The key point of all this is that you want to look for places where your audience is and be present there, whether it’s other blogs, communities, or social platforms.

 

Forums and message boards for bloggers

Often, simply throwing your ideas into the void of social media isn’t very effective.

Instead, being part of specific forums and online communities can give you a better return on your time, if you find the right ones. Explore the relevant groups on Facebook to see if there are vibrant communities that would be a good place to start.

 

Now, if your search doesn’t show any Facebook groups with a decent number of members (over 5,000), there are other options. Look for more general groups that relate to your niche on Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, or independent forum websites.

 

Remember, forums and message boards aren’t just places to download links to your blog posts. You need to provide value before you ask for something in return. So, start by building relationships and interacting with people there.

 

Using an email newsletter to increase your blog audience

 

One of the best forms of blog promotion is not for other audiences, but for yours (over time). An email newsletter is the most powerful way to keep current readers engaged with the work you’re doing and one of the things you need to set up right away.

 

Creating your email list can also be relatively simple. Place a sign-up form on your posts and key pages on your site. I use a tool I love, called ConvertKit, to manage the 150,000 or so email subscribers I have now on my blog, but Mailchimp is the best free email marketing tool to start with.

 

Not sure which email marketing tool to use when starting a blog?

 

I send my community an update every time I post a new blog post, have a resource I want to share, or when new podcast episodes are posted, and this now ensures that my content is quickly seen by thousands of people from the start. Email marketing has been by far the biggest growth and revenue driver for my blog, and something I can’t suggest enough among all the blog marketing strategies you can invest in.

 

Other ways to promote your blog and get more traffic

Outside of promotion on social media, through guest posts, on forums, and via email, here are some other techniques I’ve personally used to grow my blog audience quickly.

 

Remember that the only thing standing in the way of your blog’s growth is you. It will take some ingenuity and will to experiment, but it’s worth the effort.

 

Almost every guide on how to start a blog stops long before this point. Now, I’m going to equip you with the tools (and strategies) to go from starting your new blog to building a real business around you, based on my experience growing this blog to over 500,000 monthly readers and $50,000/month in revenue.

 

Let’s talk about how to (eventually) make money from your blog.

 

Earn money with your blog

Last year alone, my blog generated $449,107 in revenue (ignore the $0 in expenses here, you can see those details in my blog’s income reports).

 

I do not share this to show off, but for you to understand. I know what I’m talking about when it comes to starting a blog and generating significant income with it. Also, I’ll be the first to tell you that these types of revenue figures are not typical of blogging and that it has taken me over 6 years to get to this point in my blogging business.

 

There’s a reason why making money with your blog is at the end of this guide to starting a blog. Unless you already have a large audience somewhere, you can’t expect to make money right away; monetization shouldn’t be your number one focus right now, but something to work on.

 

Still, it’s nice to have an idea of the ways you’d like to make money from blogging as you go on this new adventure. Some of these monetization strategies will be easier to implement than others while your readership continues to grow.

 

  1. Self-employment (sale of its services)

If you want to start making money from your blog as quickly as possible, then selling your services (by getting blogger jobs, freelance writing jobs, or selling your experience as a service) is the easiest option by far. In fact, until very recently, I was still working as a freelancer as a blog monetization channel for my own business:

 

All you need to get an independent client is a strong enough pitch, which is where choosing to start a blog (first) will help significantly. You’ll want to build your key pages (About, Contact, Hire Me) and show at least a couple of examples of the type of work you’ve done and will soon be presenting to independent clients.

 

If you don’t have those work samples yet… don’t let that stop you. Create those sample articles, designs, or other deliverables and save them to your blog as if they were a project you’re paid to produce.

 

If you have a skill that you can sell as a service, then you’re already prepared to go out and start launching leads. That ability could be something like…

  • Writing (one of the top blogging skills you’ll want to master)
  • Design
  • Photography
  • Marketing
  • Development (see these WordPress developer job sites)
  • Public relations
  • Social Media Management
  • Virtual assistance
  • Community building
  • Paid advertising or SEO campaigns
  • Business strategy or project management
  • The list goes on… because any skill can be monetized

 

Today, I still regularly book new independent clients (such as LinkedIn, Zendesk, and Adobe) for $5,000/month or more and they hire me to advise and execute the creation of blog marketing campaigns for their organization.

 

If working as a freelancer sounds like your cup of tea, you’ll want to grab my (free) collection of all my best resources, tools, and templates for freelancers. That resource pack is the culmination of over 8 years of perfecting my standalone contract template, proposal template, cold email templates that convert new clients, and more.

 

I also prepared a detailed guide to get started with freelance work that you’ll want to read and another great fundamental read on how to develop a presentation process that works for your type of business is my guide for freelancers on sending emails cold. And if you want to try some of the websites where freelance clients are already looking for talented help, here are my lists of the best blogging job sites and the best freelance work sites.

 

  1. Affiliate Programs

Each month, I earn a substantial amount of passive income from the affiliate programs I’m a member of (sometimes over $50,000+). For example, here is a screenshot of my blog income from a single affiliate program (Bluehost) during the first 5 months of last year.

 

Since I started a blog here just over 7 years ago, affiliate income has gradually grown to become the largest source of income for my business, and I have structured my blog to generate affiliate income due to how passive it is. Once you’ve done the work (hard) to find a sustainable traffic source for your content.

 

How do affiliate programs work?

Most of the major brands have affiliate programs. Think of companies like Amazon, down to key players in specific niches like online education, where brands like CreativeLive and Udemy have lucrative programs. Here’s a snapshot of my recent earnings from just a couple of other shows:

 

Once you have a small readership, you can go out and negotiate a more advantageous affiliate deal with companies that have relevant products that you want to promote to your audience. For A LOT more on the topic of monetizing your blog with affiliate income, check out these guides:

 

  • More than 53 best affiliate programs for bloggers in 2022 (for affiliate income)
  • 10 Ways Affiliate Marketing Can Completely Transform Your Blog
  • How I Make an Extra $ 1,000 a Month Using Amazon Affiliate Marketing

 

  1. Sponsored blog content

Unless you already have a decent size audience on your blog (or social accounts), it will take some time to grow your readership to a point where the sponsored content is a viable monetization option.

 

  • What is sponsored blog content?
  • How much traffic do you need to get blog sponsors?

 

The best way to make sponsored content without alienating your readers is to weave it into your typical posting style (as I’ve done with this sponsored post and this one as well).

 

  1. Online courses

Once you have a skill (or experience) that others want to learn as well, it’s relatively easy to package your best tips (like my blogging tips), strategies, tactics, and tutorials into an online course where people can pay for access to accelerate your learning. much faster than they would otherwise be going through the shaky learning process through trial and error.

 

Last year alone, I generated over $ 60,000 with the launch of my premium blogging course, Built to Blog, which takes students well beyond starting a blog and towards advanced strategies for gaining readers and generating income from their blogs.

 

The great thing about an online course as a monetization route for your blog (or as I have done with blogging book sales as well) is that you don’t need a large audience to make money from online courses. The same is true if you choose to write an ebook and sell that digital product to your audience.

 

  1. Traditional blog ads (ad networks)

I used to have several small blog ads showing on my content (from one of these major blog ad networks) generating between $ 1,500 and $ 2,000 per month in incremental revenue, before turning off the ads in favor of optimizing for other sources of income.

 

I was a member of a small ad network called Carbon Ads for the first few years of my blogging journey where they partner with bloggers and match us with ads from high-quality startups like Slack, Asana, Freshbooks, Monday, Upwork, and others. Targeted brands that my audience is already familiar with.

 

  • How Much Can I Make From Blog Ads?
  • What are the best ad networks for bloggers to join?

In general, traditional CPC or CPM advertising does not become very profitable (at least as a viable source of substantial blog income) until you are generating over 1 million monthly readers, so it is not a great channel of advertising. monetization to focus on. the short term. But, when you start a blog, it can be one of the easiest ways to make money from your traffic without a lot of extra effort.

 

  1. Podcast sponsorships

Another great way to start monetizing your blog is by launching a (simple) podcast for your readers. You can use your traffic and the number of early listeners to book endorsements from brands that want to reach your type of readers and listeners. Here is the growth trajectory of my podcast during its first year:

 

You can even combine podcast ad placement deals with sponsored blog posts on your site to sweeten the deal. And I understand that launching a podcast while you’re still dominating blogging sounds like a distraction, but keep in mind that a podcast can be as

simple as casual conversations with other bloggers in your industry.

 

How to make money from podcast sponsorships

 

To learn more about the mechanics behind launching a podcast and monetizing it alongside your blog (including choosing the right podcast hosting), whose podcast became a source of $ 10,000 / month. of secondary income while still keeping your day job in sales and marketing. It’s a true masterclass for starting a podcast that you don’t want to miss.

