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One of the most effective ways to increase your website traffic is to create and maintain a blog that provides valuable and relevant information to your target audience. It can help you showcase your expertise, build trust and credibility, and generate organic traffic from search engines and social media platforms.
Providing you already have a blog, the beginning of the year is a perfect time to start organizing your existing content. It can significantly boost organic traffic and help develop new ideas and writing topics.
Content audit
Begin by conducting a comprehensive content audit. Identify all existing blog posts, noting their publication dates, performance metrics, and relevancy. Read, or at least scan (if you have many blog posts) your articles. You could improve some, add more paragraphs, or replace old information. Update and repurpose content – identify outdated or underperforming blog posts. Check statistics, facts, and quotes. Consider repackaging content into different formats, such as infographics, videos, or podcasts. Ensure that if you share or link to anything, it is up to date (statistics, data, reports) and external links are working, so readers are not sent on a wild goose chase. Identify and fix any broken internal or external links within your blog posts. Broken links can harm user experience and affect search engine rankings. Review post covers and graphics – maybe you have changed the style, and they need refreshing.
PRO TIP: Promote evergreen content. Identify posts that remain relevant over time. Promote them consistently through various channels.
Grouping similar topics
Group related blog posts into clusters based on similar topics. This helps create a clear structure for both users and search engines. Another solution is to develop pillar pages that serve as comprehensive guides for the broader topics covered by your blog. It is recommended to link relevant blog posts to these pillar pages.
New content ideas
As you make your way through existing articles, make notes on new ideas and possible topics that are interesting to readers. Create content for your audience, not algorithms. People want to consume content that answers their questions, solves a problem or issue, provides valuable and relevant information, or entertains them. You can’t influence bots without impressing your audience. Taking time to understand your audience results in content with substance. It’s a good idea to do some research, too. Check what kind of topics your competitors blog about. Use tools such as Ask the Audience, Quorra, and Google questions to see what people are looking for and provide them with answers.
Keyword analysis
Analyze each blog post’s target keywords and, if necessary, update them. Your chosen words and phrases should reflect search intent and your blog’s content. A great way to increase organic search traffic using keywords is to choose long-tail (i.e., “3-bedroom house for sale in [City Name]”, “waterfront homes for sale in [Location],” “best school districts in real estate [City],” “luxury condos with a view in [City],” “first-time homebuyer tips and advice”) over short-tail phrases (i.e., “homes for sale,” “real estate,” “property listings,” “realtors near me”).
Often, searchers begin with a short-tail keyword and then refine their search by adding more specific terms to get the results they’re looking for. Long-tail keywords also tend to have less competition and speak to a more specific audience, allowing you to outshine others’ writing on the same topics. Ensure that the primary keywords align with your current SEO strategy. Identify opportunities for additional keywords if applicable. There are a few of the most commonly used tools for research, SEO, formatting, and distribution that’ll help you organize your blog:
- Google’s Keyword Planner,
- Ahrefs,
- BuzzSumo,
- Google Trends.
Blog as a part of marketing strategy
Blogging is alive and well, contrary to what many believe. To increase organic search traffic, incorporate the following into your blog: how-to posts and tutorials, case studies, original research and surveys, guides and e-books, trends analyses and predictions, and listicles. Long-form blogs are the way to go for organic traffic. However, keep your writing concise: if you can get your point across in 500 words, don’t try to double that with irrelevant or redundant fluff.
Internal linking
Internal links take people from one area of your website to another. They keep visitors on the site longer and tell the search engines that your site contains relevant content. Incorporating them is another way to ensure your top-performing pages continue to see traffic, and they can also revive pages that have slowed. Implement internal linking between related blog posts. Additionally, use anchor text that accurately conveys the subject matter viewers will find if they click the link. Make sure it is descriptive and includes relevant keywords. However, you must send viewers to relevant and related content to leverage internal links effectively. You should verify that the linked content is high quality, optimized, and evergreen.
Optimize meta titles and descriptions
SEO isn’t just for your content. Optimizing titles, title tags, and meta descriptions with a keyword improves visibility in the search results as long as the content is relevant. It enhances click-through rate and search engine visibility. Don’t forget to add SEO tags to visual elements: videos, photos, and graphics, including writing a caption describing the visual and containing your targeted keyword.
Target featured snippets
Another path for optimization that can increase organic search traffic is to format your content to make it featured-snippet-ready. Featured snippets are the boxes that appear at the top of the SERPs and provide concise, quick answers to search queries. In addition to incorporating keywords into content that provide a direct answer, you should also use H2 and H3 headers that tell readers what to expect from the following content. It will also improve your blog’s readability. Clear headings, subheadings, short paragraphs, and bullet points make content more digestible. Featured snippets often contain bulleted and numbered lists, so including them in your content is a great idea.
Add Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
Integrate strategic calls to action within your blog posts to encourage readers to explore related content, subscribe to your newsletter, or engage in other desired actions.
Mobile Optimization
Ensure that all existing blog content is optimized for mobile devices. Responsive design is crucial for providing a seamless experience across various screen sizes.
Social media sharing
Share your updated or repurposed content on social media platforms. Leverage these channels to drive traffic back to your blog.
Analytics monitoring
Regularly monitor analytics to track the performance of your updated content. Pay attention to engagement metrics, traffic sources, and keyword rankings.
Content production cycle
Consistency is critical if you want to increase organic search traffic. Your audience (and, yes, the algorithms, too) develops expectations based on how much content you publish, when, and on what channels. Publishing regularly is hard, but establishing a content strategy with clear goals will help prepare a publication calendar. Plenty of apps, tools, and platforms are available to create one. Trello, CoSchedule, Google Docs, Evernote, Microsoft Excel… or good old-fashioned pen and paper. Having a calendar that sends you frequent notifications to remind you when to post and what to post can reinvigorate your website. There is no need to post daily or weekly content – it’s better to keep up with quality articles, even if they are only once a month, but every month.
Content marketing is a results-driven business. Success doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s certainly never an accident. Organizing your blog for the upcoming year is a good place to start if you’re a real estate agent looking to achieve high returns and more organic traffic to your website.
