{"id":767,"date":"2015-12-01T13:19:25","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T21:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/?p=767"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:50:29","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T18:50:29","slug":"5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/","title":{"rendered":"5 SEO Best Practices for High Ranking Small Business Blogs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every small business blogger has been there:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019ve written an awesome blog post. You\u2019ve picked the perfect title. Found some keywords that were almost <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">made <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for you. And you hit that publish button full of excitement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Then you sit back, relax and ride that magical wave of traffic\u2026<\/p>\n<p><b>For about two days.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>And then, all of a sudden, it just drops off again:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-builder-row-1 hundred-percent-fullwidth non-hundred-percent-height-scrolling\" style=\"background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0);background-position: center center;background-repeat: no-repeat;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-bottom: 0px;margin-top: 0px;border-width: 0px 0px 0px 0px;border-color:#eae9e9;border-style:solid;\" ><div class=\"fusion-builder-row fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-0 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_789\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-789\" class=\"wp-image-789\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-10.45.54.png\" alt=\"Blog traffic graph\" width=\"600\" height=\"275\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-10.45.54-300x138.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-10.45.54.png 628w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-789\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The dreaded down-time between posts<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then\u00a0your post seems to be lost to the ether, never to be heard from again<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It doesn\u2019t get any more views. It doesn\u2019t drive you traffic months later. Heck, even you\u2019ve probably forgotten about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So what\u2019s the trick to getting <\/span><b>constant<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> traffic from all of your content, new and old?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Well, I can tell you it&#8217;s not writing better content or putting in more time and effort. The solution is, in fact, quite simple\u2026<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You need to get the right <\/span><b>SEO strategy<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for your small business. All it takes is a little research and a few <a href=\"https:\/\/jeremynoronha.com\/how-to-start-a-blog\/\">tips and tricks<\/a> to start to <\/span><b>outrank your competitors and steal their traffic (we wrote a little more on how about specific strategies to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/how-to-steal-competitors-traffic\/\">steal your competitors&#8217; traffic<\/a> as well. \u00a0<\/b>Be sure to read our post on <a href=\"\/blog\/seo-for-startups\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SEO for Startups<\/a> as many of the strategies explained, will work for small and medium sized businesses.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this article I\u2019m going to show you how to turn <\/span><b>all of your content<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into a search magnet, and become such a valuable resource that every piece:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Builds traffic<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Generates new leads<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Grows your audience<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Without fail.<\/p>\n<p>Sound good? Read on&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2>01: Create Accurate Content For Specific Queries<\/h2>\n<p>When you\u2019re blogging you\u2019re often given advice like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWrite <\/span><b>valuable<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> content\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCreate<\/span><b> epic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> content\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMake your articles <\/span><b>irresistible<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which is right. You <em>should<\/em> be creating content that your reader love.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, from a search engine perspective, the words valuable, epic and irresistible don\u2019t really mean anything. They aren&#8217;t tangible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google can\u2019t have an emotional reaction to your content. It&#8217;s Crawlers can\u2019t sit back and go, \u201cOh wow, that really changed my views on how you grind coffee\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What it can do, though, is measure how <\/span><b>accurate<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> your content is. Which is why <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/google-is-looking-into-ways-to-rank-sites-based-on-accuracy-of-information\/127394\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google is always trying to create ways to rank content based on facts not opinions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s why<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stonetemple.com\/the-growth-of-rich-answers-in-googles-search-results\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rich answers are now up to over 30% of the results for search terms<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not sure what Rich Answers are? Well, they come in a couple of different forms. If you\u2019re in a culinary niche, for example, when people search for specific content, they could show up like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-1 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_778\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-778\" class=\"wp-image-778\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-10.47.59.png\" alt=\"Rich Answer for how to make french toast\" width=\"600\" height=\"309\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-10.47.59-300x155.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-10.47.59.png 613w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-778\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">How To Make French Toast<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-2 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_774\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-774\" class=\"size-full wp-image-774\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-10.51.32.png\" alt=\"Best Italian Recipe Books\" width=\"540\" height=\"568\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-10.51.32-285x300.png 285w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-10.51.32.png 540w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-774\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Best Italian Recipe Books<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-3 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_775\" style=\"width: 572px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-775\" class=\"size-full wp-image-775\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-10.50.22.png\" alt=\"Ingredients for tomato soup rich answers results\" width=\"562\" height=\"151\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-10.50.22-300x81.