SEO Takeaways from the 2014 World Cup
With the world-wide biggest sporting event almost being over, it is about time to see what useful points SEOs and content specialists can take away from this eventful tournament and apply them when writing blog posts.
Lesson No. 1: BE DAZZLING
James Rodriguez counts as the newcomer of the Brazil World Cup 2014
Your headline is the first impression you make on a prospective reader. Without a compelling promise that turns a browser into a reader, the rest of your words may as well not even exist. Therefore, choose a dazzling title for your post that grabs the attention of your readers and makes them read through the whole article.
Lesson No. 2: BE CREATIVE
Lionel Messi, Argentina’s superstar, is surrounded by his opponents and still manages to dribble past them.
When choosing a creative topic to blog about, try and find a niche. Make your blog about something very specific and you’ll please both the search engines and your readers. Images, graphics, tables, videos and other sorts of visuals help in writing creative blog posts and shouldn’t be missing.
Lesson No. 3: BE AUTHENTIC
The Colombian National Team celebrates their win over Greece – Colombian style!
Develop and use your own writing style and stick to it. This helps for your blog posts credibility and in order to develop your own public profile. Try to write the way you speak. Avoid jargon and clichés and don’t overuse the thesaurus. Writing about yourself is never easy, and you may find yourself freezing up in front of the computer screen. It may be helpful to speak your entry out loud before trying to type it or to read it aloud after you’ve written it.
Lesson No. 4: BE STRUCTURED
Germany who celebrated a glorious 7-1 win over Brazil in the semi-final, is often praised to have good structured team with many great players rather than a single superstar
There is much more to blogging than the writing. You need to ensure that your blog post has the proper structure. Utilizing the proper structure is beneficial for reader engagement as well as search engine optimization (SEO). Short paragraphs, META tags, sub-headings, bullet lists and images are just a few points to consider when writing a well-structured blog post.
Lesson No. 5: BE RESOURCEFUL
Dutch national coach Louis van Gaal made the right choice by substituting goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen seconds before the extra time was ending for second goalkeeper Tim Krul who saved 2 penalties in the quarter-final vs Costa Rica
Well-researched blog posts can differentiate your content from your competitors’. Being known as a go-to source in your industry will help make your blog stand out.
When a reader lands on your blog post, you want to provide opportunities for them to stay on your website. A great way to entice the reader to hang around awhile and get to know you and your business is by linking to your previous blog posts as well as external references. By using relevant internal links within blog post content you are able to increase the number of links to deeper pages within the site, which will in turn improve the authority of these deeper pages.
Lesson No. 6: BE BOLD
Although the English national team was eliminated in the group stage, the English fans have not lost their wit.
Being bold or witty in your blog post can help to attract more readers and it is more likely that your post goes viral.
Lesson No. 7: BE SOCIAL
Nice gesture – David Luiz consoles James Rodriguez after Brazil’s 2-1 win over Colombia in the quarter-final.
Get people talking on your blog. Ask them to add their comments on various articles and encourage interaction wherever possible. Ask them to share your post on their social media channels, ask for feedback, build a community and be nice. People love to interact, so make sure you’re friendly and welcoming. This is also known as a call-to-action.
Lesson No. 8: BE RESPONSIVE
There is one reaction to strikers: Tim Howard! The US goalie broke the record for the most saves made in a single World Cup game. His 15 saves against Belgium is more than any other player has made since records started being taken in 1966.
Not all bloggers choose to implement the comment feature, but if you want to develop a dialogue with your audience, comments are the best way to do so. The comment feature is an easy way to involve your audience and get valuable feedback about what you’re doing with your blog. Keep an eye out for comments and reply as soon as you can in order to engage with your readers.
So…someone say again you can’t actually learn valuable things from football! Now we just have to wait and see what the final will teach us.
But as a wise man called Gary Lineker once said:
“Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.”
PS: I really think Gary Lineker is a wise man – not only because I’m German… 😉
