SEO, or search engine optimization, matters because it keeps search results findable, accessible, and, most importantly, fair.
It’s hard, if not impossible, to manipulate the search engine results. If your site meets the criteria, you’re sure to show up in the search results.
When you implement the right SEO tactics, your blog posts become visible to people who search for your products and services.
Once you start a blog, blogging is fantastic for SEO because it helps with a number of things.
Not only does it keep your website fresh, but it also gives other websites reason to link back to you.
Blogging is a great driver of SEO when you know what you’re doing. To stand out in the competitive world of web-based content, you have to make an effort.
SEO isn’t as tricky as you’d be tempted to think it is. Keep on reading to learn how to write SEO friendly posts to grow organic traffic to your site.
Think First & Write Later
We are constantly reminded that it’s not a good idea to obsess too much over our writing. We’re told that if we write what we want, the words will come freely.
Writing without thinking can indeed be fun, creative, and rewarding. However, if you would like to craft the best SEO content, you must think before you put your thoughts on paper, so as to speak.
Figure out what the audience wants or needs from you and come up with relevant topics.
Read as many articles as you can about SEO and digital marketing. If you come across a topic that you think is interesting, make sure to copy the URL and take some notes.
Writing isn’t about what you want to get off your chest so that you feel better afterward. It’s all about what the reader wants. If you don’t speak to their interests and needs, you risk losing them.
When you’re curled up in a comfy spot, be it a cozy nook in your home or a quiet spot in a café, think about what you’ll write.
Know exactly what you want to write and be sure that readers will love it.
Choose Your Keywords Wisely
If you use the right keywords, you’ll receive the maximum amount of search engine traffic.
At the end of the day, the search engine spiders and robots are the ones that look for certain signals to rank content adequately. So, do your keyword research before actually writing.
Develop a Keyword List
Google Analytics can help you identify the keywords and phrases that bring visitors to your site. You can work around these, but it’s essential to include keywords closely linked to your blog posts.
For example, if you share food recipes, use keywords like “Greek chicken recipe”. These keywords will give your content meaning, and structure.
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Be Strategic
Use keywords that are used in search queries all the time. A tool like SEMrush can help you figure out what people are searching for around a particular topic.
Build a strong editorial calendar with keyword research. Focus your attention on the keywords and phrases that will help you get an edge over the competition.
You’re better off using a keyword like “content calendar” than “editorial calendar”.
Structure Your Blog Posts
By structure, it should be understood the order of ideas. The progression of your writing should feel natural.
Sections should be linked together, and it’s recommended to include a summary.
Blog post writing isn’t like creative writing, in the sense that you must write well-structured paragraphs to get the reader’s attention.
If you don’t approach content writing in a structured way, don’t be surprised if people don’t make it to the end of the article.
Every blog post should have:
- An introduction (which tells readers why they should read your blog in the first place)
- A body (in which you elaborate on what you know about the topic)
- A conclusion (which summarizes the main points in the article and invites people to leave comments)
If you split the blog post into several parts, it’ll be easier to find info for the specific sections. What’s more, it’ll be easier for readers to understand what you are saying.
So, make sure that your paragraphs aren’t too long. And that your posts are strongly structured. That’s really important.
Using H1, H2, H3 tags is recommended, especially if your article is lengthy.
There may be errors in the sentence structure. Maybe you’ve got incomplete sentences. Or perhaps you haven’t joined two clauses in the correct grammatical manner.
Don’t worry because errors of this kind can be solved right away. There are many grammar and punctuation tools which you can use to your advantage, such as GrabMyEssay.
Pick A Great Title & Make the URL Consistent
Decide on a good title for your blog post. You have only a few seconds to grab user’s attention and transform them into readers, so there’s a great deal of pressure.
It doesn’t matter if you write a great article. If the title doesn’t get read, the blog post won’t get read either.
The title will inform people what the post is about and raise interest. Start with a draft. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to guide your article.
If you take a quick look at the most popular blog posts on the Web, you’ll see that they contain one or more of the following elements:
- Information & numbers
- Problems
- Thirst for knowledge
- Authority
- Social proof
- Fear of missing out
Try to incorporate at least one of these essential ingredients into the title of your article.
Keep in mind that a good title shouldn’t have more than 60 characters, and it should include a keyword.
When you’re done, create a unique URL with a post title. Make the URL shorter by eliminating unnecessary words.
If you have a WordPress site, you’ll need to change the permalink structure.
Pay Attention to the Length of Your Articles
According to the experts at the well-known blogging platform Medium, the ideal length for any piece of online writing is 1,600 words. This is the equivalent of 7 minutes of reading.
Blog posts that contain more than 1,500 words have higher chances of being shared on Instagram and Facebook.
Google, in particular, likes long articles.
However, don’t make your blog posts 3000 words long. You might just scare users away. If you’re not exactly a skilled writer, don’t even try.
If you type without stopping even for a second, you’ll have your article done in no time. Yes, but is it worth it? It’s better to have a well-researched article than to have a longer one that doesn’t really say anything.
More words do translate into more keyword raking opportunities, but that doesn’t mean that you should exaggerate.
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Attention needs to be paid to the fact that readers only read a quarter of a blog post, so they don’t ready from beginning to end.
Think about making your articles more engaging. Include images, infographics, charts, GIFs, etc. Basically, anything you can think of.
It only takes a couple of minutes to transform a plain text into one that engages readers and pulls them in.
Make A Habit of Creating Internal Links
Internal links help you connect to previous content and let search engines understand the structure of your site. You should really get used to creating internal links.
If Google sees your site as being more valuable, you’ll rank higher in search engine results.
Find out what the ideal structure for your site is and what your most important content is.
Yet again, if you write about food and share recipes frequently, you can link to an article in which you discuss the benefits of Greek foods.
When you create an internal link, you must use an anchor text. This is the clickable text in the hyperlink.
Stuffing anchor texts is no longer practiced. What marketers do nowadays is to include one or two keywords that give an idea of what the page is about.
If you have your mindset on using images, specify an alternate text (Alt Text) for the images because Google, as well as other search engines, will use this text.
Search engines can now read the text, which is embedded in the images, and they do a pretty good job.
Let Other People Read Your Blog Posts
Don’t rush into publishing your blog posts.
It’s a good idea to have someone read them first. Your friends could lend a helping hand.
Ask them if it’s easy to grasp the main topic. Don’t shy to let them take a look at what you’ve been working on.
You need to know who others will react to your writing. Your friends represent the audience that you’d like to reach on a large scale, so it’s good to get their opinion.
Once your readability questions are answered, you should:
- Craft a meta description
- Add images
- Think of some clear CTAs
Final Words
Don’t go creating low-quality blog posts just for the sake of it. This will hurt your SEO efforts.
Search engine optimization involves creating content that is sharable, earns, backlinks, and ensures a high-quality user experience.
Now, you know what to do. I hope that this article helped you learn a thing or two about SEO.