 

  1. Physical products (e-commerce) and software tools

Similar in concept to launching an online course for your blog audience, another great way to monetize your audience is by selling a physical product or software tool to people in your community, especially if you’re starting a store. e-commerce (with the right e-commerce website builders) to sell products related to what their readers need.

 

At the end of the day, it all comes down to solving the problems your blog readers have. If you need any additional incentives, consider that 75% of online shoppers say they use social media as part of their buying process.

 

What used to be a much more labor-intensive business, e-commerce has become a great way to monetize an audience of readers on your blog, especially with the proliferation of drop shipping and order fulfillment services.

 

In addition to selling to your audience, you can take advantage of loyalty programs that incentivize customers to invite their friends to shop with offers like-new customer discounts, one-month free trials, gift programs, and more. These channels create opportunities to amplify your message and spread your products through word-of-mouth marketing efforts that will cost you nowhere near similar advertising fees.

 

How to (simply) pitch a product to your blog audience

Tune in to my interview with Hiten Shah, who went from teaching himself how to start a blog, to now using his blog as a way to connect with his audience and launch profitable software tools as a result of the validation conversations he’s had with them.

 

  1. Trade associations

Of all the ways to monetize your blog, this is the most amorphous. Who knows whom you will meet as a result? What about future guests on your podcast? The possibilities here for stumbling upon partnership opportunities are endless.

 

As a result of sticking with my blog for several years, I have been able to use it as a tool to meet some incredibly talented entrepreneurs.

 

Send me a message or ask any questions in the comments below!

SEO: THE COMPLETE GUIDE FOR YOU TO CONQUER THE TOP OF GOOGLE IN 2023

SEO: THE COMPLETE GUIDE FOR YOU TO CONQUER THE TOP OF GOOGLE IN 2023

The Complete Guide for You to Conquer the Top of Google in 2023.
These will help you to get the best ranking for your website.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the set of strategies and optimization techniques that are made on a web page so that it appears organically in Internet search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Youtube. The correct application of SEO can cause expressive increases in traffic and visibility of brands on the Internet.

 

One of the biggest goals of companies that invest in Digital Marketing is to reach the top positions in search engines — after all, who doesn’t want free clicks and more visitors to their site?

But in a field as fierce and competitive as the Internet, making your website stand out among the millions of pages on the net seems like an impossible task. And I say it looks like it’s because it’s not.

However, being on the Internet is not enough to guarantee that your site, e-commerce, or blog achieves a place on the first page of Google: it is necessary to invest in a specific strategy to optimize the results and ensure that your business reaches a good web positioning for the most important keywords of its segment.

With SEO or Search Engine Optimization, you can make your website appear in relevant searches, connecting your content with people who are looking for products or services like the one you offer.

 

It’s the perfect operation!

But you should know that doing SEO requires a lot of studies to understand terminologies, build strategies and apply practices that take you to the top of Google results pages. For you to conquer the top of google in 2022, you need to understand SEO.

seotips

seotips

Do not worry! Whether you want to take your first steps in the world of search engine optimization, or you want to refresh your knowledge, in this complete SEO guide we will explain everything you need to know about the subject.

In this article you will find:

  • What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
  • 7 advantages of implementing an SEO strategy
  • What types of searches are there?
  • A brief history of SEO and how Google’s algorithm has evolved
  • How to put together a good SEO strategy and conquer the top of Google?
  • What is SEO on Page?
  • What is off-page SEO?
  • How does technical SEO work?
  • What is local SEO?
  • Conclusion and bonus

Read carefully and become a web positioning specialist!

 

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

What is SEO

What is SEO

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which stands for “search engine optimization.” It consists of a series of techniques, disciplines, and optimization strategies that are implemented in the pages of a website or blog to improve its positioning in search engines.

That marketing strategy is essential for your company to gain standing, and visibility in the digital world, and, consequently, more leads, customers, and turnover for your business.

Get an Amazing giveaway and the upcoming Divi Black Friday Sale!

How?

Optimizing sites and blogs through the use of techniques to improve the web positioning of your pages and positioning your company in the first results of Google, for example, increase (and a lot) your business opportunities.

At the end of the day, 90% of people who search on Google only click on the results that appear on the first page of the engine.

The main goal of SEO, therefore, is to increase the volume of organic traffic and ensure more visibility for web pages.

 

What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

seo sem

We do not want to leave out of this article a topic that causes a lot of confusion among professionals who are starting in the world of Digital Marketing, and this is the difference between SEO and SEM.

Although at first, they may seem to refer to similar actions given the similarity of their acronyms, you should pay close attention because they refer to completely different actions. Let’s look at them one by one.

 

SEO = Organic Positioning

sep 2

As you already know, SEO refers to all those actions that you can take inside or outside your website to optimize your positioning in search engines organically. This last point is key since organic means “no payment”.

With an SEO strategy, you don’t pay Google or any other search engine to gain positions in the SERP. It’s your valuable content and optimizations that earn those places in their own right.

 

SEM = Paid to position

sem Paid to position

In contrast, SEM (Search Engine Marketing) refers to those strategies that include the use of paid ads.

That is, with an SEM strategy you create an advertising campaign so that when a user types a search, your site appears before the organic results in the form of an ad, as long as it matches the user’s search intention.

Which one to choose?

which one to choos

A complete Digital Marketing strategy should not opt for one and exclude the other. That is, you should include in your strategy a combination of SEO and SEM strategies to increase your results.

With the use of SEM, results are generated instantly in a short term, necessary when you want to increase visibility or brand recognition quickly or when you want to launch products or promotions for a limited time.

In addition, SEO is a strategy that works in the medium and long term, bringing better quality visits constantly.

If you want to expand on this matter we recommend you read our article on SEO vs. SEM.

But what are the advantages of this SEO strategy and how efficient can it be? Below we propose the main ones.

 

 7 advantages of implementing an SEO strategy

 7 advantages of implementing an SEO strategy

·        Increase the visibility of a brand

Implementing an SEO strategy is one of the best ways to increase your brand’s visibility organically.

Imagine the following scenario: your business handles the sale of washing machines. A user, let’s call him Pedro, is having problems with his washing machine, so google how he can repair it himself.

Coincidentally, you have an article that shows a step by step to repair washing machines, so you conquer that visit for your website.

And although the article talks about repair and not sale, this is only the beginning of a customer relationship with your brand. It is what in Inbound we know as the attraction stage.

·        Attract qualified traffic

Like Pedro, many other users will come to your content to solve their doubts or find solutions to their problems.

With the creation of valuable content, optimized for search engines, your website will be able to organically attract the leads it is looking for, at the right time.

In this way, the more visits you receive, the more people will know you and the more likely you are to close a sale, which leads us to the next advantage.

 

·        Generate sales opportunities

Imagine that, although Pedro repaired his washing machine, he needs to change it, as it still has other failures.

As Pedro already knows your brand, thanks to the solution to his questions in your articles, he will surely already trust your business and think of you, as the first option, to buy his next washing machine. This is the decision stage in the Inbound methodology.

 

·        Position a brand as an authority in the market

Continuing with our example, in the mind of Pedro and in that of many other users like him, your company will be it occupies its Top of Mind, that is, it will be the first brand that comes to mind when they think of washing machines.

SEO allows you to achieve this by facilitating the correct indexing and improving the organic positioning of your content.

So, whenever Pedro or anyone else searches for information about washing machines, your website will be the first to appear, or at least, the result they are looking for.

In this area, a concept that has been highlighted is that of EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), an acronym used to represent the three fundamental elements of quality content.

Recently Google has looked favorably on the content published by authors who have technical authority and recognized credibility in the respective topics.

For example, on a disease content website, you may want to have articles written by doctors, with an author page containing information about your professional history.

 

·        Educate the market

Users like Pedro have surely been educated by your articles about the operation, care, and maintenance of their washing machines.

Likewise, they have managed to understand what are the specifications they are looking for with their washing machine, according to their personal needs.

As you can see, the importance of positioning content not only lies in closing sales but also in educating the audience to make better decisions.

 

·        Succeed over the competition

Finally, if it is your brand that produces the most complete and relevant content about washing machines, what do you think users will look for when they want to know something about washing machines?

Although it takes time and a lot of work to implement an SEO strategy, in the long term it generates constant and lasting results.

 

·        Better return on investment

SEO requires a much lower investment than other strategies such as SEM or traditional advertising.

The investment that SEO requires translates into the payment of some tools such as those we saw above, the salaries of the SEO specialist or the content creator, and the payment of the domain and hosting of the website, for example.