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-10.50.22.png 562w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-775\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">What Ingredients Do You Need For Tomato Soup?<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019re informative ways for Google to provide the user with factual and accurate information in the shortest amount of time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now I\u2019m not saying you need to prepare to become one of these rich content answers right now. As you\u2019ll see in the next step, that may be a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">little<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> beyond where you are right this minute.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what is apparent with this continual growth in rich answers, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.seobythesea.com\/2015\/07\/how-google-may-answer-questions-in-queries-with-rich-content-results\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">combined with some of the patents Google has filed for recently<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is that this type of content is becoming more and more important.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Okay, I can hear you asking, \u201cWhat does that have to do with my blog though?\u201d. So I\u2019ll tell you\u2026<\/p>\n<p><b>You need to start creating content around the questions people are asking in your industry.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Instead of approaching content from the view of, \u201cWhat do I want to write?\u201d or \u201cWhat does my business want to say?\u201d, you need to look at like this:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat are the questions my audience needs answers to?\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The more specific you can get with those answers, the more likely you are to rank well.<\/p>\n<p>Finding these questions isn\u2019t particularly hard, either. People tend to be quite open in asking for advice on the internet, which is great news for you.<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few places you can look:<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/\">Quora<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quora is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> place to go to ask questions on the internet now. And, chances are, someone from your audience is asking a representative question there.\u00a0Quora can also be an important part of our company&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/define-content-amplification-process\/\">content amplification process<\/a><em>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Take a look at this page about SEO Strategy:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-4 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_768\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-768\" class=\"wp-image-768\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-12.55.40.png\" alt=\"Quora SEO Content search answers\" width=\"600\" height=\"821\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-12.55.40-219x300.png 219w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-12.55.40.png 661w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-768\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Quick search, lots of content<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the time it took to write \u201cSEO Strategy\u201d I was able to find four potential topics that could be used on the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CanIRank blog<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And, if you were to spend 10-15 minutes looking through the pages, you\u2019d be able to find even more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It may take a little keyword research to get these pieces down to a specific query, but straight away you\u2019re building content you <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">know<\/span><\/i> <b>your audience needs and is searching for<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Competitor Blog Comments<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>You can sift through the comments on competitors blogs and see the pressing issues they&#8217;re asking about:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-5 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_794\" style=\"width: 583px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-794\" class=\"size-full wp-image-794\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-13.50.59.png\" alt=\"blog comment question for topic research\" width=\"573\" height=\"353\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-13.50.59-300x185.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-13.50.59.png 573w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 573px) 100vw, 573px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-794\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Should probably respond to this one myself&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Forums<\/h3>\n<p>And last (but not least) Forums in your niche can be a hotbed of queries, search terms and straight up questions people are asking&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-6 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_795\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-795\" class=\"wp-image-795\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-13.54.26.png\" alt=\"warrior forum content generation screenshot\" width=\"600\" height=\"408\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-13.54.26-300x204.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-13.54.26.png 949w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-795\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Forums: still as relevant as ever.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>How To Easily Find Questions Related To Your Keyword<\/h3>\n<p>CanIRank&#8217;s Promote my Content tool is mainly used to help you find quality <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canirank.com\/seo-software\/link-building\">link building opportunities<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But it also works great as an easy, automated way to come up with popular questions in your niche.<\/p>\n<p>Just enter your target keyword and select your strategy:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Q&amp;A<\/li>\n<li>Forum<\/li>\n<li>Fresh (recently written content)<\/li>\n<li>Bloggers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hit the\u00a0&#8216;Generate&#8217; button and CanIRank will search for new popular content on Q&amp;A sites, forums, and blogs, scoring each opportunity according to relevancy and authority:<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-7 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_802\" style=\"width: 572px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/research-questions-related-to-keyword.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-802\" class=\"wp-image-802\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/research-questions-related-to-keyword.png\" alt=\"Just one click to find related Q&amp;A posts, forums, or blogs!\" width=\"562\" height=\"375\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/research-questions-related-to-keyword-300x200.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/research-questions-related-to-keyword.png 842w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-802\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Just one click to find related Q&amp;A posts, forums, or blogs!