What does Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool, the winding up of the Metalicus fashion label and recent changes to Australian Visa rules have in common?
They are all blog posts that I have written that have gone viral. It might seem crazy to pull that thread together, but I am about to explain to you why they did. You will learn what are the key SEO (search engine optimisation) components of a well crafted blog post plus some clues about the timing of your writing that is often the secret sauce. So whilst my recent client article (10 Major Changes to Australian Visas from 1 July 2023) may not have had the sexiness of Ryan Reynolds or the dismay of a much loved Australian fashion brand trashing their reputation, it did have all of the components that allowed it to attract tens of thousands of views for my client, a featured snippet for 3 months and continues to sit on page one.
Let’s see how I did it!
First up -I’ll just explain the Ryan Reynolds Deadpool reference. You can read the original article here, and my apologies for the ‘slayed’ reference – yes it was 2016!
I wrote this while marvelling ( see what I did there!) at how successfully the first Deadpool movie was marketed. Ryan Reynolds may not be the world’s best actor – but he would have to be up there with some of the world’s best marketers.
You can also see my old Metalicus post here
Both of those posts went viral – bringing in thousands of views to my website. And whilst both of them had sexier titles than my recent client post on Australian Visa changes, they both used the fundamentals of good SEO practice at the time. Plus a little secret sauce.
Let’s unpack specifically what I focussed on when crafting my client’s post that went so well for them.
SEO Tips to help your blog articles go viral
SEO Optimised Page Titles and Headings
The title “10 Major Changes to Australian Visas from 1 July 2023” is well-optimised for SEO. It is clear, descriptive, and contains keywords that are likely to be searched for, such as “Australian Visas”, “Changes”, and the specific date “1 July 2023”.
Bullet Points
The article makes use of a table to list down the different visa categories along with the number of visas allocated for the year 2023-2024. This structured format makes it easy for readers to quickly grasp the information, and is also favourable from an SEO standpoint as search engines prefer well-structured organised content. It also doesn’t hurt that visually tables and bullet points draw in the reader to focus on the information.
Links to Helpful Pages
There are several internal and external links provided within the article. For instance, there are links to other pages on the Aspire Australia website like “Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT)” and “7 Steps Towards Australia for Individuals”, as well as an external link to legislation.gov.au. These links are useful for readers seeking more information and also help in improving the site’s SEO through internal linking and providing authoritative external references.
Strong Call to Action
Towards the end of the article, there is a strong call to action encouraging readers to visit specific sections of the website for more detailed information or to start the visa application process. These particular calls to action are clear and compelling, which can help in increasing user engagement and conversions.
SEO Optimised Copy
The article has a clear focus on relevant keywords such as “Australian Visas”, “international students”, “skilled migration”, and others. The copy is informative and provides value to the readers, which is crucial for SEO. Moreover, the use of keywords is natural and not forced, which is preferred by search engines. We are writing for people, not search engines or robots!
Meta Tags
The meta description and other meta tags are well-crafted. A meta description is an attribute within your meta tags that helps describe your page. This snippet of text may appear in the search engine results under your headline, though sometimes, search engines will pull a snippet of text from the main body copy of the page instead. Whilst not super important in terms of page rank, it does help people take action when viewing search results. The meta description “From July 1 2023, several major changes will come into effect for Australian Visas. Let’s delve into the changes.” is concise and provides specific details about what a reader can expect from the page/article.
Mobile Optimization
The entire site is optimised for mobile, ensuring that users will have the same quality experience reading the article on a mobile ( fast to load, easy to read all text, easy to navigate on their phone ) that they would have on their desktop. A mobile-friendly, responsive design ensures that the page is accessible and user-friendly across various devices, which is a factor that search engines consider when ranking pages.
Loading Speed
Page loading speed is a critical SEO factor. If your page loads quickly, it provides a better user experience, and page load time and speed is a ranking factor for search engines. It is always essential to make sure that site images have been optimised for fast loading times.
Some secret sauce
Timeliness of the Article
All of these items above will contribute to how well your site will be ranked by Google and other search engines. However, just ticking a series of technical SEO steps is not necessarily going to be enough. A factor that will also help contribute to creating a high trafficked or’ viral’ post will be the timeliness of the article. Is the article relevant to your audience, right now? Is the wider community also talking about this concept?
Clearly for the visa post it was very relevant to my client’s audience. There were loads of announcements occurring in June and July, so the audience was already primed and most likely looking for this information. We also shared the article to her list, and whilst a list of over 3000 people is not insignificant, it doesn’t explain the thousands and thousands of views the article received. Our article was not the first to be discovered online, we waited a little while before posting, but our article was incredibly comprehensive in the content provided – it very much fell into the E.E.A.T approach to SEO -Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. So whilst the post was live within the window of interest from the wider community, it was not first – it was just better.
Is it newsworthy?
My earlier examples of Deadpool and Metalicus clearly fell into this approach of talking about something online, that everyone else is currently talking about. My articles were not the only ones examining the issues outlined in those articles, but they were well, better. I was mindful of the newsworthiness of the content, but I didn’t dive in first, I conducted research, read widely, spent some time thinking about what to write and why, and then put it together. It’s why being clear on the offer/message or service that you provide ready for sharing is so important. If you have your ear to the ground about what your community is talking about right now, you can then share a story, opinion or in the case of my immigration client – the facts – in a way that will allow you to ride the wave of eyeballs back to your site.
Do you think your business has a viral post in the making? Why not reach out to us to see if we can’t help you nudge it along!