 

However, the return more than multiplies the investment and the best thing is that the work that was done once continues to generate returns in the medium and long term.

 

We are going to explain now, step by step, the most important concepts of SEO and teach you the strategies we use to reach the top of Google.

And it all starts when the user searches.

 

What types of searches are there?

seo good

The psychology of search revolves around the user: their needs, their way of looking for answers, the results they expect when looking for something, etc.

Companies that invest in Digital Marketing should respond objectively to all those doubts and needs.

One of the first steps to understanding user search is to know the intent of their navigation, which is essential to be able to attract the right audience to your site.

So let’s explain what it is that brings the user to Google. There are three types of searches:

1.     Navigational search

123

This type of search — also known as a shortcut search — happens when the user already knows which site they’d like to visit, but may not remember the full URL or are lazy to type.

For example, if the user searches for “Daravision Content” or “DaraVission Content blog” to find our content, their search intent is clear and therefore there is little chance that this user will change their final destination on the web — this person already knows what they are looking for.

 

2.     Informational search

As the name itself says, in the informational search the user seeks information, either through news, product launches, or explanatory articles.

Unlike navigational search, the user does not know exactly which site they will go to to find the content they are looking for, as it is not possible to identify their search intention.

In an Inbound Marketing strategy, this organic visibility is essential to attract users to the pages of a business and start their journey to become customers.

By not knowing exactly which site he wants to visit, the user tends to use the organic results to look for the solution to his doubt or need, and it is at that moment that the good web positioning of the blog or site is an advantage for the business.

 

Look at an example of informational research:

3.     Transactional search

In this type of search, the user wants to execute a transaction, such as directly buying a product or finding a store. This search is extremely valuable, especially for e-commerce.

Now that you have understood the 3 types of search, in the next topic, we are going to explain how the largest search engine in the world, Google, works.

4.     Local Search

Local searches are searches with a geographical component, within a certain region, for example, when the user searches for restaurants, cinemas, shops, hotels, schools, and offices, among other types of establishments with a physical location.

 

Other types of search

There are also other types of searches that users can perform, such as:

  • news;
  • institutions;
  • songs;
  • academic searches;
  • specific information (weather, date, etc.);
  • images;
  • videos.

Keep in mind that for each type of search, Google has increasingly strived to deliver specific results.

In (transactional) product searches, for example, it shows results from Google Shopping or when searching for a music theme, it shows the clip on YouTube and the lyrics.

The intention is to improve the search experience with more agile and accurate answers for the user.

 

 A brief history of SEO and how Google’s algorithm has evolved

Since people realized that the best way to deliver their content to Internet users was through search engines, they devised a series of techniques to conquer their first places.

These techniques were baptized with the name of SEO.

However, in the 90s many contents were more concerned with positioning than with the user experience. That’s why Google began to constantly update its algorithm to deliver the most relevant results in each search.

Next, we will take a look at the main updates of the algorithm.

 

 

Google Panda

In 2011 came the first major update of the algorithm. Google Panda began to analyze and evaluate websites based on the quality of their content by reviewing aspects such as grammar and duplicate content and rewarding, in turn, original and valuable content.

 

Google Penguin

A year later, in April 2012, Google Penguin was launched to monitor the health of website link building.

Google Penguin checks that the external links that are sent to the pages are natural and of quality. Therefore, it stimulates relevant backlinks that add value to the user who arrives at another website from them.

 

Google Hummingbird

In 2013, with Google Hummingbird, it was agreed to classify the contents according to semantic factors and user interest.

It is with Hummingbird that Google co-understands natural language, expanding its way of interpreting content to variations of keywords or related keywords.

 

Google Pigeon

In 2014, with Google Pigeon, the search engine began to organize the results of searches according to the geographical location of users. It is from here that local SEO begins to gain prominence.

 

Google Mobilegeddon

In 2015 comes the boom of mobile devices and Google adapts to it with Google Mobilegeddon. With this update, Google rewards mobile-friendly sites: those that have a responsive design and optimize their loading speeds.

 

Google RankBrain

One of the most radical changes in the algorithm occurred with Google RankBrain, in 2015. With this update, Google delivers the most relevant content to the user according to their search intention.

In this free infographic that we prepared you can find more detailed information about this story and how Google currently works.

Read more from our website blog

 How to put together a good SEO strategy and conquer the top of Google?

sep google

Now, it’s time to know the step by steps you need to follow to create and implement a successful SEO strategy. Notes!

1.     Define your goals

The first step of the strategy is to define what your goals are when optimizing your website, blog, or eCommerce. For this, you must know what SEO is, some possibilities are:

  • increase organic traffic;
  • generate more leads;
  • generate more sales;
  • reduce the cost of acquiring customers (CAC);
  • educate the market;
  • increase brand authority.

You should always align these SEO goals with your brand’s macro goals. If you want to increase your brand recognition, for example, SEO can help you with that by putting your company’s website in the top positions of Google.

When defining objectives, you can also identify goals and KPIs. If you want to have more authority, for example, you can use the Domain Authority and Page Authority metrics. You just have to define what score you want to achieve in these KPIs and at what time.

This way, you can monitor the strategy using these indicators to be sure that you are on the right track to achieve your goals.

2.     Create a buyer persona

The first step is to define who you want to reach with your content, that is, to delimit who would be your ideal client. To do this, the concept of buyer persona will be completely useful. In short, a buyer persona is a semi-physical representation of your ideal customer built from data.

Unlike the target audience, a buyer persona is a character with a specific and detailed description, created to better understand your customers, their interests, and their problems or needs.

Creating a buyer persona is the first step to implementing an SEO strategy because it allows you to define the communication language, the content you expect, and the best content distribution channels.

That is, it will give north to your digital strategy and allow you to write for real people and search engines at the same time.

Remember this: everything your brand produces should be addressed to your buyer persona to make sense and lead them to naturally transit through the stages of the customer journey until concluding the purchase.

3.     Install initial and basic SEO tools

To start an SEO strategy you must have, at least, the basic tools to make a diagnosis of your current situation, support the planning, make the first optimizations and start monitoring the impacts of each action.

We are mainly talking about two indispensable tools for SEO: Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Google provides them for free and they will always help you monitor your strategies. Let’s get to know them better!

 

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a widely used data analysis tool that offers a wide variety of resources to evaluate the performance of digital strategies. In SEO, you can help in different ways:

  • get to know your audience better to build the buyer persona;
  • identify which are the most visited and best-performing pages;
  • monitor the amount of organic traffic;
  • identify the channels that generate the most traffic (email, social, organic, etc.);
  • understand participation (bounce rate, pages per visit, session duration);
  • monitor the conversions generated by the SEO strategy.

These are just a few analytics you can do with Google Analytics that can help from planning to SEO monitoring. Undoubtedly, you will find many other data in the tool to help your strategy.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a tool that facilitates communication between a site and Google and offers valuable reports to apply SEO techniques. Here are some of the features it offers:

  • find out if there are problems with indexing the site;
  • helps you know if the site has been hacked or penalized by Google;
  • monitor the average position of your pages in the SERPs;
  • identify the click-through rate (organic CTR) of your pages in the SERPs;
  • identify which keywords activated your website in the SERPs;
  • identify which sites direct backlinks to yours;
  • ask Google to rework dubious backlinks to your site.

Google Search Console is a bit more technical, so it’s geared toward webmasters. But the interface is very friendly, so anyone can use it to make diagnoses and direct more complex demands to specialized professionals.

The tool can also generate various ideas for content optimization, as well as be the primary source for identifying queries that drive traffic to your pages and the click-through rate of your top keywords.

4.     Do keyword research

Since you know who you’re going to talk to and what topics might interest you, it’s time to land those ideas to create relevant content for your buyer persona.

What separates your content from your users is called keywords. A keyword is a term that users type in search engines to find content that solves their concerns.

For example, if a person is planning a trip to Japan they will surely type “best destinations in Nigeria or Japan” or “the cheapest destinations in Nigeria or Japan” in the search bar.

What I put in quotes are the keywords, which have different types those terms that cover interesting topics for your buyer persona.

 

Doing keyword research is a complete process:

  1. you start with an idea about a topic,
  2. you use tools like SEMRush or Google’s Keyword Planner to identify the keywords you can use in your articles,
  3. you determine if your search volume is relevant or how difficult it is to rank content by that word,
  4. you create a list with the best keywords.

In this keyword search, it is also very important to know the location of your audience, since this information will guide the entire content production of your website.

If you have a company in Mexico but want to expand your operations to Colombia, you will have to do specific research to find out which terms are the most common in this country.

To achieve this territorial dominance in Google for different regions of the world, there are the techniques of international SEO, which you can know more about in detail in the last link.

