We get it. It’s easy for your website’s blog to become an afterthought in your overall content strategy. It’s hard to stay motivated writing about another destination guide that will get lost in the thousands of other posts just like it. However, a thoughtful and relevant blogging strategy can make a huge impact on your website’s user engagement and overall traffic, boosting your SEO and giving your blog a more meaningful purpose. We’ll talk through what it takes to write compelling content that wanderlust-driven readers actually want to consume, along with why blogging is a powerful SEO tool. Learn how keyword research can help you better serve your website’s visitors by creating posts founded in real trip-planning search queries and how authentic travel experiences build trust for your readers and search engines. Take this opportunity to refocus your blogging strategy and increase your website traffic in the process!
Learning Objectives:
- Why blogging is a powerful SEO tool and how it promotes user engagement
- Ranch-style blogging versus skyscraper blogging
- How to write a blog that website visitors want to read and highlights what makes your destination special
- How keyword research can help you write content around high-volume organic search queries
- Generative AI’s impact on blogging
- Strategies to ensure your blogs are ADA-compliant
- How to be intentional with blog authorship
- Recognize internal/external linking opportunities presented by having a blog on your site (including tagging and showing related content on landing pages)
- How to use your website’s blogging strategy to support your Google Business Profile
Learning objectives boiled down to 3 points:
- Understand the power of blogging for SEO and user engagement to learn how best to target high-volume organic search queries.
- Differentiate between ranch-style and skyscraper blogging techniques while developing strategic content creation skills that keep in mind keywords, authorship, ADA compliance, and the impact of generative AI.
- Learning how blogging can improve your overall site structure through authorship and internal and external linking opportunities.
This event is open to any iTIP member. Be sure to register to gain the Microsoft Teams meeting login information.
PRESENTERS:
Jim Hover, Web Development Director, McDaniels Marketing
When it comes to building your website, you want to have someone on your side that loves to take hundreds of moving pieces, pull them all together and package it with a big, red bow. Lucky for you, that person is Jim. Some might say he’s been perfecting these skills for decades with his love of science, crossword puzzles, Super Mario worlds and nerd-level deck-building games. But no matter the source, he’s definitely able to tap into the Force. He’ll help you launch a website that has been expertly built, relentlessly tested and 100% delivers the very best user experience to help you reach your goals. He’s also got a few years of teaching high schoolers under his belt, so rest easy knowing you’ll have all the tools and training you need to effortlessly manage your new site.
Zach Singleton, SEO Specialist, McDaniels Marketing
Zach understands the importance of telling a good story. In fact, a story can be found anywhere — even something like a mix CD can transport a reader to another time and place. That’s why Zach puts so much time and energy into your website, ensuring your online presence tells the story of your brand and is properly optimized so people can find it. Adaptable and committed, Zach immerses himself in every project with the same daring attitude that may prompt one to leap recklessly into the chilled waters beneath a bridge in Berlin — er, not that Zach would know anything about that, of course.