Blogging for Customers + Search Engines

Blogging is hugely important to your SEO health, your website’s visibility and, ultimately, your business’ success.

And though there is a lot of information on the web about blogging dos and don’ts, tips and tricks, the truth is that most people are only covering half of the field.

Some companies blog for the humans, meaning that they are writing directly to their customers and speak and explain as if their only audience is, well, human. But how do your customers find your blog if Google isn’t ranking it, or if Google doesn’t understand it?

Some companies go the opposite route and blog for the robots, or Google, with keywords in the meta, headings, subheadings and throughout the text – even when it isn’t natural. This might work to help Google understand your topic, but it sure doesn’t help your readers enjoy what you’ve created.

As you can tell, both of the above ways of writing have their purpose, as of course, Google helps your customers find your blog, and therefore your site, and your customers are the ones supporting your business, not Google.

But what is the relationship between this pair, between the humans and the robots? And how can we write for two entirely different entities in one 700-1,200 word blog?

Let the blogging experts at JSL Marketing help straighten this out with our 3 overlapping tips for both customers and Google.

3 Tips for Blogging for Both Humans & Robots

Don’t Be Too Longwinded – or Typed

When people want to read a book, they read a book, not a blog. And when people want to read a blog, well, it shouldn’t be the size of a book, now should it?

This doesn’t just go for total length, it’s for paragraph length, sentence length and, in many cases, even word length.

So, don’t use a run-on sentence that will be confusing, winding or too long, as your customers don’t want to read it. Don’t use paragraphs that are bulky with intimidating 12-lines of text, and don’t use overly complex words just because you know how.

Instead, break up your page with line breaks, as we have above. It might seem strange, but isn’t this how we talk? And doesn’t the whitespace above make the total length of your blog seem more manageable?

Turns out, it does!

Both for your readers’ eyes and for Google.

You see, Google likes to see ‘whitespace’ around your paragraphs, and your customers like to be able to read something without it hurting their eyes or them losing their place.

This is a great example of how Google and customers agree.

So, hack those sentences down, break up those paragraphs, and for goodness sake, don’t be magniloquent, uh, I mean, just speak plainly.

Use Long-Tail Keywords & Synonyms

Google is becoming smarter, and though this might worry some of us who believe a technology revolt is nigh, most of us will actually benefit from more tech AI.

How?

Well, you understand that ‘Best Digital Marketing Company in Dallas, Texas’ is the same as ‘Best Digital Marketing Company, Dallas TX’ is the same as ‘Best Digital Marketing Company in Dallas, TX’, right?

However, do you know who didn’t always understand that everything above is saying the same thing?

Our good friend Google.

This means that a lot of companies were trying to say the exact phrase or keywords they wanted to rank for over and over again in their blogs, on their pages, and in their social media posts.

Unfortunately, that’s quite annoying for the human readers.

So, Google learned – or rather, had a series of updates that helped it understand synonyms – so ‘the best’, ‘great, and ‘top-rated’ are all understood under an umbrella, sort of like how we understand them.

If you aren’t sure what a long-tail keyword is, it simply means that people are more likely to search ‘what is the best digital marketing company’ more often than just ‘digital marketing’.

Post Regularly (But With Quality)

This is the final area that companies often trip over, but it shouldn’t be, as the humans and robots once again agree.

Google wants to see fresh content.

People want to see fresh content.

Google wants your posts to be quality.

People want your posts to be quality.

It’s really quite simple when it’s laid out like this, isn’t it?

Essentially, Google is trying to like the same things as its users. It is trying to rank the same things that its users would rank, this means there should be more overlap between humans and robots than division.

So, write what your customers want to see and read, but remember that someone else is watching and looking to understand, rank and place that blog too.

Reach Your Blogging Goals With JSL Marketing

The best thing you can do is help Google help you, and the best people to do that are your friendly Google-experts at JSL Marketing & Web Design.

Give us a call or check out more blogs here!

Or, even if you don’t feel the need to seek out SEO services just yet, remember our takeaways to make your next blog post a success:

• Write with whitespace – because everyone likes that
• Write naturally and with understandable keywords or synonyms
• Write often enough to stay current, but sparsely enough to give yourself time to create something of value and quality

Happy writing (and happy Thanksgiving, too).