A Complete Guide To Building A Blockchain SEO Strategy: 8 Fantastic Conversion Tips

The Paid Ads Conundrum

While PPC and paid ads are great assets for general SEO, Google’s been notoriously cagey over allowing crypto-themed ads on their platform, only recently allowing them provided they’re certified by their experts.

Add that to the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority moving the goalposts further by requiring businesses to change elements of their ad copy, such as including disclaimers on crypto’s volatility. By May 2022, crypto brand owners had to comply or face restrictions.

All of this hullabaloo adds up to blockchain firms needing to look at a new way of getting their content to the masses. It’s a wonderful new set of headaches.

But let’s consider the second point more closely.

It’s A Young Industry

Blockchain is yet to hit its prime, meaning that now is your opportunity to shape the narrative with original and meaningful content – rather than clickbait.

Many people are striking out on their own to learn more about how technology could help them. Let’s be honest – endless, droning media panic surrounding crypto crashes isn’t helping assure mainstream searchers.

You must build confidence for more customers to get behind your blockchain business or cryptocurrency website.

It might be the case that the majority of your audience is already invested in blockchain, and searchers either know what they’re looking for or are eager to deepen their knowledge to make more informed decisions.

A blockchain SEO strategy won’t get you thousands of clicks in the first week, but with an intentional long-term strategy and careful maintenance, you’ll generate compounding results.

The Elements In Brief

Let’s look at the elements in detail.

An SEO Audit

An audit is a baseline for building any SEO strategy. It’s a series of checks that show you how your website is already performing in terms of basic SEO practice.

All SEO audits are different. Again, it’s a long-term process. Having a clear understanding of what you’re building upon is always worthwhile.

One helpful way to SEO audit your website may be to undertake a discovery workshop with a professional marketing agency. In our experience, it’s a great way to draw up a roadmap and expectations for clients with varying needs.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO covers all the bases your visitors don’t see. These are behind-the-scenes tweaks that help Google index you and can help you scale the rankings.

Google indexes websites by dispatching crawlers to discover more about them. They travel inside your site’s code, meta descriptions, speed inhibitors, and sitemaps.

Let’s be clear – this list is by no means exhaustive. There’s plenty of work to be done!

Google’s crawlers (hypothetically) only ever help technically sound index sites. Your website may look like the whole package, but you’re going nowhere without tech SEO.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO accounts for everything you can do on-site to help Google understand your content and what you do. It can help them better index and organise you in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

With healthy on-page SEO, Google’s less likely to make bold assumptions. They’re confident you’re precisely what specific searchers want and need.

Given the complexity of some blockchain technologies, your on-page content needs to be relevant, helpful, and deliver confidence.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is the “field work” to get your name and brand out there. It’s here where you might get involved with the wider blockchain community to boost your blockchain brand alongside organic SEO.

Blockchain is a community with many dedicated Reddit threads, podcasts, and streams that you can feature in to build authority via association.

Blockchain searchers need to know you understand the tech and that you’re not just selling them snake oil.

A poor off-page SEO plan is pretty easy to spot. If you have zero presence outside of your website, you’ll have a hard time getting found.

Searchers need these off-page touchpoints to find their way to you. What’s more, it all adds extra credibility to your cause, which is vital for success in the complex and ever-evolving blockchain industry.

Monthly Reporting And Analytics

Monthly reports show you more than just who’s visiting and who’s buying. Analytics can help you track campaign changes, adjust social output, page and post quality, and edit keyword strategies.

This measure lets you understand where the bulk of your traffic is coming from and where you can drive for more.

You can easily see where your funnel starts and ends and where visitors may be bottlenecking. For example, are they visiting landing pages but not clicking any further? Could you use alternative keywords or different marketing channels (such as email or SMS)?

By using monthly reports, you can incrementally alter your SEO strategy. It is an asset in the highly volatile world of blockchain, where you’re already on your toes.

The Skinny On SEO For Crypto

1. Target And Prioritise Long-Tail Keywords In Your Niche

Long-tail keywords are great for capturing those super-informed prospects. These phrases are more specific than generic queries and are typically used by searchers who know what they’re looking for or are ready to make a decision.

For example, consider targeting “blockchain for restaurant owners” rather than “blockchain for business”. The competition is much lower but more valuable, so it’s worth striking a balance when creating an in-depth keyword research plan.

More niche keywords in the blockchain sphere may appear as follows:

Long-tail keywords also help you produce more natural, relevant website content. It is ideal for appealing to Google’s algorithms.