Among them, there are the use of hreflang tags and the production of content adapted to each national market.

We recommend you read our article on keywords to understand in-depth how to perform this process.

 

 Keyword Tools

SEMRush

SEMRush

An indispensable tool in the work kit of an SEO is SEMRush. With this platform, you can, among other things, analyze the general positioning status of your website and identify the keywords of your sector.

But perhaps one of the most valued features of SEMRush is competitor analysis. Thus, you can identify the strengths of your competition’s SEO strategy and adjust yours.

In this article, we propose a complete tutorial on how to use SEMRush.

 

Ahrefs

ahrefs

If you want to know the status of your link-building strategy and the health of your backlinks, you should use Ahrefs. This platform has the most comprehensive index of links on the Internet.

Ahrefs, which now has a free version, allows you to execute different functions: find link-building opportunities, find broken links on your website or that of your competition, find ideal pages for guest posting and analyze the backlink profile of your page.

To take care of your link-building strategy, and avoid being penalized by Google Penguin, you should use Ahrefs.

 

MOZ

mpz

MOZ is a whole suite of tools that, correctly used, will boost your SEO strategy through its recommendations for optimization in positioning, the definition of the topics of your content, and the improvement of your strategy in social networks.

For example, with the Crawl Test function, you will be able to identify the technical SEO problems of your website. In addition, only with MOZ will you have access to two metrics that are essential to understand Google’s PageRank: the Page Authority and the Domain Authority.

 

5.     Analyze the competition to identify opportunities

google analy

Another fundamental step before starting content creation is to review what your competition is doing.

With tools like SEMRush, google analyze, you can identify which are your most successful keywords, which of your articles are the ones that are best positioned, and how they are being found by users.

With this information, you can make adjustments to your strategy, adopt their best practices or try to position their keywords by creating more complete content.

6.     Organize the contents with the Topic Clusters methodology

After identifying your best keywords with their different types, it’s time to write your articles.

You must explore the main topics of your market with complete content, which must be reconciled with minor and more specific articles on topics related to the most prominent issues.

Once you have several specific articles on a general topic, you can organize them into Topic Clusters, which means bringing together several related articles into one main post, creating interconnections between them.

You must pay attention to this methodology since increasingly, Google is paying attention to the user’s search intent and not only to the keywords that appear in an article.

With Topic Clusters, you give Google to understand that your article is the most complete on a topic and thus you will gain better positions in the SERP.

DaraVision Content universe is the pillar content we have on the concept of Marketing, which has almost 10 thousand words.

But to talk about this topic it is impossible to stop covering related concepts, such as:

  • Digital Marketing;
  • How to put together a marketing strategy;
  • SEO-marketing;
  • What is the relationship between Marketing and Advertising;
  • What types of Marketing exist;

The concept of Topic Clusters tells us that it is advisable to write specific articles on each of these topics, making those contents send internal links to the “Marketing” page, and vice versa.

Thus the algorithm can better understand the semantic structure of the domain and reward it for this organized work.

In this free spreadsheet that we prepare you can use this methodology to guide the production of your content. Download it for free!

What is SEO on Page?

what is seo page

Here it should be remembered that On-Page factors refer to what the website administrator can optimize on their pages to improve the visitor experience and facilitate the reading of the site by Google.

These optimizations must be integrated into the Content Marketing strategy since a large part of them is implemented in the content published on the website or blog.

On-Page SEO brings together all the variables that you can control directly within your website such as:

  • length of the title,
  • user intent,
  • content size,
  • author pages (E-A-T),
  • number of publications,
  • scannability,
  • meta description,
  • Friendly and easy-to-understand URL,
  • use of keywords,
  • image optimization,
  • loading speed,
  • formatting by subtitles,
  • internal links between pages,
  • among others.

From now on we are going to break down the main factors of SEO on Page optimization and their best practices:

User Intent

SEO is not about what people are looking for, but about what they want to find.

Therefore, on-page optimizations should focus on the user’s search intent, which varies with each search, so that your pages and content match what they want to find.

That is what Google concentrates on to offer what the user wants and, for that, natural language processing and analysis of the user’s location are elements that help decipher this intention.

Therefore, the challenge for an on-page SEO and Content Marketing strategy is to understand search intentions, as Google does, to deliver to users what they want.

And the best way to understand user intent is by turning to Google itself!

Let’s understand better with some examples:

After keyword research, you should search Google to analyze which results are in the top spots. After all, these are the pages that Google considers to respond best to user intent.

Let’s look at the results page for the “SEO” search:

As you can see all the first contents are educational, focused on teaching what it is and how to use SEO, therefore, to position yourself you need to have content following this line.

But what if I intended to find a “Batman costume”? What would I like to find?

Exactly, images of the products!

Can you imagine someone renting or buying a costume without seeing it? To reach the top positions you must use images!

So, analyze the first results for specific keywords and identify the topics you need to address and how to improve your content with topics that those results don’t yet address.

Overcome them and offer optimized and more complete content!

 

Content size

The size of the content usually has an impact on ranking, although it is not a direct factor in the ranking of the algorithm.

Extensive content tends to be more complete, detailed, and in-depth and can therefore better answer users’ questions.

But, of course, there is no rule: for each topic and each person, the ideal extension may vary. Here at Rock Content, we have super complete publications, such as this one about advertising.

It is ahead tail keywords, with a lot of competition, and search volume and that requires extremely complete content, due to the breadth of the topic.

Already a post about 18 Instagram tricks, for example, is much more specific, with fewer searches and competition, and can therefore be shorter and more direct.

In concussion: the best size is the one that best answers the user’s question. To gain insights into how long your post has to be to reach the top of Google, you can also take a look at the websites that are already ranking well for each keyword.

 

Volume of publications

The volume of publications also tends to favor positioning. After all, the more content you post, the better chances you have of ranking better.

However, you can’t just think about the number of posts, okay? We need to combine quality and frequency.

It doesn’t make sense to post hundreds of pieces of content that aren’t relevant or don’t answer users’ questions. That would be a waste of energy. Publishing a lot at the beginning of a blog and then abandoning is useless.

It is necessary to maintain the frequency of publications to retain the public and show Google that you always have new and updated content.

However, there is no ideal volume or frequency of publication. You must identify the demands of your topic area, and its identity, and, in addition, evaluate the content production capacity of your business.

Remember that the most important thing is that quantity and quality work together!

 

Featured Snippets

Moreover, Featured Snippets are a type of featured snippet known to be Google’s famous zero position. They are boxes that appear above all the results with a concrete answer to a user’s search.

In general, terms, to conquer a Featured Snippet you must create very valuable content and present it in a simple way that completely answers a question in a small space.

Therefore, lists, definitions, and short answers are the most common contents found in Featured Snippets.

As an additional fact, you should know that when you perform a voice search, the result you get will surely be read from a Featured Snippet. That is why it is so important to try to conquer position zero.

There are three types of featured snippets:

  • lists.
  • tables.
  • and paragraphs.

Here you can see an example of a paragraph snippet featured that we conquered for the keyword “marketing information system”:

Images for SEO

Google still doesn’t fully understand what an image says, so it needs your help. And how can you help him? With image optimizations for SEO.

This strategy serves to provide data in the form of text about the images. We are talking about the alt text (tag alt), the name of the file, the title of the image, the URL of the image, and the context (words of the environment).

The most important thing here is the alt text, which is essential for the experience of visually impaired people, as the screen reader reads the alt text to the user.

Therefore, the alt text should be a description of the image and, whenever possible, contain the keyword. Look at this example:

All these elements make Google understand what the image shows, index it for search in Google Images, and turn it into another source of traffic.

Image optimization for SEO also includes some attention to file size and format, so they are quickly uploaded and indexed.

Rich Snippets

Rich Snippets are boxes that appear with extended information about your website. They occupy the position that your website occupies for a certain search.

If Snippets are a combination of a title, short description, and website URL, Rich Snippets are a rich version of these that includes more detailed information that is relevant to users.

To enrich your website with those resources, it will be necessary to establish a solid and organized structure of information that can be understood by the algorithm. That is achieved by setting up the pages with the code snippets available in the Schema Markup.

An example of a rich snippet is the qualification of the contents in the SERPs. Positive user feedback can help others who come to the page have more confidence in and access content.

Internal links

The network of internal links of your website is also part of the on-page SEO strategies.

Linking internal pages has one main function: to guide navigation and direct the user (and search engines) to other content that may interest them.

But that action also serves a technical function in SEO. The internal link network helps Google find your content and better understand your site by showing the hierarchy between pages.

For example, the closer to home a page is and the more internal links it receives, the more important it will be.

