FocalPoint’s 6 Favorite Keyword Hacks To Bolster Blog Reach

FocalPoint’s 6 Favorite Keyword Hacks To Bolster Blog Reach

Social media posts have matured since becoming a thing a decade or so ago – or should have – to take advantage of the ongoing changes to Google Search and others.

Since every search on Google is composed of key words and phrases, each a request for information, the goal of search is to supply a well-targeted, satisfying answer to those queries.

So what does this mean for your social media posts? Ideally, you’ll need to anticipate the questions most likely to be asked about your company or product. And then deliver a compelling answer to direct eyeballs to your blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social media posting.

Does that mean you’ve got to exclusively write to top search questions? Not only would that be dry as toast, but thankfully, even interesting topics with no search demand can get great engagement on channels like Facebook or Twitter.

That said, if you want long-term free traffic, the best place to get it is via Google. And that means writing your blogs using keyword research as your foundation.

How, exactly?

Because blogs have been around the block awhile, FocalPoint has discovered all kinds of brilliant hacks to do just that. Here are some of our favorites:

1. Document your ideal audience. Boring, but important. Knowing your audience is the inescapable prerequisite for keyword research because it helps you filter out keywords that, although technically related to your topic, could be a bad fit for your audience. Profile things like age, demographics and interests.
2. Use a Keyword Research Tool. There are lots of them around, some better than others. And yes, you have to pay for this tool. We think it’s worth it to help get the reach you need. It does pay for itself after a month or two.
3. Best way to use a Keyword Research Tool? Find new keyword ideas ways by typing in a word or a phrase and receiving related keywords. Or type in a page/website and see keywords with page and website rankings.
4. Try the Filter for Questions. This allows you to see your keywords formatted as questions. Brilliant — since answering these questions is such a perfect way to optimize your content (i.e, providing what your audience wants to know).
5. Know the Difficulty Score of your top keywords. Scores are determined by the strength of the pages that are currently ranking on page 1 for each keyword.
6. Check out each keyword’s Search Volume. Search volume provides an estimate of how many people look for specific keywords each month. Caveat: Quantity doesn’t always equal quality. Sometimes lower-volume keywords can be a more relevant match to your target audience.

So, now you that you know how to make your keywords sing, how do you use them appropriately? Google has gotten much better at ranking pages that answer actual search questions. So, answering the right question is an excellent way to start. But even better, we’ve discovered, it proving the ideal answer – better than your competition based on what you know of your ideal audience. Write to answer their questions, and your potential audience will be more likely to find your content in search engines.

At FocalPoint, we know a thing or two about social media for business. Shall we talk about how we can help you get the most out of search?