EDITS.WS

Tag: Content SEO

  • 5 blog topic ideas for your ecommerce site

    A blog can be a great marketing tool for your ecommerce site. It gives you the possibility to tell readers all about your brand, products, and company. Plus, by blogging on a regular basis you’ll increase the chances of your site ranking in the search results. That being said, coming up with new ideas can be difficult. In this post, I’ll discuss 5 topic ideas that will help you maintain an awesome blog on your ecommerce site!

    Why should you blog?

    It might seem like a lot of work, but maintaining a blog on your ecommerce site is definitely worth your time. A blog allows your audience to learn more about your brand and products. You’ll be able to tell the story of your brand and products from your own perspective, and inform your audience about new ideas or plans you might have. This builds trust between you and your audience and increases their engagement.

    But that’s not all! Maintaining a blog contributes to SEO as well. Every time you publish a new blog post to your ecommerce site, you’re adding fresh content. Which Google loves. You can use these blog posts to answer questions your potential customers have (and for which your products offer a solution). Or use them to show your expertise on topics that are related to your business. By blogging regularly and using the right keywords, your blog will help increase the overall rankings of your ecommerce site. Including your product pages.

    Read more: The ultimate guide to blogging »

    5 blog ideas for ecommerce sites

    A blog can help your audience to find you online. But maintaining it can be hard. You’ll have to continuously come up with new and unique ideas for your ecommerce blog. On top of that, you’ll want to create awesome content to make sure your audience keeps returning to your site. So, let’s start with a first and quite essential step in creating and maintaining your ecommerce blog: keyword research.

    1. Input from keyword research

    You can write about whatever you want on your blog, but before you start, it’s important to do proper keyword research. Keyword research will help you understand which search terms your audience uses, and therefore which search terms you want to be found on. You might have an idea of the search terms you want your site or products to be found on, but make sure to research them to make sure you’re using the right ones. Who knows, your audience might use a totally different word for a product you offer, which means you’re missing out on potential customers by focusing on the wrong search term!

    You can Google the keyword you came up with to check the searches Google suggests (while you’re typing). Or use tools such as Google Trends to research how often your search term is used compared to similar terms. But keyword research is so much more. And if you spend the time to do it properly, this will pay off by providing you with a list of focus keywords that will help you rank for the right search terms.

    Keep reading: Keyword research: the ultimate guide »

    2. Current events and news

    A great way to come up with new topic ideas for your ecommerce blog is by following current events and writing about them. Keep an eye on different news sites and write posts in which you give your view or expertise on news in your niche. To make sure you don’t miss anything, you can even set up alerts for specific topics. And if a holiday or event is coming up, write a post about how your products could be used during that holiday or event.

    The fun part? You’re writing about something people are interested in at that moment. Because it’s happening now. And if it’s an important event in your niche (or in general), that means that your audience will be probably want to read more about this topic.

    To give an example of how we do this at Yoast, a while ago Google announced Web Vitals – a new set of metrics to measure speed and user experience of websites. Because we know our readers will want to know more about this, as they are often concerned with optimizing their site, we wrote different blog posts explaining what these Web Vitals are and what impact they can have on sites.

    3. Audience questions or comments

    It might seem a bit scary at first, but giving readers the possibility to leave comments on your blog is a great way to get input for new posts. Inviting people to leave comments on your blog means you will probably receive feedback and questions. Which you can then use to determine what subjects your audience wants to know more about and what you can write a new blog post on.

    Also, this interaction is a great way to connect to people and make sure they’ll come back to your site. If you’re still a bit hesitant about allowing comments on your blog, we have a post that will help you handle comments on your blog.

    4. Blogs with a personal touch

    Writing blog posts allows you to add a personal touch to your site, and with it your brand and company. Even a large company or brand can really benefit from a blog that appeals to people on a personal level. One way to do this is by showing the authors of your blog. Let your readers get to know the people who write your blog posts and their expertise. And, if possible, let your CEO (or experts in your team) write about their own view on the market or the ways they use the products your company sells. By giving your blogs a personal touch, you’re giving the company and your brand a face that people can relate to. That helps people connect to your company and might even convince them to return to your online shop.

    If you’re having trouble standing out in a sea of similar ecommerce blogs, this article about staying unique in a competitive niche might help you find your tone of voice. Which will make it much easier to add a personal touch to your blog posts and connect with your audience.

    5. Stories about your products

    Your product page is the perfect place to describe your product. Your blog, however, is a perfect place to share stories about your product. If you sell cleaning supplies, write blogs about which stains are best removed with your products. If you sell kids clothes, write blog posts about children playing while wearing your clothes. And don’t underestimate the importance of photos, so make sure to add lots of them! If you don’t have any, try to add images that are related to your business or brand to liven up your posts.

