We bet you’ve never thought about how your blog posts rank on Google.

But — how many times have you Googled something and clicked the first or second result that pops up — just because it’s at the top of the search results? And comparatively — how many times have you clicked through to the second or third page on your Google search results?

The difference between your two answers is probably in the thousands – if not more.

And you’re not alone. Because here’s what we know: 

When it comes to Google search results, the position matters greatly.

We know that a result in position #2 will generate on average of 3x more clicks than a result in position #6. Similarly, results on the second page of Google have a click-through-rate of less than 1% for each position. 

So — simply put: You want to work as hard as you can to rank on the first page.

Here’s a quick rundown — AKA our 5 best tips — of how you can do it:

Start with your ideal client or customer in mind to rank on Google.

Before you even THINK about writing a blog — make sure you know your ideal client or customer like the back of your pretty little hand. Regardless of all of the best SEO tips and tricks — your blogs won’t rank on Google if they’re not providing actual value to people… specifically people who care about what you’re writing.

When you thoroughly understand who you’re trying to reach and who you’re trying to write for — you can actually speak directly to that person instead of throwing stuff against the wall and hoping it sticks. In our experience, this shift is a huuuuuge game changer for brands and businesses alike.

Why?

Because when you try to talk to everyone, you end up talking to no one.

Bottom line: Know your ideal client or customer and draft blogs that hit them in the feels and provide value completely customized to their interests, goals, and pain points.

To rank on Google, do a little keyword research.

This is where knowing your ideal client comes in SUPER handy. Why? Because when you get in their heads — you can figure out what kinds of things they’ll be searching for on Google… and then you can create content around those keywords.

(FYI: Our favorite keyword research tool is Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest — and it’s the tool we use whenever we’re writing websites or web copy for any of our clients. Click HERE for a quick rundown of how to use it when you’re doing keyword research.)

You may be thinking — How do I know what keywords to search for?

Great question, boo. 

In theory, your blog should be focused on one area of expertise so that Google can pin you down and essentially categorize your content to be pulled in as results. For example, the Carter House Copy blog is all about marketing, copywriting, and communications strategy.

We don’t write blogs about our weekend getaways — we stick to what we know and, more importantly, what our ideal client knows we know.

So — when we’re doing our keyword research using Ubersuggest, we may type in the following keywords to come up with our blog content:

• Copywriting
• Social media marketing
• Social media strategy
• Web audits
• Writing web copy

Just to name a few. From there, we see what other related keywords come up as high ranking — and we write blogs about those high ranking topics.

Answer questions your ideal client cares about.

Most basically, the most helpful kind of blogs answer questions directly. (And they tell you that you’re going to get the answer to your question in the title. See above 🤪)

Again, using us as the example — we get a TON of questions about copywriting, blogging, email marketing, websites, and social media content. Because of that, we write blogs that answer some of the most frequently asked questions we get from our clients — like the ones listed below.

• 3 Quick Tips for Repurposing Content
• 3 Ways to Create Content for Your Audience (Not the Algorithm)
• How to Turn Instagram Engagement into Revenue
• 4 Pages Your Website MUST Have
• How to Write an About Page that Converts
• 5 Practical Ways to Serve Your Email List

Our blogs are informative, (we like to think 🤪) entertaining, and valuably address the topics our ideal clients care about.

Leverage H1, H2 and H3 headings to help your Google Rank.

You’ll notice this blog post has different sizes and styles of fonts to help make it easier to read.

The blog’s title is written in what’s called an H1 style, the subsections are written in H3 styles and the body copy is written in Normal Text. These designations are typically found in the toolbar of whatever program you’re using to write your blogs in (e.g., Google Docs, Microsoft Word, WordPress, etc.)

Other than changing the size and type of your font — these designations help Google Crawlers (AKA the internet bots that scan websites and index them into search results) understand your blog post in an organized way.

As a best practice, aim to use just one H1 header on each blog or page (for the title) and then organize each subsection with H2 and H3 as you go on.  Do what you can to naturally include keywords and/or related keywords in your headers and subheaders. Your body copy should always be in Normal Text.

In addition to helping those internet robots digest your blog post — correct use of headers and subheaders can help longer blog posts more scannable for human eyes and increase the readability of your content.

Which brings us to our next point…

Write for humans.

Once you have your keywords identified — it’s so tempting to try and bake them into every other sentence to make sure your volume’s high enough to get recognized by those crawlers. This is called keyword stuffing and it’s not a sound strategy to help your Google Rank.

Google can (and will) penalize websites that unnaturally stuff keywords into their onpage content (like blogs) — and honestly, it deters readers too.

How spammy does the below stuffed sentence feel?

If you’re looking to increase your Google Rank, you need to care about SEO. SEO affects your Google Rank in many ways. Your Google Rank can be improved by proper copywriting with the Google Rank in mind. To help your Google Rank, email us at googlerank@google.com. 

Write for humans. The ones that are your ideal clients and customers more specifically 🤪

To connect with a strategic marketing partner who understands startups and the unique challenges you face in reaching your audience, book a free Discovery Call with Carter House Copy today.