We link, in addition to our blogs and most important pages, more relevant content directly from the home page of our website:

Another example of rock content’s internal link is found in our super comprehensive post on”Digital Marketing”, much other diverse content more specific to the subject (email marketing, SEO, social media, etc.) has links to that post and thus strengthens your authority.

This is how a topic cluster strategy works.

EAT

This acronym caught the attention of SEO professionals and stands for Expertise (specialty), Authoritativeness (authority), and Trustworthiness (reliability) Google uses these words as guidelines to evaluate the quality of search results.

They are presented in the document that guides the group of evaluators who perform a manual analysis of the relevance of the results offered by the search engine. Therefore, they also show what Google considers important for the content to be considered of quality:

  • the specialty of the author of the content;
  • the authority of the author of the content, the content itself, and the website;
  • how trustworthy the author of the content, the content itself, and the website is.

Therefore, follow these guidelines in your content strategy and SEO optimization to be aligned with what Google thinks. To learn more about the subject read our article on EAT.

What is off-page SEO?

Now, it’s time to look outside of your pages for off-page SEO. What can you do to gain more authority in the marketplace and show Google that you’re a reference?

Here you need to realize that, unlike on-page SEO, in off-page SEO you don’t have full control over optimization. The decision to backlink your site and mention or directly search for your brand depends on third parties.

What you can do is increase the chances of that happening by adopting a link-building strategy, performing guest posting, and redirecting broken links, among other ways to reinforce the backlink profile and generate more authority for the page.

Below, you’ll learn more about these strategies!

What is link building?

Links are the basis of the internet. They connect one page to another and allow the user to navigate by discovering content.

Like users, robots also traverse this interconnected network to index new content and understand which pages are the most important, as one transmits link juice and authority to the other.

That’s why a link-building strategy is so important in off-page SEO.

Link building is the construction of a network of links that direct the user to your pages (called backlinks)and strengthen your authority on the web. For Google’s algorithm, the more quality links the page receives, the more relevant it will have in the market.

Keep in mind that quantity and quality must go together. It doesn’t make sense to get hundreds of backlinks from the same domain or a questionable website or out of context.

For a link-building strategy to work it must be able to obtain quality links.

 

What are quality backlinks?

As we have already seen, Google makes a great effort to avoid black hat actions.

Link building was once a widely used tool to increase authority artificially, with systems of artificial link production and “super optimization” of anchor texts, for example.

A quality backlink, therefore, is the opposite of these actions, it is a link to your domain that you receive on your own merits and shows that you relate to reliable sites and references in your market.

Quality backlinks, therefore, are those that:

  • come from sites with domain and page authority.
  • they come from sites that Google trusts;
  • they come from several different domains;
  • are naturally integrated into the context of the page;
  • uses consistent anchor text;
  • are in a privileged position on the page (at the beginning of the text, for example);
  • come from sites related to your area of expertise.

These are the main features that you should look for in backlinks when designing a link-building strategy.

Nofollow Links

There is also an important point in the characteristics of backlinks: the difference between dofollow and no-follow links.

By default, all links are “dofollow”. This attribute tells the robot to follow the path indicated by the link and transmit authority from one page to another.

The “nofollow” attribute, on the other hand, prevents the robot from following that path and assigning authority to the linked page.

It is used, for example, in blog comment boxes and social media links, which are often for spamming and creating artificial authority.

This is not to say that no-follow links are expendable in off-page SEO. While they don’t directly convey authority to your pages, they generate traffic and make more people aware of your brand.

Link building techniques

Let’s see, then, what link-building techniques can you adopt to strengthen your market authority? Next, we will talk about the main ones. Read!

Link Bait

It is the most natural and efficient strategy. It is about creating content that is so good that it generates backlinks naturally, without having to look for or propose associations.

For this, you can invest in in-depth content, disseminate exclusive research data, create rich materials, and offer your tools, among other types of content that become assets with a lot of potential to be linked or shared.

Interactive content is an example that usually brings natural backlinks, as it surprises the user with its immersive character and encourages them to share it on their social networks.

There are several types of interactive content, such as:

  • calculators
  • infographics,
  • questionnaires
  • and eBooks.

To make you visualize it better I show you the example of the interactive calculator that Lansinoh made, in which the user can know how much he would save with breastfeeding instead of standardized baby feeding formulas.

Guest posts

Guest posting is a strategy for posting guest posts on an associated blog. It’s usually an exchange: you produce content for the blog audience and you can place one or more links to your website.

In this way, you attract new visitors and gain more authority, if the link is “dofollow”.

It is very important to adopt this strategy in moderation. If Google realizes that you acquired a lot of links quickly, it can understand that you are using black hat techniques and penalize your pages.

Mentions of the brand

Brand mentions, even without a link to your website, are already valuable for SEO. Google analyzes this criterion to recognize brands that exist and have a good reputation in the market.

You can also search for these mentions without a link and identify opportunities to get a quality backlink. Just contact the administrator and suggest adding the link.

Broken links

What happens when a site’s URL pattern changes or content ceases to exist? Various broken links are created on the site.

That is, the user who tries to access that previous link does not find anything that falls on a page of Error 404 and you lose both the visit and the authority that transmitted the link.

In addition, you can find these links on websites with topics related to yours and display your content as a solution to that broken link.

You can find these links on other sites using tools like Screaming Frog and Ahrefs or using a free tool like Check My Links:

Link building tools

There are several link-building tools on the market. Some are paid, some are free; some are specialized, and others help with certain actions.

Tools like Majestic, Ahrefs, Moz’s Link Explorer, and SEMrush offer a complete analysis of a page’s backlink profile, from the volume of citations to the quality of anchor texts.

Some of them have indicators that help in this analysis, such as Majestic’s Trust Flow and Citation Flow and Moz’s Domain Authority and Page Authority.

These tools are paid, but they offer some free features.

In addition, you can work with more specific tools for certain actions. Google Search Console, for example, should be used to ask Google to reject dubious backlinks.

Google Alerts can alert you to mentions of your brand that are good opportunities to get backlinks.

 

How does technical SEO work?

The SEO universe is vast and includes many technical aspects of the structure of a website, so a very important part of on-page SEO is technical SEO.

When we talk about technical SEO, we are referring to all the optimizations you can make in the internal structure (i.e. in the codes and architecture) of your website, intending to make it more secure, fast, understandable, crawlable, and indexable.

Next, we will tell you what the fundamental elements are and how to optimize them. Don’t stop reading!

Sitemap

A sitemap is a text document that numbers all the pages of a website, as well as information about them, such as the date of the last modification and the frequency of updates.

Its SEO function is to show this information to search engines so that they can easily find and index URLs.

Although search engines already do this job of crawling, sitemaps make life easier for robots and ensure the indexing of all pages.

You can create the sitemap manually or with tools and plugins and then submit it through Google Search Console.

Robots.txt

The robots file.txt is also a text document, inserted into the root folder of your website, that tells Google which pages of your website should not crawl so that, in that way, they do not appear in the search engine.

You can use bots.txt to prevent Google bots from accessing sensitive pages, such as the admin login form (the “wp-admin/” of WordPress sites, for example), scripts, or styles that aren’t important.

In addition, it is important to know about robots.txt for cases where your pages have a problem appearing in the SERPs. They may be in that file by mistake.

UX (user experience)

User experience and SEO are concepts that should go together. We have already said that the priority of engines is to offer the best search and browsing experience until the user finds what they are looking for.

And that includes their experience on your website.

But what does UX, User Experience mean? It is a concept used in the development of websites that centralizes all measures in the actions and responses of users to meet their needs.

According to Peter Morville, president of Semantic Studios, seven features are essential for a website to have a good user experience. It needs to be:

  • useful;
  • easy to use;
  • desirable;
  • localizable;
  • accessible;
  • valuable;
  • reliable.

 

Loading speed

Loading speed is one of the main criteria for classification. Google itself has already stated this openly: in 2010, for desktop searches and, in 2018, for mobile searches.

It is very important to remember that while speed does not make you gain positions, without it you will never reach the top.

A fast page speed won’t rank you above your competitors, but with a poor page speed, you won’t even have a chance to compete.

For Google, the quality of the user’s search experience depends on the agility of the information, since no one wants to wait more than a few seconds to find what they are looking for.

It’s no coincidence that the search engine has provided a free trial tool: PageSpeed Insights. The reports provide a speed diagnosis, as well as tips for improving loading, and optimizing images and website codes.

Mobile-First Index

If cell phones are already used more than computers if mobile searches have already surpassed desktop searches if mobile traffic is already higher, what do you think Google should do?

Of course, the search engine is an excellent reader of reality! Therefore, it began to prioritize in the search results those sites that offered a good mobile experience.

In 2015 Google announced that searches on mobile devices would become a ranking factor which motivated several sites to become responsive.

One impact that was also impressive was the announcement of the Mobile-First Index, starting in 2016, which began prioritizing the mobile version of sites to rank them.

So if you haven’t yet adapted your site to this trend, hurry up to improve the usability and loading of your pages on mobile devices!

Responsiveness

Creating a responsive website is one of the most appropriate ways to make your website mobile-friendly. With this technique, the site only has one version, which best suits the different screen sizes that users can use.

In addition to responsive design, you can also adopt two other techniques, although they are less indicated:

  • Mobile URL, where the mobile version has a different URL than the desktop version (m.domain.com, for example);
  • Dynamic service, where the two versions have the same URL but have different CSS and HTML for each device.

If you want to know if your website is mobile-friendly, you can take Google’s mobile compatibility test and receive optimization recommendations.

Amps

Accelerated Mobile Pages are another initiative to improve the mobile search experience. This is an open-source project, spearheaded by Google, whose goal is to develop pages of static content that load faster on mobile devices.

They are identified in the mobile search SERP with a stamp, and a small lightning symbol next to the URL and are given priority in the ranking.

The red Flecha of the following image is fixed on the symbol that indicates that the page will be displayed in its AMP version.

 SEO Audits

seo audit

In technical SEO, one of the main actions is to perform audits, especially at the beginning of an optimization project.

An SEO audit identifies issues with tracking, loading, and usability (especially on mobile devices), among other errors that affect user navigation and website ranking.

 

Here are some elements that an SEO audit can point out:

  • broken links;
  • tracking errors;
  • redirect errors;
  • duplicate content;
  • blocked pages (robots.txt, noindex, nofollow);
  • slow loading pages.

One of the most comprehensive tools for this is Screaming Frog which offers comprehensive reports on all the elements we mentioned. But auditing can also combine other tools, such as SEMrush and Google Search Console.

What is local SEO?

One of Google’s priorities in recent years is to search with local intent. Understand why this is!

The search engine interprets that a user looking for solutions in a given region should receive answers differently, with more practical and objective information, rather than a list of links as in a traditional SERP.

In this type of search, Google activates the local search algorithm, which prioritizes the results in the region in which the user is located or that he types in the search terms.

In the results, the search engine usually presents information from Google My Business directly in the SERPs, so the user does not always need to enter the brand’s website (in the same line that we explained about the featured snippets).

Therefore, optimization for companies with a physical address, called local SEO, has some peculiarities. What changes this in an optimization strategy? Buy it better below.

Local keywords

To display local results in the SERPs, Google tries to interpret the intent of the user’s local search.

If you type in “hotels,” “nearest hotels,” or similar terms, Google considers the user’s location at the time of the search to show them the options in that region.

On the other hand, if the user types “hotels in Medellín”, the results will focus on the region they typed in the search, regardless of their location at the time. This can happen when we plan a trip, for example.

Therefore, keyword research for local SEO strategy should consider search intentions with all these variations, not just the one your city includes.

Think about the following:

  • terms that identify your business, for example, hospitality, hotel.
  • modifiers of industry terms, for example, best hotel, hotel better cost-benefit;
  • geographical modifiers, for example, Medellin hotels, downtown hotels, and hotels near the airport.

 

Google My Business

Google My Business is the main ranking factor in local SEO. At the top of the local search SERP, Google displays the Local Pack, which is a box with the top three results for the user, whose information is pulled directly from Google My Business.

It is there, therefore, that you should strive to appear, for it is essential to register your company in Google My Business. This tool offers several registration features for local businesses.

You can place your name, address, telephone, and hours of operation and, also, receive comments, respond to users, place photos, and inform your menu, among other specific functions for different types of businesses.

Take advantage of all this variety of forms of registration and interaction with users to have more chances of appearing in the Local Pack.

Google prioritizes companies that provide the most information on the platform, especially those that have the most reviews and high ratings.

Positioning factors

Google uses three main ranking factors for local searches: relevance, proximity, and prominence. The search engine itself presents these criteria on its recommendations page to improve local ranking on Google.

These factors are analyzed and combined to offer the best answer. If a company is more distant from the user, for example, but is more likely to deliver what it is looking for, it may appear better positioned.

Let’s better explain each of these factors below.

The relevance criterion considers the correspondence between the search keyword and the product or service offered by the business. If the user is looking for hotels, for example, they don’t want to see restaurant results, right?

That is why it is so important to complete the Registration of Google My Business with all the possible information since that is where Google makes this correspondence. For example, if the user searches for “hotel restaurant,” Google will only show hotels that have that feature.

Proximity

Proximity refers to the distance of the business concerning the user’s location or the geographic terms placed in the search. Google understands that the best results are the closest to the user.

Prominence (highlight)

The highlight criterion evaluates whether the company is popular in your region, based on online and offline factors. If the business doesn’t have such a strong online presence, but it’s a well-known brand and is used offline, you can rank better.

But user ratings and ratings on Google My Business also count for a lot, in addition to the traditional on-page and off-page SEO optimizations the site adopts.

The more trust Google has in your business, based on these elements, the better your local ranking will be.

 

Conclusion and bonus for you

Although SEO is an extensive subject and subject to constant updates, with what you have learned in this post you are ready to start executing your first web positioning strategies.

However, we recommend you expand your knowledge with the articles that we have linked throughout the post to complement your learning.

After all, getting good results with search engine optimization depends largely on proper planning, execution, and measurement of the SEO strategy

 

WHAT ARE KEYWORDS AND WHAT ARE THEY FOR ON THE INTERNET?

WHAT ARE KEYWORDS AND WHAT ARE THEY FOR ON THE INTERNET?

The keyword is the Translation into Spanish of the English word “keyword”, which in programming is defined as a term responsible for promoting the exchange of information between web pages and users on the Internet.If you got this far in this article, I’m sure you want to understand what those such keywords are, right?

When we start studying what is SEO (search engine optimization) one of the most talked-about points is about keywords, their choice of them, and the real importance of those terms that dictate optimizations.

Without further ado, you’ll now learn – once and for all – what that means. Let’s go!

 

What are keywords?

Keywords are the main instrument of research. They are terms composed of one or more words. They are how a user writes his doubts in the search engines to get answers and solve his problems.

As much as the term itself is self-explanatory, it costs nothing to explain in detail what they are and what they mean. In the end, that was the doubt that brought you here!

 

Keywords are the main search instruments.

Think that all searches originate from a word used to present this problem to the search engine. Keywords can be defined as the terms used by users to get answers and solve their problems.

If you are a marketing professional, keywords are the terms we use to give an address when creating our pages, blog posts, and sites.

That is, when defining a keyword for a certain page, you will be passing the message to Google, for example, that your content is about the subject of that specific term.

If all goes well and you make the right choice, your content will be displayed exactly to the person who searched for that keyword.

 

In practice, here’s how it works:

Keywords are used by users (as you can see the word in the Google search box) and are also used by sites that want to be entered that have the “answers” of that search.

Why are keywords so important to your business?

It is no coincidence that they are keywords. These are the ones that, when they fit perfectly, open the doors to your content towards the world of the internet. The truth is that a company that wants to survive the digital transformation can not stop looking at them in detail.

For your business, it means the difference between being found, read, shared, and liked or simply not being entered due to ignorance or complete ignorance.

And that’s exactly why keywords are tools that help (and a lot!) content marketing.

When it comes to developing your investment plan, one of the main objectives of your company is to increase leads, customers, and, consequently, your sales.

On the internet, your content will face greater competition than in your area of action, no matter how crowded it may be.

In Internet search engines, the borders are smaller and the results in each research, millions and millions of possibilities are at the fingertips of the public.

That means it’s not enough to pick a handful of keywords and splash them in the middle of posts.

Thinking needs to be more strategic and careful about them to make your business stand out. So, start by asking yourself why the keywords need to be used.

The answer should come quickly and obviously in your mind: “because I need to help my audience find myself on the internet.”

 

Only the answer can’t stop there.

You have a conversion funnel with defined stages, which means that there are different types of audiences with different types of questions.

Whoever started the purchase process, still wants to know about the basic items referring to the universe in which your product or service is inserted.

Whoever is in the middle of the funnel, is probably researching several brands to decide what the benefits of one over the other are.

And who is at the bottom, you are almost deciding on the purchase and need the assurance that you are making the right decision when choosing your company to close the deal.

And each of those groups has a more specific group of keywords that they choose to type into search mechanisms.

Therefore, your company needs to recognize them to make the best use of them when producing each material.

 

Do you know why?