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><b>02: Go Niche (Like, Really Niche) For Your Keywords<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ve written before about <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/seo-for-startups\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the importance of starting off in a small pond<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can help you drive <\/span><b>consistent, <\/b>targeted,<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0traffic from Google. And establish yourself as an authority page for these more niche queries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hang on a second, though. Because I&#8217;m about to do something <em>really<\/em> spooky. <\/span>I\u2019m going to read your mind&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>When you&#8217;re SEO-ing your blog posts, you follow these exact three steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You use the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yoast SEO<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> plugin<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You <a href=\"https:\/\/adwords.google.com\/KeywordPlanner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AdWords\u00a0Keyword Planner<\/a> to find <\/span><strong>high\u00a0search volume<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0keywords like, \u201ctranslation services\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You work them into your post where you can and hope for the best<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How did I know? Because I must have spent oh, I don\u2019t know&#8230;<\/span><b>about a year<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> doing exactly the same.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What you don\u2019t consider when you\u2019re doing this is something that\u2019s almost, \u201cWell, duh!\u201d once you realise it:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Everyone is trying to rank for these keywords.<\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-8 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_803\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-1.44.14-PM.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-803\" class=\"wp-image-803\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-1.44.14-PM.png\" alt=\"keyword competitive analysis for SEO\" width=\"650\" height=\"335\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-1.44.14-PM-300x155.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-1.44.14-PM.png 875w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-803\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yikes! It&#8217;s pretty apparent we&#8217;re not yet ready to compete with the big guys targeting &#8220;SEO&#8221;.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because, if nothing else, every other small business blogger out there is following those exact same steps. And experience should have taught you that doing what everyone else is doing is a recipe for failure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s doubly true when you&#8217;re smaller and less well established than your competitors. So what can you do with your small business blog to ensure that your posts end up ranking?<\/p>\n<p>The goal is to keep drilling down to more and more specific keywords until you find one where your site is competitive. Luckily,\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CanIRank\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/best-keyword-difficulty-tool\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">keyword difficulty is the best<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the market currently.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even larger blogs can benefit from this approach. Back in March, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/neilpatel.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Neil Patel<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ended a year long experiment where he changed the keywords for his blog posts to long tail keywords. The results?<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/neilpatel.com\/2015\/03\/26\/how-to-generate-20000-monthly-search-visitors-through-long-tail-traffic\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> He managed to increase his search traffic by 91%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of <\/span><b>fighting<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for rankings against every other piece of content &#8211; and the authorities that were producing it &#8211; he could put his content out there in front of an entirely new audience. Who, although smaller, were no less engaged or interested in his content. They just have different search habits.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what does this mean for your small business blog?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It means you need to look at how you can <\/span><b>narrow down<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the keywords you use for your content, and make them even more niche.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Sounds simple enough, but how do you find that sweet spot? Those\u00a0&#8220;golden keywords&#8221; that will generate as much traffic as possible, without being too competitive for your blog?<\/p>\n<p>In the old days, we used to have to experiment with writing a lot of posts. Some were too ambitious and never ranked highly enough to drive traffic. Others were too long tail, and made it to page 1 but never sent traffic because not enough people were searching that term.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, those days are over!<\/p>\n<p>Now, we can use CanIRank&#8217;s Grow my Content tool to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/optimizing-seo-roi-a-not-so-simple-formula-to-uncover-high-value-low-difficulty-keywords\/\">calculate the SEO ROI for any keyword<\/a> in just one click. Here&#8217;s how the process works:<\/p>\n<h3>Step 1: Analyze your &#8220;dream keyword&#8221;<\/h3>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-9 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_805\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/how-to-find-easier-keywords.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-805\" class=\"wp-image-805\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/how-to-find-easier-keywords.png\" alt=\"find easier keyword variations\" width=\"650\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/how-to-find-easier-keywords-300x125.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/how-to-find-easier-keywords.png 884w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-805\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hey, we&#8217;d love to rank for the keyword &#8220;SEO&#8221;&#8230; But it&#8217;s just too competitive for our blog right now.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Step 2: Get suggestions for easier related keywords<\/h3>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-10 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_806\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/related-long-tail-terms.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-806\" class=\"wp-image-806\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/related-long-tail-terms.png\" alt=\"generating related long tail keywords\" width=\"700\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/related-long-tail-terms-300x178.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/related-long-tail-terms.png 872w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-806\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Down one level in specificity (and competitiveness), let&#8217;s try analyzing a few of these&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Step 3: Repeat until you find\u00a0a Ranking Probability &gt; 75%<\/h3>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-11 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_807\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/high-roi-keywords-example.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-807\" class=\"wp-image-807\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/high-roi-keywords-example.png\" alt=\"high value low difficulty keywords\" width=\"700\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/high-roi-keywords-example-300x115.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/high-roi-keywords-example.png 874w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-807\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eventually we find a sweet spot that offers good traffic and an achievable ranking difficulty.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2><b>03: Build Internal Links To Your Content<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Internal Linking is something I see small business bloggers neglecting all the time.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kissmetrics.com\/what-you-can-learn-from-bounce-rate-how-to-improve-it\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">according to Kissmetrics<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it\u2019s one of the most effective ways to reduce your bounce rates and keep people on your site for longer. And, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kissmetrics.com\/commandments-of-internal-linking\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">it can improve your overall site (and page) authority<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019re <\/span><b>definitely<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> things you want to take advantage of to boost your search traffic. An <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/seo-silo\/\">SEO silo<\/a> tells search engines that you have a well-structured site focused on a specific topic, which means you&#8217;re a resource worthy of display in search results.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Firstly, if you\u2019re not sure what Internal Linking is, let me give you quick rundown. It\u2019s super simple\u2026<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently we wrote <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/growth-hackers-stop-spamming\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this post about Growth Hacking<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And, in it, we made a point about networking with influencers. Now, we <\/span><b>already<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> had a piece of content about networking, so we used it to back up that point:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-12 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_772\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-772\" class=\"wp-image-772\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.56.27.png\" alt=\"CanIRank internal linking screenshot\" width=\"600\" height=\"95\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.56.27-300x48.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.56.27.png 922w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-772\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Internal linking. It&#8217;s that simple.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>That, my friend, is internal linking.<\/p>\n<p>Now what is it that makes the effective for building traffic, though?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In short, you make life <\/span><b>much<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> easier for Google.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Google sends crawlers through your site, it <\/span><b>wants<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to find the relevant pages. It\u2019s dying to find them. But all the keyword research and copywriting hacks in the world don\u2019t matter if they can\u2019t get to the content in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>By internal linking you give those crawlers more ways to access that content. A basic way of looking at it is, the more relevant that content is to the piece you\u2019ve written, the more authority those pages get.\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/outrank-amazon-5-expert-seo-secrets\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">best ecommerce SEO experts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have identified internal linking as the top strategy to boost site relevancy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/moz.com\/learn\/seo\/internal-link\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Moz<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the perfect layout for a site in the eyes of a crawler is this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-13 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_771\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-771\" class=\"wp-image-771\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-12.00.14.png\" alt=\"google crawler site structure screenshot\" width=\"600\" height=\"290\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-12.00.14-300x145.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-12.00.14.png 777w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-771\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The site structure crawlers crave.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Because there are fewer barriers between getting onto the site, and finding the most relevant content. Now, while this may (or may not) be in your control, by creating these internal links you can at least make your content easier to find.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, so that\u2019s the first reason you need to do it for Google. The next one is a little more specific, and something you have probably never considered.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kissmetrics.com\/bounce-rate\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your bounce rate can play a big role in where you rank in Google<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. When people come to your page and <\/span><b>leave <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">within the first couple of seconds, it doesn\u2019t look good in their eyes. So by having internal links to:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Relevant content<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Glossary\/Industry term pages<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Product and service pages<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can improve your bounce rate because people are more likely to go through your site and spend longer looking around to get their answers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, as a small business blog, a lot of your traffic will be driven from local or really niche searches. Which means that personalisation plays a big factor for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example let\u2019s say someone searches a term, lands on your page, takes a couple of seconds and then hits the back button. <\/span><b>Your page won\u2019t show up for that person for that term again.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So doing everything you can to reduce that bounce rate is paramount.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you\u2019re doing internal linking though, consider setting\u00a0the link to <\/span><b>open in a new tab<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> so it doesn\u2019t send them completely away from your content:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-14 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_770\" style=\"width: 509px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-770\" class=\"size-full wp-image-770\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-12.32.51.png\" alt=\"internal linking new tab wordpress screenshot\" width=\"499\" height=\"247\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-12.32.51-300x148.