Writing blog posts not only keep your audience informed of news, products, and happenings, but it also enhances SEO.
SEO is helpful because, in short, it helps you get found on the web. There’s an estimated 1.74 billion websites on the internet. You want to stand out from the rest by providing relevant and helpful resources to your audience.
Enter your email for monthly tips straight to your inbox:
Keywords on a blog connect to your domain and help boost your website to the top of Google rankings. Depending on what a visitor searches in Google, your website may be just what they’re looking for.
RELATED: 4 businesses doing Google Maps right in Boone
Here are 5 High Country businesses doing blog posts right for SEO:
Mast General Store
The Mast General Store has retail locations in Valle Crucis, Boone, Asheville, Columbia, Greenville, Hendersonville, Knoxville, Roanoke, Waynesville, and Winston-Salem. They sell outdoor gear, clothing, toys, candy, and county goods.
What they do right on their blog: Links to outbound authoritative websites.
Believe it or not, linking to outside authoritative webpages is a large SEO factor to increasing search rankings.
Mast General Store does this well by linking to sources that will benefit their readers. There’s a section that lists out podcasts with links to the shows and visitors can click them to be taken to these episodes.
Now, it’s best to note that you should refrain from including lots of links just for the sake of links. The links you include should be helpful to your audience.
BONUS: Receiving inbound links is an even greater SEO booster. Writing relevant, timely content that benefits others will eventually bring in inbound links.
Against the Grain
Although not in Boone (but close), Against the Grain provides biodynamic produce and Animal Welfare Approved Livestock at local farmer’s markets.
What they do right on their blog: Regular post updates every week.
Google regularly indexes your website for updates. When you upload a blog post, you essentially tell Google, “Hey! We’re relevant to viewers!”
An updated blog keeps it “fresh” in the eyes of Google. Older blog posts (before 2017) may have a harder time showing up compared to new post updates.
Also, not to mention, fresh blog updates offers new information that’s useful to your regular readers.
Lazarus Design Team
The Lazarus Design Team is a digital marketing firm in Boone offering branding, pay per click, conversion optimization, and more.
What they do right on their blog: Proper headings in “H1,” “H2,” “H3,” and “H4” formats.
These headings tell Google the outline of the webpage and helps format it for “snippets” on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
It’s a simple thing to do, but it benefits your readers and Google when you use these correctly.
Explore Boone
Explore Boone is part of the The Watauga County District U Tourism Development Authority (WCTDA) and assists residents and visitors with travel and tourism information pertaining to events, local restaurants, and things to do.
What they do right on their blog: Easy to read details, with proper spacing and format, without stuffed keywords.
There are many examples that can be shared from Explore Boone’s website, but the one above is outlined in a clean, easy to read format. Bolded words help show the reader where to look on the page for relevant information. Bulleted lists also provide the information a reader is looking for without having to dig into the post.
Non-related content and keyword-stuffing is left out of this post, so you’re left with the details you want to see without the fluff.
Waste Consultants Inc.
Waste Consultants Inc. is a Boone-based company that performs waste audits for companies to find where they can save money on their recycling and trash costs.
What they do right on their blog: Word-count is long enough to cover the topic and short enough to keep users’ attention.
The shared blog post above covers the topic in enough detail so you’re satisfied with the information you found. It has text, video, bullet points, bold words, quotes, and more to help answer the title question, “What is a utility audit?”
Some posts are too short and leave out important details that help answer the question the post is attempting to answer. This, in turn, will not hold viewer’s attention. Write in a way that will reduce bounce rates and increase time on page for better SEO.
All-in-all…
Blog posts help increase traffic to your website because they add relevant keywords, answer questions, and keep viewers up to date.
By following the practices above, you will enhance your SEO strategy and secure more traffic to your site, which means more goals achieved and more sales generated.
Seth Kingdon 