The danger here is that you likely won’t reach a large audience if you focus too much on long-tail keywords.

It may be worth targeting typical phrases and long-tail keywords separately in your regular blog content. You could discuss “blockchain trends for 2023” in one and “how to use blockchain in the restaurant industry” in another.

Creating a varied content plan and targeting standard and long-tail keywords in your base content can also help you reach newbies and experienced techs alike.

2. Split Your Blog’s Content Between SEO And Insightful Commentary

While we’re on the topic of varied blog content, the most authoritative blockchain websites strike a balance between SEO targeting and insightful, thought-provoking content.

Your blog should target more than just popular keywords and discuss blockchain topics covered a million times. You need a unique spin on the same ideas to avoid getting lost in search results.

Insightful content helps to establish credibility and creates excitement. Blockchain is quickly evolving, meaning readers are looking for reliable, straightforward insight.

You could write 50% of your blog content answering FAQs from Google’s SERPs and the other 50% giving insight into upcoming challenges your users may face from Web3 –i.e., “How is your business poised to approach and handle Web3 challenges?”

Searchers looking to learn more about blockchain may find this content inspiring, further spurring additional confidence in your brand.

Building authority this way also improves your chances of getting high-quality backlinks. This means reliable blockchain news sources such as Coindesk, CCN, and Forbes may provide you extra clout (more on backlinks later).

An excellent example of innovative blockchain content includes this blog post, published by ChromAway, which tackles a complex, niche topic with unique insight:

3. Build High-Quality Backlinks

High-quality backlinks are those derived from popular or highly influential sources. By claiming links through these sites, you can piggyback on their established readership and reputation.

As mentioned, Coindesk and Forbes are just two names that regularly publish news on the blockchain industry. The latter is particularly notable as it isn’t purely associated with the sphere and therefore has a broader readership.

Organically advertising your company through backlinks is highly valuable, as it’s essentially free. However, establishing a healthy backlink strategy takes time, perhaps more so in an industry saturated with complex concepts.

The best way to start claiming backlinks is to simply write. Choose a topic on which you have niche insight or can provide a unique spin. Does your product help solve a common issue other blockchain techies have yet to seize?

There’s no guarantee your linked source will see your article and return the favour. But you can work the numbers game and produce high-quality content regularly to boost your chances of getting seen.

Google also views your backlink profile as crucial to building a clearer picture of who you are and what you do, helping to boost you up the SERPs.

4. Use Video Content (And Optimise For YouTube)

While Google and YouTube fall under the same parent company (Alphabet), their algorithms work a little differently from each other. After all, YouTube delivers a specific type of content and likely attracts niche audiences.

Even though the form of the content is limited, YouTube is still a massive opportunity for blockchain SEO. More than 2.6 billion people use YouTube at least once a month.

There’s also a significant thirst for blockchain content on YouTube. Content providers such as Coin Bureau (more than 2 million subscribers) and Data Dash (more than 500,000 subscribers) provide news and insight to people who want to learn more about real-world applications and analysis.

Here are some of Data Dash’s most popular videos from the past few years:

Creating an alternative digital marketing strategy for YouTube allows you to establish further authority as a knowledgeable and entertaining source of insight. It doesn’t always have to be the hard sell, either (insert sigh of relief here).

Consider creating videos that answer direct queries in short form. For example, you could produce an animated short that explains the “proof of work” concept.

Or, you could host live video discussions with other authorities, discussing how people can use blockchain contracts in specific industries.

Beyond this, it’s worth building playlists and communities on YouTube to further establish your interest in blockchain. Playlists containing videos from other creators (and occasional clips of your own) can help searchers get to grips with complex topics.

For instance, why not create a playlist titled “blockchain for beginners” to guide viewers through common concepts for the first time? Check out Telusko’s playlist, snapped below, for inspiration:

5. Optimise Your Website To Help Visitors Move Down The Funnel

Getting your website seen through effective SEO is one thing, but once you have their attention, you need to try and keep it.

Your website must deliver on its promises. Can you prove that you’re an authority and that you can help the reader?

Consider your landing pages. Are you creating pages with niche or broad headlines?

Consider reaching out to blockchain newbies and businesses looking for specific solutions. Regularly tweak your landing page headlines and keywords when studying analytics.

Beyond this, your website’s going to need trust elements. You can’t just create a landing page for a blockchain product and expect your reader to get behind it.

Ensure you’re running on HTTPS and that your SSL is up to date. Look for trust badges you can stamp on your website – such as a Trustpilot score or a VeriSign badge.

Also, draw on social proof. Make testimonials and reviews from external sources (such as Google Business) evident to readers.

Make contact channels and further reading easily visible to your visitors. Hold their hands if you have to, but not before delivering genuinely thoughtful and helpful content.

Creating helpful content can also assist you in scaling search engine rankings. In late 2022, Google introduced its Helpful Content Update, which prioritises websites that answer questions clearly, provide actionable information, and reduce on-page search time.

Optimising the funnel isn’t an exact science. Your business’s (and your target audience’s) needs will vary. That said, it pays to make your website a welcoming, user-friendly hub with a clever call-to-action or two.

6. Use Reddit And Quora

Reddit and Quora aren’t just great for gaining insight into the latest news and discussions surrounding blockchain. They’re also pivotal for ranking, particularly as many people stick to established forums for blockchain news.

When researching blockchain audience triggers online, you’re likely to be dealing with two different types of people:

1. The “everyday” enthusiast
2. The “corporate” enthusiast

The everyday enthusiast is a blockchain hobbyist. This is someone who invested capital in Bitcoin or Ethereum and who might be thinking about how blockchain can improve their daily life.

The corporate enthusiast, meanwhile, looks at blockchain from a purely commercial standpoint. They want to know how the technology can help them get an edge over their competitors and whether or not investing in it holds any value.

When researching and optimising for forums, you’re likely to come across the everyday enthusiast. You can use Reddit, for example, to open up an AMA (Ask Me Anything) discussion, where you can answer questions about your service.

For example, CZ, the CEO of Binance, held an AMA of his own in 2022:

…which led to some fairly awkward questions. Be prepared to face scrutiny:

Answering questions on Reddit and Quora helps your off-page SEO. The everyday enthusiast provides honest and often highly knowledgeable social proof, a reliable testimonial that helps to drive other hobbyists to your cause.

7. Refine Your Keyword Strategy

Beyond long-tail keywords, it’s wise to use keywords somewhat sparingly. Keyword stuffing is a major ranking no-no, and you need to think carefully about the semantics of any phrases you wish to use.

With zero keywords targeted, your pages won’t likely rank as well as you’d want them to. However, SEO has evolved beyond simply cramming walls of text full of arbitrary phrases. You need to use precise phrases and place them sparingly across key areas of your articles.

When handling niche blockchain-related keywords and phrases, it’s more important to use them in context, so they don’t stick out like sore thumbs:

It’s also healthy to look for keywords outside the same old research apps. Did you know that you can source tons of valuable keywords from within Google SERPs themselves?

Thanks to algorithm changes such as the Helpful Content Update, SEO strategies revolve around Google’s “people also ask” section more than ever.

By searching for a given keyword and cross-referencing this section of the SERPs, you can learn more about the intent behind a search.

For example, you can find extra phrases and topics surrounding “crypto merchants” as follows:

Doing so could lead you to target insightful, specific keywords around wallets, cards, and banks – and their attitudes to blockchain tech. It’s food for thought that can inspire blog posts and authority pieces.

The knock-on effect of all of this is that Google will keep you in the spotlight, and your readers won’t get put off by painfully obvious phrases.

8. Don’t Be Afraid Of Long-Form Content

Long-form content is a concept that’s constantly driving debate – how long should your blog posts be to optimise conversions?

The fact is that both short- and long-form content have worth. While your readers may have short attention spans, anyone looking to adopt your blockchain solutions will likely want to read your insights on complex topics. That’s likely to extend well beyond 1,000 words.

Consider, too, that long-form content can generate 3.5x backlinks than shorter posts. It’s not the length you need to think about – but how you use it.

Longer posts must be concise if you want to target search intent. That means sectioning off pieces of more than 1,000 words into clear subheadings and answering queries directly. You can’t just waffle endlessly and expect to carry authority.

Organising your thoughts and ideas clearly throughout long-form pieces is a must. It’s an excellent way to keep your readers’ interest and show Google you genuinely know what you’re talking about.

Long-form content for blockchain may include deep dives into big topics affecting the future of the technology. For example, how might blockchain support transactions in the metaverse? Is blockchain affected by the collapse of FTX?

Readers will likely ask themselves these popular questions, allowing for a broad scope of detail. By clearly planning outlines and ensuring you capture interest throughout your content (with statistics, links, and the odd meme if appropriate), you can hold attention and still convey that you know what you’re talking about.