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-12.32.51.png 499w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 499px) 100vw, 499px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-770\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tick the &#8216;open in new tab&#8217; button for all of your links.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So, on which pages should you add internal links? Just as with external links, you want your internal links to come from other pages that are both\u00a0<strong>authoritative<\/strong> and highly\u00a0<strong>relevant to your target keyword<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>You can do this manually, or you can use CanIRank&#8217;s\u00a0Promote my Content tool to identify the best places to add a related link to your target content, with each opportunity scored according to relevancy and authority.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-15 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_809\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.19.42-PM.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-809\" class=\"wp-image-809\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.19.42-PM.png\" alt=\"internal links\" width=\"700\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.19.42-PM-300x200.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.19.42-PM-1024x681.png 1024w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.19.42-PM.png 1750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-809\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Quickly find the most authoritative, closely related pages to add your internal links.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>04: Optimise Your Images<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using images in your blog posts is an <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">amazing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> strategy to drive traffic. In fact, it\u2019s one of the most overlooked factors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/buzzsumo.com\/blog\/how-to-massively-boost-your-blog-traffic-with-these-5-awesome-image-stats\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a recent study by BuzzSumo and Canva <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">they found that using graphics once every 75-100 words can<\/span><b> get you between 30 and 100 more social shares<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> depending on the amount of images you use right now:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-16 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_788\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-11.10.21.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-788\" class=\"wp-image-788\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-11.10.21.png\" alt=\"buzzsumo canva graph results\" width=\"600\" height=\"369\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-11.10.21-300x185.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-11.10.21.png 673w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-788\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Images and shares go hand in hand!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But they\u2019re not only great for boosting social media traffic, either. They can play a <\/span><b>big <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">role in helping you drive traffic from Google too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>How?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well here\u2019s the thing, Google is a little like the superhero, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Daredevil_(Marvel_Comics)\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daredevil<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It can\u2019t see images, so it relies on other information to build that picture for it. And, the more accurate information you can give, the more that image can help you improve your rankings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take a couple of minutes to watch <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3NbuDpB_BTc\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this video from Matt Cutts<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, from way back in 2007, discussing how Google processes images:<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-17 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-video fusion-youtube\" style=\"max-width:600px;max-height:350px;\"><div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3NbuDpB_BTc?wmode=transparent&autoplay=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now you might be thinking, \u201cBut that videos is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">really<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> old. Hasn\u2019t SEO changed like a <\/span><b>billion<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> times since then?\u201d. And, in most cases, you\u2019d be right. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But according to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/backlinko.com\/google-ranking-factors\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brian Dean of Backlinko in his list of every Google ranking factor<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, image tags are still considered as important as ever.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-18 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_810\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/keywords-in-img-alt-tags.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-810\" class=\"wp-image-810\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/keywords-in-img-alt-tags.png\" alt=\"img alt tag keyword usage\" width=\"700\" height=\"317\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/keywords-in-img-alt-tags-300x136.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/keywords-in-img-alt-tags-1024x464.png 1024w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/keywords-in-img-alt-tags.png 1758w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-810\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Think img alt tags don&#8217;t matter? Nearly all the leading SEO sites stuff their img alt tags with keywords.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okay, so I\u2019ve told you the why, so let\u2019s look at the how\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your image tags are those boxes you <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">probably<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ignore when you\u2019re uploading an image. You know, the ones where they ask for for Alt Text and Title Tags:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the <\/span><b>biggest<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> mistakes I see small business bloggers (and well, bloggers in general) is leaving these tags blank. Or as the generic, \u201cScreenshot-65-18-09-15\u201d or \u201cDSC00988965\u201d like Matt described in the video above. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But in order to know what you <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">should<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> put in these boxes to boost search traffic, you need to know what each of them is:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alt Tags are for Google. They\u2019re where you explain what your image is to the crawlers. For example, when Google crawls onto this image from a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Canva blog post<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it knows exactly what it is:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-19 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_783\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-783\" class=\"wp-image-783\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-13.40.48.png\" alt=\"canva alt text image screenshot\" width=\"600\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-13.40.48-300x192.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-13.40.48.png 863w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-783\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clever and funny advert\u2026<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-20 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_782\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-782\" class=\"wp-image-782\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-13.40.58.png\" alt=\"canva alt text code screenshot\" width=\"600\" height=\"68\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-13.40.58-300x34.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-13.40.58.png 840w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-782\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8230;explained so Google can see it too.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now, had they wanted to, they could have gone even further and explained that it was:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A funny image<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Visual advertising<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But with all the relevant outbound links surrounding it, this alt text is enough for Google to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">know<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the image is part of a much bigger article.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alt Tags are also your only real opportunity to put keywords into images. But, you need to be aware of keyword stuffing here. Where you\u2019re just throwing in keywords in everywhere. Because, well, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/searchengineland.com\/guide\/seo\/violations-search-engine-spam-penalties\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that leads to penalties.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But it\u2019s a great place to add in those long tail, more niche keywords that you\u2019re not sure where to fit into your article.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, if the Canva image above was built around the keywords \u2018Funny Ads\u2019, which it is judging by the URL, they could have used (keywords in red):<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kekemelodi stuttering therapy<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #ff0000;\"> funny visual advertising<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kekemelodi <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #ff0000;\">funny visual advertising campaign 2015<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now if they did this for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">every<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> image, it would be stuffing. But doing it few and far between is okay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So if that\u2019s Alt Tags are for Google, what are title tags?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Title Tags are for humans. They what you see when you hover over an image, like this:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-21 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_780\" style=\"width: 392px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-780\" class=\"size-full wp-image-780\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-14.19.18.png\" alt=\"p and co title tag screenshot\" width=\"382\" height=\"324\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-14.19.18-300x254.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-19-at-14.19.18.png 382w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-780\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Title tags add depth to images for your users<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now you don\u2019t need to worry <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">too much<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about Title Tags for SEO. And you definitely shouldn\u2019t be putting keywords here, either. Instead, your best option would be to turn them into informative and informational calls to action:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-22 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_792\" style=\"width: 403px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-792\" class=\"size-full wp-image-792\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-13.40.10.png\" alt=\"JD Sports screenshot call to action in title tags\" width=\"393\" height=\"310\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-792\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: JD Sports UK<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By using <\/span><b>both<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of these methods you\u2019ll be able to optimise your pages even more, and I can guarantee that most of your competitors aren\u2019t doing this. In fact, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/raventools.com\/blog\/alt-title-text-optimized-images\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">most blogs don\u2019t do it at all<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. For a step by step method, we put together an in-depth guide on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/optimize-images-web-better-seo\/\">optimizing images for SEO.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>05: Stay Active (It\u2019s Not Just Good For Your Heart)<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Running a small business blog is hard. Especially if you\u2019re wearing more than one of the hats in your company. Finding time to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">constantly<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> create content can be hard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But here\u2019s the thing:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Active blogs generate more traffic.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Small businesses that blog, even infrequently, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/blog\/tabid\/6307\/bid\/5014\/Study-Shows-Business-Blogging-Leads-to-55-More-Website-Visitors.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">get 55% more website visitors than ones that don\u2019t<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But by keeping your blog active and frequently adding content you can get up to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/blog\/tabid\/6307\/bid\/5506\/Active-Business-Blogging-Draws-in-6-9-Times-More-Organic-Search-Traffic.aspx\"><b>6.9x more organic search traffic<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-23 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_798\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-798\" class=\"wp-image-798\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.13.33.png\" alt=\"hubspot traffic graph screenshot \" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.13.33-300x186.