Why do you need to structure a blog for SEO? And why is it important for travel and aviation companies?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of optimising your website’s structure and content to appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs) of those most important to your business. This in turn increases visibility of your website, and your organic search traffic.
Blogs have been a digital marketing tactic for many years and are an effective tool for bringing potential and existing customers to your website from search or owned channels.
To optimise blog content for SEO, it requires writing about topics that your audience is searching for, answering their questions and providing value. It also means structing your blog to make it easy to read, understand and digest.
So, how do you do it? First, it’s important to remember that Google’s algorithm is constantly changing, but there is best practice that can be followed.
Here are our top five tips for aviation, travel and transport brands wanting to structure their blogs for SEO. Once you’re done, ask us for our blog writing checklist!
1. Consider your travel audience’s intent
Firstly, research your audience. Who are they and where are they in their buying journey?
Your target audience will dictate the tone of your blog and inform your writing process. Is the purpose of your blog to generate awareness? Reinforce your brand? Or is it to convert new customers?
As an aviation or travel brand, it may be that you are wanting to target people in the holiday research phase. Perhaps you are a B2B organisation reaching prospects in the consideration stage. Or you could be writing for existing customers, answering frequently asked questions, or letting them know about new offers.
2. Do your keyword research
Understanding which keyword/s you want to target and why is the starting point of any blog. Keywords will be the search terms that people use to find your brand, or that your competitors are targeting to take organic traffic. Alternatively, these could be phrases that you want to be associated with.
Perhaps you are launching a new route or destination, or your latest product range addresses a specific pain point. In these cases, you will want to create dedicated content for this new audience.
There are many paid-for tools – such as SEMrush, Moz or Uber Suggest – that you can use to research the right keywords for your business. The ‘people also ask’ section of Google is also useful as you can see suggestions related to your topic. Additionally, Answer the Public is a good resource for keyword suggestions.
When it comes to incorporating these phrases into your blog, ensure that your heading, body copy, URL and meta description all contain the keyword you are targeting.
Important: strike a balance with keyword penetration. Don’t cram them in. Google’s algorithm will detect keyword stuffing which will negatively impact your post’s performance. Remember, you are first and foremost targeting real people and not computers, so write naturally.
3. Optimise headings, subheadings and sentence structure
Google suggests using subheadings in blogs to break up long sections of text and make it easier to digest, enhancing the user experience.
Headings (known as H1) and subheadings (H2-6) that pose questions are particularly effective as people often search using these prompts. Remember to include your keyword in your heading and ideally one of your subheadings.
When considering length. make sure your main heading is no more than 65 characters long. This is so that the title appears in full on the SERPs, increasing the likelihood of gaining a click. Within the body copy, use short, active sentences, aiming for no longer than 20 words in length.
4. Optimise your page’s appearance
Think about how your blog will look on the SERPs. A meta description is a short summary (155 characters) of a page’s content. They are shown to users in the search results, making them one of the first things people will see. It is therefore vital that you craft an effective meta description to attract clicks. Think keywords, active voice and actionable verbs.
Images can add much-needed colour and interest to a blog post; however, when structuring a blog for SEO, it is important to select images carefully. Google responds well to compressed images that load quickly and that include alt text to improve accessibility.
Ensure the images are relevant to your content. Think products in situ, partner shots, travel destinations, your team members; something that closely aligns with your theme.
5. Add internal and external links
By including links to other pages on your own website, users spend longer engaging with your company, learning more, exploring your product or service and taking action.
Adding external links to authoritative webpages increases your own credibility. It will also provide sources to any statistics or news you are including.
As a starting point, make sure to include a link within your call to action. This could be linking to other articles on your website, or a contact page.
Ready to structure a blog for SEO?
Although there are many guidelines to follow when structuring a blog, it’s important not to compromise good quality writing. The end user is human, and the blog must provide value and not be so laden with keywords or subheadings that it is difficult to read or no longer makes sense.
To get your hands on our blog writing checklist, get in touch with our digital team.