For these, they will be the first contact between the brand and the public and will probably decide if that visitor will close the window and go ahead in the search results or if they will continue on your site.

Each keyword should be considered as a question that needs to be clarified objectively, without half words.

And the role of your company’s content is to focus on offering them, so that they love your ability to answer questions and, from them, go on to build a relationship of trust with your company.

That is: unlock the locks from the keywords, inform and transform visitors into potential customers.

 

What do negative keywords mean?

Negative keywords are those that inform Google – in an AdWords campaign or ad group – what search terms you don’t want to attract your business with.

For example: selling sporting goods produced only in Brazil.

Then, you can include among your negative keywords, the term “imported”, so that your ads are not displayed from searches that contain that word.

You may wonder what the reason for this is. Certainly, it helps you invest with more quality, that is, you increase the opportunity for return.

How? From the moment you know that your target audience won’t find what they want when entering your ad, you stop paying for clicks on your ad that will hardly result in the generation of a lead, or even in the closing of a sale.

That means, in practice, bringing in more customers interested in your product or service, rather than curious visitors who will click(it’s worth remembering that clicking on the ad generates a charge from Google), spending a few seconds scanning the content of the page, not finding what you’re looking for, and returning to the results page.

How to find keywords?

Let’s be a little malicious: Google won’t matter if you have some unnecessary paid clicks on your page. In the end, a good portion of their income from them comes from that.

So, it is necessary to think about how you will use the tools that Google itself offers in your favor.

If you’ve already searched, you’ll know that AdWords has a real arsenal in its favor to get the most value from every click. There are specific tools, Keyword Planner (we will talk about it later), which can be of great value when it comes to finding negative keywords.

To explain how it works, I will try to exemplify it simply and directly.

If you have a company that sells umbrellas, put that word in the Keyword Ideas tab and click on the search.

In the list of results, you will see several search terms related to the word with some basic information. In that list, you will mark all the ideas that you do not talk about in your universe.

For example, it could be “umbrella designs,” “umbrellas, new spelling,” and “custom umbrellas.”

From the moment you recognize the search elements that do not speak about your branch of action, be ready! The answer has already been given.

You will be able to create your list of negative keywords by including exactly those selected terms – in the example: “design”, “spelling” and “custom”.

Another way to make an optimal selection of negative keywords (and also to find positive ones for your repertoire!) is to put yourself in the user’s place and use your keyword list.

Returning to the example of the umbrella as your product.

Look for that term and other related terms, which would be used in the production of content on your page, such as “imported umbrellas” or “umbrellas”.

You will probably see, in the first pages, links to things that have nothing to do with that business, being able to even the name of a book, the lyrics of a song, etc.

In this way, you will be able to stay more and more at the end of the universe of words that should be in your content, helping your customers to reach you with greater ease and without wasting time entering links that little – or nothing – have to do with what they want and need.

 

How to define the keywords for your content?

Once you have a list of “seed” keywords, which we talked about in the previous point, it’s time to include more data in your analysis.

To define the keywords that will bring maximum results for your company, you need to consider a few other factors. See below some of them:

I am certain that when you are going to produce content for the blog you created, you have in mind that the material should answer the doubts and questions of who is reading the content, right?

For your content to be considered useful and valuable for those who are looking for that specific keyword, you should always think about yourself.

 

Bottom of Form

Definition of the objective of the strategy

This is a piece of very important information for the moment of discovering the definition of the best keywords for your business.

The objective that is defined for your strategy, should be taken as a guide for all the attitudes that are taken to achieve it.

That is, if your company has the objective of increasing the number of sales of your products, for example, it is possible to direct the search for keywords for the terms that drive purchases.

It must be invested, then, in terms that contain “buy”, “review”, “the advantages” of the product, and other similar ones. Thus, it is possible to lead the public to purchase through the texts produced for the blog.

 

Competitor research

This is another very interesting way to make the definition of the keywords that should be used for your business.

If you have large competitors who also invest in a content marketing strategy, it will certainly be interesting to analyze how they are treating issues related to products and services in front of the public.

Another interesting tip is to search for big players in the market, even if they are not direct competition.

Probably, these companies will have interesting approaches how to deal with the production of content, either with innovative language or producing complete pieces, which solve all the doubts of the public.

Competitor research can be efficient both in uncovering what is not being done to attack you as an opportunity, as well as a way to identify the strengths of the competition, gathering efforts to overcome those points.

In case you have a tool like SEMrush that allows that analysis in a much clearer and simpler way, an optimal way to identify what your competition is doing, is to monitor the organic results in the search engine, as well as be attentive to their social networks and newsletter.

 

How to search for keywords for Topic Clusters?

The dream of most companies is to reach the first page of the results with the main keyword of their market.

For example, an advertising agency would surely like to be at the top of the search engine with the keyword “advertising”. But the term “advertising” is too generic and highly contested, so without a satellite strategy, it can be almost impossible to achieve it.

 

What are Topic Clusters?

The strategy of Topic Clusters or satellite content is based on creating content related to the main topic and linking them to it through the use of link building, thus strengthening its authority before Google.

To create this content, it is necessary to find what topics are relevant and how they are searched for by the public.

In the case of our example, we could use keywords such as “abusive advertising”, “harmful advertising”, “advertising planning”, “how an advertising agency works”, etc.

They will be the Topic Clusters or satellite content, which will revolve around the pillar content (“advertising”).

The contents will tell Google that the company is an expert in the subject, and not that it only has complete content about it. In the end, this will yield relevance and good positions.

 What tools are used to find keywords?

 You can use tools like SEMrush to search for your main keyword and, from it, find related terms with high search volume.

Another way to identify them is by analyzing your competitors’ content and looking at what topics they’re addressing, so you can create even more comprehensive content.

To do this, make sure you know well who are the references of your niche and other similar sectors.

Remember that you should not necessarily look at your direct competitors, from your own country, you can also accompany blogs and sites from other countries, which can yield you even newer topics that have not yet reached the market of your region.

There are dozens of tools aimed at the objective of finding relevant keywords, but the main ones you will find on a day-to-day basis are:

 

 Google Trends

 In Google Trends you can check the performance history of words in a given time, in addition to real-time search trends constantly being updated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Keyword Planner

 

Google’s “keyword planner” is ideal for creating optimized campaigns in Google AdWords.

This tool allows you to make diagnoses of your strategy, identify what is working or not, to correct or maintain. Data can be exported in spreadsheets, making analysis easier.

 SEMRush

 It offers a report of trends and, consequently, gives advice on which paths to follow for the success of your content.

It is worth analyzing your site, as well as the pages of your competition and who you consider a reference in quality and results. The free version of SEMRush gives an overview, but the paid version is ideal for full planning.

 

Ubersuggest

 Excellent for searching for more specific keywords (long tails). Ubersuggest is currently the most efficient free tool.

Simply insert the intended term in the search area, and select the language and area(web, images, news, shopping, video, etc.).

 

 

You can click on the term suggestions and get other related words.

Their suggestions appear in alphabetical order, which makes searching much easier. In addition, you can search by language and download a spreadsheet with its results.

 

 

 

Keywordtool.io

 

The tool allows you to choose from countless languages, a bunch of countries, and various search engines, such as Google, Youtube, Amazon, and others.

 

In addition, Keywordtool.io analyzes Google’s autocomplete resource and gives you more ideas, offering options for keyword variations, especially keywords of the “long tails” type.

KWFinder

This comprehensive tool also allows you to choose from several languages and places.

 In addition, KWFinder offers you a list of keywords with detailed information, such as search volume, cost per click, the level of competition in advertising, the difficulty of SEO positioning, the main competitors, and even the number of shares on social networks.

 

Keyword Revealer

Keyword Revealer allows you to generate filters by the search engine, monthly searches, potential earnings, and the number of words and helps to study the competition, the number of backlinks, social actions, and URLs, among others.

 

However, it requires payment to perform more than one search.

Keyword Eye

 Keyword Eye is that it is an extremely visual and playful platform. When you search for a site term or domain, the tool displays the keywords in a cloud.

In this cloud, suggestions appear in different colors and sizes, which serve to differentiate search volumes and competitiveness by keywords.

 

Moz Keyword Explorer

Keyword Explorer is one of Moz’s tool extensions for SEO. It is not much different from other options mentioned here, especially SEMrush.

 

 

Its functions are very similar, such as suggesting related terms, competitor data, search volume, and difficulty score for organic surveys for keywords.

To find new keywords, you can also analyze your competitors “manually.” That is, observe what types of content they are publishing and what generates more organic traffic.

Accompanying your competitors allows you to have new ideas and inspirations of content that, perhaps, you have never thought of until now, or even discover more in-depth topics that you can also address in your blog in your way.