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.13.33.png 679w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-798\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">More Posts = More Traffic<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And the more you blog, the more traffic you stand to gain. Over a longer period of time, those sites that blog <\/span><b>more frequently<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> get more search traffic:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-24 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_797\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-797\" class=\"wp-image-797\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.14.01.png\" alt=\"hubspot total number of posts with traffic graphic\" width=\"600\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.14.01-300x180.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.14.01.png 669w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-797\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bit of a difference, eh?<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now you\u2019re probably looking at that data, thinking of a few profanities, and saying, \u201cI just can\u2019t blog that much!\u201d. Thankfully, <\/span><b>you don\u2019t have to.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/marketing\/blogging-frequency-benchmarks\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hubspot also found that there is actually an optimal frequency to blog depending on the size of your company<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-25 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_796\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-796\" class=\"wp-image-796\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.17.22.png\" alt=\"hubspot graph of traffic versus number of employees\" width=\"600\" height=\"327\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.17.22-300x164.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.17.22.png 669w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-796\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">How many people can (and will) affect how many posts you should write.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Optimally you should be posting 11+ times a month. But, even with a really small employee count, using the tools from this list you can get away with blogging <\/span><b>three to six times a month <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and still generate a good level of traffic. If you need help with\u00a0how to structure your blogs, check out our article on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/seo-blogging-tips\/\">SEO blogging tips<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reasoning behind this is pretty easy to understand, too. When Google can see that your site is active &#8211; and is being <\/span><b>interacted with<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by people &#8211; it\u2019s going to favor you. Because people are actively looking for (and engaging with) you.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, while you <\/span><b>might<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> think that one post a week is enough, try thinking more towards a <\/span><b>one post every five days<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> strategy, and build from there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>You should also be creating in-depth content that covers the keyword&#8217;s topic in full. In a study conducted here, we found that<a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/does-long-content-rank-better\/\"> long content ranks better<\/a> after we controlled for other factors. This doesn&#8217;t mean you should be writing long content just to write it (this is a great way to hurt user engagement), but you should cover your topic in depth and not be afraid to go into specifics.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-26 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-content-boxes content-boxes columns row fusion-columns-1 fusion-columns-total-1 fusion-content-boxes-1 content-boxes-icon-with-title content-left\" data-animationOffset=\"100%\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-100px;\"><style type=\"text\/css\">.fusion-content-boxes-1 .heading .content-box-heading {color:#ffffff;}\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-link-icon-hover .heading .content-box-heading,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-link-icon-hover .heading .heading-link .content-box-heading,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box-hover .heading .content-box-heading,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box-hover .heading .heading-link .content-box-heading,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-link-icon-hover.link-area-box .fusion-read-more,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-link-icon-hover.link-area-box .fusion-read-more::after,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-link-icon-hover.link-area-box .fusion-read-more::before,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .fusion-read-more:hover:after,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .fusion-read-more:hover:before,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .fusion-read-more:hover,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box-hover.link-area-box .fusion-read-more,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box-hover.link-area-box .fusion-read-more::after,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box-hover.link-area-box .fusion-read-more::before,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-link-icon-hover .icon .circle-no,\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .heading .heading-link:hover .content-box-heading {\n\t\t\t\t\t\tcolor: #43a4dc;\n\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box-hover .icon .circle-no {\n\t\t\t\t\t\tcolor: #43a4dc !important;\n\t\t\t\t\t}.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box.link-area-box-hover .fusion-content-box-button {background: #ee6548;color: #ffffff;}.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box.link-area-box-hover .fusion-content-box-button .fusion-button-text {color: #ffffff;}\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-link-icon-hover .heading .icon > span {\n\t\t\t\t\t\tbackground-color: transparent !important;\n\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box-hover .heading .icon > span {\n\t\t\t\t\t\tborder-color: #43a4dc !important;\n\t\t\t\t\t}<\/style>\n<div class=\"fusion-column content-box-column content-box-column content-box-column-1 col-lg-12 col-md-12 col-sm-12 fusion-content-box-hover content-box-column-last content-box-column-last-in-row\"><div class=\"col content-box-wrapper content-wrapper-background link-area-box icon-hover-animation-slide\" style=\"background-color:#2B477B;\" data-animationOffset=\"100%\"><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><div class=\"content-container\" style=\"color:#ee6548;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/ecommerce-seo-guide\/\">Check out our 27-page eCommerce SEO guide.