    Tell stories about the different ways people use your products and make these stories informative and entertaining. Don’t make these blogs too salesy. Show people why they should buy your stuff instead of telling them they should buy it.

    Tip: Want to make sure your product pages perform well in the search results? With our Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin, you can take advantage of Yoast SEO’s excellent structured data to get rich product results. Plus, you can preview what your products look like in the search results! And if you run a Shopify store, that’s no problem either. Yoast SEO for Shopify will help you boost your traffic and optimize your content.

    Customer stories

    Another great way to do this is by asking your customers to share their stories. Ask them about their experiences with your products and if they have photos you’re allowed to share on your site. With the permission of these customers, you can write beautiful blog posts based on their experiences. Or you could ask your clients if they would want to write a guest blog.

    Read on: How to use storytelling in a blog post »

    Let’s get blogging!

    As I said before, a blog can be a great marketing tool for any ecommerce site. Which is why it should, in my opinion, be part of your ecommerce SEO strategy. It will allow you to get more people to your site, increase their engagement, and present your brand and company the way you want to be seen. I hope these 5 blog ideas for ecommerce sites will provide you with enough input to start and maintain an awesome blog!

    If you want to learn more about writing content that’s optimized for search engines, then you might be interested in our SEO copywriting training. Among other things, you’ll learn which steps you need to take to create a ready-to-publish text for your website. Plus, how to come up with a list of relevant keywords for your website. Useful, right?

    Keep on reading: 5 tips to write readable blog posts »

    The post 5 blog topic ideas for your ecommerce site appeared first on Yoast.

  • Local ranking factors that help your small business’ SEO

    If you have a local business selling products or services, you have to think about the local ranking of your website. Local SEO will help you surface for related search queries in your area. As Google shows local results first in many cases, you need to make sure Google understands where your location is. In this article, we’ll go over all the things you can do to improve Google’s understanding of your location, which improves your chances to rank locally.

    What are ranking factors?

    Ranking factors are elements that Google considers when determining the position of a URL in the search results. There are many ranking factors, most of which are characteristics of the URL and your website, but they can further extend to your online presence. An example of a ranking factor is page speed: a fast-loading page that delivers a good user experience is likely to rank higher than a slow page when other characteristics are comparable.

    Local SEO ranking factors

    In this post, we’ll focus on the factors that influence the ranking of your website’s pages in local searches. As you can read here, Google itself talks about local ranking factors in terms of:

    • Relevance: are you the relevant result for the user? Does your website match what the user is looking for?
    • Distance: how far away are you located? If you are relevant and near, chances are you’ll get a good ranking.
    • Prominence: this is about how well your business is known. More on that at the end of this article.

    So you have to show you’re relevant, you’re close by, and you’re well-known. Let’s see how you can work on these factors with some concrete actions!

    Be relevant

    Being relevant means that you offer the service or products the searcher is looking for. While this might seem pretty straightforward, sometimes, people can get too cryptic on their website. Make sure that you clearly mention what your business or profession is, what kind of products and services you offer, and make sure to do this in the wording your audiences use. To find out if you indeed communicate using the language your audiences use, please conduct some keyword research and speak with your customers to find out which terms they use when looking for a service like yours.

    Check out this local content strategy guide for more inspiration to write relevant content for your local business site.

    Google Business Profile

    For your local ranking in Google, you can’t do without a proper Google Business Profile listing. Google Business Profile is especially helpful if you want to show up properly in the local pack – i.e., the big panel with the map. You need to sign up, pick the right primary categories for your business, add all your locations, verify these and share some photos. You’ll also need to actively manage your profile and build it up over time.

    Google Business Profile allows for customer reviews, and you should aim to get some of those for your listing. Every year, the importance of online reviews for local SEO grows. Positive reviews (and negative ones) help Google and its users judge your business. This is pretty much like your local market. If people talk positively about your groceries, more people will be inclined to come to your grocery stand.

    Getting reviews is one, but you can keep the conversation going by responding to these reviews. But, as Google puts it, be a friend, not a salesperson.

    It helps to sign up for Google My Business if you want to rank your business in the local three-pack

    LocalBusiness schema structured data

    If you have a local business and serve primarily local customers, of course, you’ll add your address to your website. To help Google and other search engines understand the primary address, you can best serve it in a specific format readable for machines. Use localBusiness schema for that. Our Local SEO plugin makes adding that LocalBusiness schema to your pages a breeze!

