Whether you’ve just decided to launch a sports blog or you were there at the beginning and have been operating one for years, there’s one thing that will be immediately obvious. Getting your site to rank well on Google is no simple matter.
People love sport, it’s one of the most popular pastimes in the world, and events like the World Cup, the Olympics and the Super Bowl bring people together like nothing else on earth. On the face of it, that makes it sound like a great thing to blog about. People want to discuss sport, to predict results, to argue about the best lineups and to bet on the outcomes.
The downside, however, is that it is also one of the most common blog topics, so you are likely to be competing with thousands of other sites for the same keywords. So what can you do to get your humble blog ranking with the best of them? Here are some suggestions.
Be smart with your keywords
Having keywords is one thing, doing the right thing with them is another. Place yours within headers, titles, alt text and url slugs. This has the effect of putting big flashing lights on them for the Google bots and explaining exactly what your site is about. Also, don’t spread your keywords too thin. Allow each page to focus on a specific keyword. For example, if you have a website about Juventus, then Ronaldo might be the primary keyword on a particular page. Make sure his name appears in the headers, and also that it features several times within the page.
Link logically
One of the first things you learn about SEO as a blogger is the importance of links both to and from your site. However, before you get too carried away with Domain Authority, Citation Flow and all the rest, take a step back and look at relevance. From a sports blog, your readers are likely to be interested in things like the Unibet sportsbook site to place a bet or perhaps NFL Gamepass for some live streams. Make sure the links have value to your readers and are not just there for the sake of links.
Keep it fresh
Publishing regular new content is a golden rule for any site. But when you get it wrong, it shows up more on a sports blog than anywhere else. After all, a site about classic cars can get away with older content – a 1966 Mustang isn’t going to change from one year to the next. But if your site has headline features about a race, game or tournament that was over long ago, it is like walking into a store in March and still seeing old Christmas decorations hanging up.
Use more than words
Here’s a simple fact: video content gets more viewers than a page of words. Experiment with different media, whether it’s highlights of a recent game or maybe your very own podcast and you will keep viewers engaged, and more to the point, encourage them to come back for more and to share your content with their friends.