 

 

What are the types of keywords?

 

Keywords are responsible for responding to the needs of users and positioning, at the same time, in search engines. The keyword system has become increasingly complex and meta tags are no longer used as in the past.

So that you choose the most suitable for your strategy, let’s start talking about the types of keywords you have available and what their differences are. Initially, there are 3 types:

 

Head tails

 The keywords known as head-tail keywords are those that only contain one, or a maximum of two words in their composition.

They are also generic keyword calls since they are used by most websites on the Internet, which makes them more disputed and, consequently, makes it more difficult to position yourself in search engines when using them.

An example of this type of keyword would be when we perform an Internet search for: “Slippers”.

 

 

Middle tails

Middle tails keywords, or medium composition, are strings of popular words. That is, while short tails are those words of fairly frequent use, middle tails are identified as short strings of frequently used words.

In general, middle tails can be composed of two, three, or even four words. This makes them more specific than short tails since their Internet searches are performed in smaller quantities. Therefore, they are more susceptible to achieving the first results of search engines.

Continuing with the previous example, a middle-tail keyword would be: “Sneakers to buy”.

 

Longtails

 

Now, long-tail keywords are responsible for filtering, even more, the results using strings formed by several words in sequence.

Within a content marketing strategy, long tails are the most suitable to achieve good positioning. Their level of search is lower since they are much more specific terms, but it is precisely this that makes them less competitive.

Longtails are usually more efficient because they are used by those users who are looking for immediate and precise answers to their needs.

 

How to define keywords in your strategy?

 

Here are some actions you can take to ensure that your keywords will meet the marketing goal you set for your strategy:

 

Put yourself in the place of your audience

 

As we said earlier, it’s important to think about people to define the keywords relevant to the business. If you haven’t done the work of identifying yourself yet, find out how it’s done here.

It’s important to identify what your audience’s most searched terms would be from the moment they start looking for information on the subject.

Think about how your audience, not as the connoisseur and specialist you are about your product or service. Reflect: How would you search for the product or service on the internet?

There are several possible variations of the search for a certain issue and that search about the public is efficient precisely to bring the results that would most coincide with the position of this audience.

A good tip to identify those opportunities is to try to talk to some people who fit into your audience, whether they are customers or potential customers, and ask these questions to discover.

 

 

Consider the sales funnel stage

 

Keep in mind that your reader will look for different ways as well, depending on the stage they are in the funnel. Practically, it is necessary to remember that: if you are looking for alternatives to solve a problem, you should focus on the problem, even as a keyword.

The good content practices for this stage are those of definition of concepts and tips to perform some action, for example.

However, if he is starting to find your solution interesting, you should talk to him about the reasons for him to choose your own.

A good list of reasons to choose a plausible solution to a problem, or even the advantages of such a solution for whoever acquires it.

If you are evaluating and intend to act, talk about your differentials. The texts of success stories of your customers or comparisons between the solutions on the market, for example, are the most suitable for this stage of the funnel.

 

 

What role do keywords play in SEO?

 

The use of keywords is something recurrent, and highly efficient, when we talk about optimization so that your site is well-positioned in the search.

As an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) technique, keywords must be used strategically, thought, and defined within the effective planning of your digital marketing strategies.

 

 

Meta descriptions

 

When we talk about site optimization, we need to remember and give due importance to meta descriptions. Do you know what they are?

Well, the meta description is nothing more than the description that appears in Google (do you know that summary that appears below the title that is in blue? It is exactly that!)

This should be done directly, but still stimulating for the people who visit the pages. Including the keyword of the content in the meta description is essential!

 

URL

 

In addition to always thinking about the user experience and creating friendly URLs, another important point for content optimization is the page’s address.

Try to shorten your URL to the maximum and create an address that is simple and self-explanatory. The best way to use the URL is to include the keyword in that area.

In this context, we show you the best URL shorteners on the Internet.

 

SEO Title

 

It is not only the title of your blog that must have the previously defined keyword.

Unlike the title of the page, the SEO title is the one that will be displayed when your content appears in the search results in Internet search engines. at this point, it is also essential that the keyword is present.

Learn more about how to create SEO titles.

 

Title tag

 

Keywords also need to be used in the internal titles of your articles. Depending on the format of your blog, the title tag will possibly be the same as the H1.

Regardless of whether it is or not, the H1 of your blog follows the rule that says that the keyword should always be present.

Unlike an SEO title which aims to get someone off the search page to enter your content, the Title tag is the title that aims to ensure that a reader stays on your page and continues reading your article.

In this case, the user can be anywhere, as long as it is present.

Learn more about SEO by downloading the most complete guide on the internet on the subject for free!

Read More about Title Tag

How to explore keywords in content?

 

Focus on keywords to optimize your blog content, but the priority should be, to solve the problem and meet the expectations of your people.

Use keywords in your blog posts, in your titles, throughout articles, and, whenever possible, in intertitles, as well as in the description of images.

Don’t forget to maintain naturalness throughout the text. It is useless to write a text focused on the keyword getting tired by repetition. Readers don’t like that and will stop reading your content.

If you write for Google and not for people, you probably won’t have the best results.

The production of relevant content is done based on people, their ailments, and problems; not thinking about search engine robots.

Remember that if you make content that adds value, answers questions, and solves problems, you will automatically be well in the reader’s priorities, and, believe it, Google also considers all that when ordering the results of the searches.

 

Strategically evaluate the use of keywords

 

Search engines are evolving at an incredible speed.

Every six months or so, we are witnessing changes in the algorithm, mainly from Google, which is always changing the way marketers create and develop our content and sites.

The update that was given in 2016 as it strengthened the semantic analysis of searches and the addition of RankBrain. The first innovation ensured that the search engine managed to interpret the user’s intention, through the term that was used.

As for RankBrain, it is an artificial intelligence that became part of Google’s algorithm and that is what is completely changing how searches and results are being displayed.

 

 

How to find keywords for paid ads?

 

As well as a keyword search for an organic marketing strategy, it is very important to take into account all the factors listed above for choosing the most important terms for paid ads.

Another factor that begins to have some importance when it comes to paid ads, is the value of each keyword.

This price varies according to the search volume of such a term, in addition to the interest of people and companies in advertising using that specific keyword.

When you set up your Google AdWords account, you can choose which type of campaign payment will be made: the campaign payment per click (CPC, or cost per click), print (CPM, or cost per thousand impressions), or conversation (CPA, or cost per acquisition).

The value presented for each keyword represents the maximum price that can be paid for that ad.

If the ad was clicked so many times, causing the total value to reach the stipulated budget for the day, the ad will no longer be displayed until the next day, when the budget is restored.

 

But how does that influence the choice of keywords?

 

For a down payment ad strategy, it is important to look for terms that have low competition and low estimated values so that the ad can be shown several times to the people who did the corresponding searches, regardless of the stipulated budget.

On the other hand, if we were dealing with a deeper Google AdWords strategy, it is important to make ad groups with various variations of different keywords, so that it covers the person’s searches, being able to use a larger budget to succeed.

 

 

How to use keywords on social networks?

 

In addition to being good ways to disseminate published content, social networks play a very important role when defining keywords.

A good tip is to find your audience in the most important social networks for your business and look for how they communicate to clarify their doubts about the issues.

In addition to defining important questions about the language that should be chosen, it is possible to find possible doubts that they have about your business, which can end up becoming opportunities for your blog.

But, there is a concept that is becoming increasingly popular on the internet, mainly in social networks that use of hashtags.

Once the content published on social networks, such as attachments, images, and captions, is not indexed by Google robots, the only way to do this indexing is through hashtags.

These are considered hyperlinks that bring together all the posts with such a hashtag in a single search.

In addition to that, hashtags are widely used by young audiences and by those considered “heavy users” of social networks.

Therefore, by using hashtags that are relevant to your business, it is possible to index the content, at the same time that it approaches the audience and creates a certain type of closer relationship.

But it is important to be careful with some actions when the issue is the use of hashtags.

It is important to know that they must match the content that is being published.

If you simply use hashtags that have a high volume of searches on social networks, without these being related to your publication, the public can interpret that you are just looking for more views for your publications, without you caring about the concerns and doubts of the person. That can end up taking you away from your audience.

In addition, it is important to choose words and expressions that are valuable to those searching for such content. Create and strengthen institutional hashtags, which talk about the customs and values of the company.

That way, you may create a community around the use of the hashtag, encouraging the use of it by the public and creating a relationship with the people who decided to embrace your cause.

And so, now that you’ve learned a little more about defining and using keywords, are you ready to use these techniques in your online marketing strategy?

Then we invite you to download our free keyword dossier so you don’t miss any information on the topic Enjoy it!