    This is very much about what Google calls distance. If you are the closest result for the user, your business will surface sooner.

    Make sure you have one main NAP!

    Even if your business has multiple locations, make sure to match the main NAP (name, address, phone number) on your website with the Google Business Profile NAP. That is the only way to make sure Google makes the proper connection between the two. Add the primary address on every page (you are a local business, so your should mention your address on every page). For all the other locations, set up a page and list all the addresses of your branches.

    Facebook listing and reviews

    What goes for Google Business Profile goes for Facebook as well. Add your company as a page for a local business to Facebook here. People search a lot on Facebook as well, so you’d better make sure your listing on Facebook is in order. Facebook also allows for reviews, which could help your business too. Keep an eye on those reviews! If your reviews aren’t that great, make sure to fix that by providing better products or services, or at least show in your replies you take the feedback you get seriously.

    Location and keywords in title

    The obvious one: for ranking locally, adding city and (in the US) state to your <title> helps. Add your main keywords as well and make the title attractive. Please keep in mind that the effect of adding the name of your town to your titles might be a lot less effective for local ranking than adding your business details to your Google Business Profile. But it won’t hurt for sure. For more local content tips, do check out this guide.

    In this example, this title could have used a location to help in the local search results

    Local directories help your local ranking

    In addition to your Google Business Profile listing, Google uses the local Yelp and other local directories to determine just how important and local you are. While we usually recommend against putting your link on a page with a gazillion unrelated links, the common ground for a local listings page is, indeed, the location. And, these links do help your local rankings.

    So get your web team to work, find the most important local directory pages and get your details up there. We’re explicitly writing details and not just links. Citations work in confirming the address to both Google and visitors. If a local, relevant website lists addresses, do consider getting yours up there as well. And while you are at it, get some positive reviews on sites like Yelp as well!

    Following how directories help your local ranking – especially in the organic local search results, exchanging links with related local businesses also pays off. If you work together in the same supply chain or sell related products, feel free to exchange links. Don’t just exchange links with any business you know. In most cases, these will be low-quality links for your website (because they’re usually unrelated). Also, try to build high-quality content that attracts relevant links. And, don’t forget to get those local keywords in the anchor text of those inbound links.

    Social mentions from local folks

    Again, there’s a local marketplace online as well. People talk about business, new developments, or new products on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and more. All these social mentions find their way to Google’s sensors as well. The search engine will pick up on positive or negative vibes and use these to help them rank your local business. If many people talk about your business and link to your website, you must be relevant. Monitor these mentions and engage.

    Some say links from other websites, directories, and social media are critical for local rankings. As always, we believe it’s the sum of all efforts that makes you stand out from the crowd, not just optimizing one aspect. Take your time and make sure your Google Business Profile is correct, local business structured data is active on your site, and you have proper links to your site and the right people talking about you on other platforms like Twitter. And please don’t forget to do proper keyword research and make sure the right content is on your website.

    Optimize your content for better local rankings

    Google won’t rank your site for a keyword if that keyword isn’t on your website. It’s as simple as that. If your business is in city X, you probably have a reason why you are located there. Write about that reason. And note that these may vary:

    • You are born there or just love the locals and local habits
    • There is a river which is needed for transport
    • Your local network makes sure you can deliver just-in-time or provide extra services
    • The city has a regional function and your business thrives by that
    • There are six other businesses like yours, you’re obviously the best, and you all serve a certain percentage of people, so your business fits perfectly in that area.

    These are just random reasons to help you write about your business in relation to your location. They differ (a lot) per company. Make sure your location/city/area is clearly mentioned on your website and not just in your footer at your address details! If you have multiple locations, set up and write pages for each one and include the proper business details.

    Read more: Tips for your local content strategy »

    One more thing: what about prominence?

    Prominence means that when Google can serve a result first from a well-known brand or business, they actually will. Despite all your efforts to improve your local ranking, this might get in the way of that number one position. But, it just means you have to step up your game, keep on doing the great work you do, work on your branding, and trust that eventually, Google will notice this as well. As a result, Google might allow you to rank on that number one position for that local keyword!

    Another thing to note is that prominence is also based on the information that Google knows about a business. All this information is derived from links, articles, and directories across the web. The more positive reviews and ratings your business has, the more likely Google will place it in a high position for local search queries. Not to mention, your position on the “normal” search results page (web results) is also a ranking signal. So, invest some time and resources into SEO if possible, and ask your satisfied customers to leave a good review on Google and other platforms such as Yelp or Facebook.

    Keep reading: The ultimate guide to small business SEO »

    The post Local ranking factors that help your small business’ SEO appeared first on Yoast.