<\/a>\u00a0It&#8217;s full of actionable advice about link building, off-page SEO, how to handle product variants, the SEO of product pages and category pages, and SEO-friendly ecommerce site architecture. <\/div><\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .heading-link:hover .icon i.circle-yes,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box:hover .heading-link .icon i.circle-yes,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-link-icon-hover .heading .icon i.circle-yes,\n\t\t\t\t\t\t.fusion-content-boxes-1 .fusion-content-box-hover .link-area-box-hover .heading .icon i.circle-yes {\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbackground-color: transparent !important;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tborder-color: #43a4dc !important;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t}<\/style>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, that requires coming up with a lot of ideas. But you don&#8217;t have to think them all up in the shower&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CanIRank&#8217;s <strong>Grow my Content<\/strong> tool can generate up to 100 keyword ideas for <em>every single seed term<\/em> you analyze. These are pulled from keywords sending traffic to your competitors, semantically related keywords, and keywords that search engines consider related. They&#8217;re automatically scored\u00a0according to relevancy to your website content, search volume, traffic value, and ranking difficulty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-layout-column fusion_builder_column fusion-builder-column-27 fusion_builder_column_1_1 1_1 fusion-one-full fusion-column-first fusion-column-last fusion-column-no-min-height\" style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper fusion-flex-column-wrapper-legacy\" style=\"background-position:left top;background-repeat:no-repeat;-webkit-background-size:cover;-moz-background-size:cover;-o-background-size:cover;background-size:cover;padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;\"><div id=\"attachment_811\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.37.55-PM.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-811\" class=\"wp-image-811\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.37.55-PM.png\" alt=\"keyword suggestions\" width=\"700\" height=\"288\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.37.55-PM-300x123.png 300w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.37.55-PM-1024x421.png 1024w, http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-11.37.55-PM.png 1794w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-811\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some high-scoring keyword suggestions generated by CanIRank for CanIRank.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Wrapping It All Up&#8230;<\/h2>\n<p>Okay that was\u00a0<em>a lot<\/em>\u00a0of content. How&#8217;re you feeling? I hope you&#8217;re ready to go and make lots of quick changes to your blog and boost your traffic.<\/p>\n<p>But, before you do, let&#8217;s take a quick look at what we&#8217;ve been over and the key points you need to remember:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Create accurate content for specific queries:\u00a0<\/b>Find the questions your audience is asking and create the content that answers them. You&#8217;ll find you show up for more results and generate more traffic by writing what your audience needs, instead of what you want to write.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Get niche for your keywords:\u00a0<\/strong>Go long on your keywords. Don&#8217;t try and fight with the big boys just get. Find the niche keywords you can rank for and build some content around them or optimise your existing content. The more nice you are, the better you&#8217;ll rank and the more targeted the traffic you&#8217;ll get.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Build internal links:\u00a0<\/strong>Don&#8217;t just focus on linking\u00a0<em>out<\/em> to content. Link to your own content and give yourself some credit too. It makes Google&#8217;s job easier and gives you a much better platform to rank from.<\/li>\n<li><b>Optimise your images:\u00a0<\/b>Be proactive and update the Alt text of your images to reflect keywords and relevant content. It&#8217;s a place your competitors are almost definitely failing and you can get a quick upper hand on them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Be active:\u00a0<\/strong>Aim to post a blog post every five days. Or, go for the 11+ blog posts a month. It&#8217;s your choice, but the more you create, the more organic traffic you&#8217;ll see.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Phew, that&#8217;s all, folks! Now, over to you. Which of these are you going to implement for your blog? Let me know in the comments&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><style type=\"text\/css\">.fusion-fullwidth.fusion-builder-row-1 { overflow:visible; }<\/style><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every small business blogger has been there: You\u2019ve written an awesome blog post. You\u2019ve picked the perfect title. Found some keywords that were almost made for you. And you hit that publish button full of excitement. Then you sit back, relax and ride that magical wave of traffic\u2026 For about two days. And then, all [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,32],"tags":[93,94,95,92],"class_list":["post-767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo-knowledge","category-tutorials","tag-blog-optimization","tag-company-blogs","tag-seo-best-practices","tag-small-business-blog-seo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>5 SEO Best Practices for High Ranking Small Business Blogs &ndash; CanIRank Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every small business blogger has been there:You\u2019ve written an awesome blog post. You\u2019ve picked the perfect title. Found some keywords that were almost made for you. And you hit that publish button full of excitement.Then you sit back, relax and ride that magical wave of traffic\u2026\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 SEO Best Practices for High Ranking Small Business Blogs &ndash; CanIRank Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every small business blogger has been there:You\u2019ve written an awesome blog post. You\u2019ve picked the perfect title. Found some keywords that were almost made for you. And you hit that publish button full of excitement.Then you sit back, relax and ride that magical wave of traffic\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CanIRank Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-01T21:19:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-25T18:50:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.17.22.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"669\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"365\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@canirank\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@canirank\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"28 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"CanIRank Blog\",\"description\":\"SEO Tips for Small Businesses, Bloggers, and other Non-Spammers\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/blog.canirank.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-20-at-16.17.22.png\",\"width\":669,\"height\":365,\"caption\":\"How many people can (and will) affect how many posts you should write.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/\",\"name\":\"5 SEO Best Practices for High Ranking Small Business Blogs &ndash; CanIRank Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-01T21:19:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-25T18:50:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/213cd13a5b371f881d9dec0592476cb4\"},\"description\":\"Every small business blogger has been there:You\\u2019ve written an awesome blog post. You\\u2019ve picked the perfect title. Found some keywords that were almost made for you. And you hit that publish button full of excitement.Then you sit back, relax and ride that magical wave of traffic\\u2026\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"item\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"item\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/5-seo-best-practices-for-high-ranking-small-business-blogs\/\",\"name\":\"5 SEO Best Practices for High Ranking Small Business Blogs\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/213cd13a5b371f881d9dec0592476cb4\",\"name\":\"James Johnson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/75cf39c99d15d5e65248120262a3caae8c49cd6405cb98ab296ad103a1678258?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James Johnson\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canirank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}