77: How to Get your Blog Unstuck - Part 3: Prioritize

Summary

In this episode, Meredith's husband emphasizes the importance of using Google Search Console to optimize your blog content. He explains how website owners can identify blog posts that are gaining impressions but may need improvement, and provides actionable steps for maximizing visibility. The episode outlines using Google Search Console's performance data, focusing on impressions and keywords, to improve content and avoid keyword cannibalization. These steps help website owners enhance SEO and user engagement effectively.

Optimizing Your Blog with Google Search Console

If you're a website owner trying to boost your blog’s performance, mastering Google Search Console (GSC) is an essential step. In a recent podcast episode, Meredith's husband walked listeners through a simple but effective way to use this free tool to improve SEO, increase traffic, and better understand how your blog posts are performing. His advice is easy to follow, actionable, and aimed at making the content optimization process more straightforward.

Why Google Search Console?

For anyone serious about improving their website's visibility, GSC is a goldmine. This tool provides essential data about how Google views your website and, more importantly, how users are interacting with it. It allows you to track clicks, impressions, and the average position of your pages in Google search results. Most website owners don't fully utilize this tool, but it’s crucial for identifying what’s working and where improvements are needed.

As Meredith's husband points out, GSC gives you insights into which blog posts are already generating impressions—meaning Google is displaying them in search results. This is key because it helps you focus your efforts on improving content that's already on Google’s radar, rather than trying to push entirely new content into the rankings.

Steps to Optimize Your Blog Using Google Search Console

Here’s a step-by-step guide based on the podcast on how to use GSC to optimize your blog:

• Log into Google Search Console: If you don’t already have an account, sign up. It’s free, and accessing it is easy. Simply search for "Google Search Console" and follow the steps to set it up.

• Navigate to Search Performance: Once logged in, head to the “Search Performance” section. This is where you'll see important data like clicks, impressions, click-through rates, and average position.

• Focus on Impressions: Filter the data by impressions. Impressions represent how often your blog posts appear in Google’s search results, whether they’re on page one or buried on page five. The goal is to identify which of your blogs are getting impressions, as this means Google sees them as relevant but they may need more work to climb the rankings.

• Analyze the Data: Use filters to look at impressions over the past six to twelve months. This will give you a more comprehensive view of which blog posts are consistently being shown in search results. You can also filter by queries (keywords) to see which terms are leading users to your blog.

• Identify Posts to Improve: Focus on blog posts that are getting impressions but not necessarily clicks or traffic. These are prime candidates for improvement since Google is already displaying them, but they need optimization to move up in the rankings.

• Handle Keyword Cannibalization: If you have multiple blog posts competing for the same keyword, GSC can help you spot this. Keyword cannibalization happens when similar posts compete against each other, reducing the effectiveness of both. Meredith's husband advises choosing the better-performing post and redirecting the other using a 301 redirect.

The Value of Consistent Optimization

One of the key takeaways from this episode is that SEO is an ongoing process. By regularly analyzing your blog's performance and making small, consistent updates, you can significantly boost your site's visibility. As Meredith's husband mentions, even if your blog posts aren't perfect right away, starting and continuously improving them is the way to achieve long-term success. He quotes Zig Ziglar: “You don’t need to be great to start, but you need to start to be great.” This advice holds especially true for SEO and content creation.

Next Steps

Once you've identified which blog posts are worth improving, you can optimize them further by enhancing content, refining keywords, and adding new internal links. Tune in to the next episode for more tips on how to enhance your existing blog posts and drive more traffic.

Resources:

• Check out Google Search Console to start analyzing your blog’s impressions and performance data.

• If you're unfamiliar with setting up 301 redirects, research how to implement them based on your website's platform, such as WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix.