Wanna learn how to write SEO friendly blog posts?
Writing optimized blog posts that ranks is a complex process unless you follow these simple steps provided by our magicians.
Content marketing is an ever growing industry which holds massive potential to make or break a business. In 2021, people like to research information on the internet before purchasing a service or product.
Blog posts acts as the top channel in the funnel where you have potential to capture a customer in their research phase. Suppose, I want to get my taxes done. Obviously, I would hop on to Google and search for a few terms like;
- How can I reduce my taxes?
- How to find a good accountant?
- Do we need to include crypto in our tax returns?
- Blah blah!
Just imagine, how easy would it be for your brand to create the trust factor if your brand is visible in all of those terms. This is the power of writing SEO friendly blog post that ranks.
One thing I want to make clear: An SEO friendly blog post is also a user friendly blog post.
But why?
Google is a business that likes to provide the most relevant resources to its users. So, if your blog post provides the most value you would have less bounce rate, people are likely to be satisfied with the information provided, and you can also get backlinks from top website naturally. That’s what search engines (mostly Google) likes, isn’t it?
Obviously there being user friendly alone will not guarantee rankings if your website has technical problems that stops it from getting ranked. But, under normal circumstances, providing the most value to the users, in short, keeping consumers in mind while writing a blog post would ensure maximum benefit.
So, what we can learn from the above statement is; getting ranked on Google my simply following the below mentioned guidelines may be possible. However, unless your content provides maximum value to the consumers, you are likely to not get any benefit as well.
What is SEO friendly Blog Post?
I would say a SEO friendly blog post is something that provides maximum value to the consumers and is good in the eyes of bots that crawl your website as well.
You may write the best blog post, however, due to technical problems might not even get close to getting ranked.
In the other hand, you may optimize your blog post very well, but unless your blog post is relevant to the user and provides value, you have very low chances on Google.
How to Write SEO Friendly Blog Post?
Writing SEO friendly blog post is all about creating that balance between providing value and looking the best in front of the eyes of bots that crawl your website. You can follow the tips below to help yourself write a SEO friendly blog post.
15 Tips on Writing SEO Friendly Blog Posts
Writing SEO friendly blog post is a time taking task. You are writing for humans to engage and see, as well as writing a blog post that a bot (Google crawl bot) understands as well.
Before any delays, here we present you 15 tips on writing blog posts that ranks on search engine;
Before writing
1. Start with keyword research
Google is estimated to process over 70,000 search queries per second. Staggering, isn’t it?
If you want to cut through the SERP clutter and outrank your competitors, you must target the exact keywords and phrases that your potential customers use. Otherwise, how will your content and website be discovered?
Begin by using a keyword research tool. Sites such as Ahrefs and Google Keyword Planner provide information about what users are searching for and the popularity of those searches.
2. Think about keyword intention
Ask yourself you were to search that keyword on Google, what would you expect to get ranked on the first page. Just to remind you again; Google would only rank you if they think you are better than anybody else for that keyword.
You can expect to target keyword like, “buy Nike shoes” and write a blog post on it. Obviously, you might get ranked for that keyword if you are lucky with the competition. However, an ideal page that should rank for that keyword is the page where you are actually selling Nike shoes. If someone searches for “buy+ $$$” they are more likely to look for prices, delivery options, and more.
3. Look at the competitors that are ranking
Before you begin, consider your article’s message carefully. What are you trying to convey to your readers, or which central question are you attempting to address? What is your article’s purpose?
And what action do you want your readers to take at the page’s conclusion? Before you begin, jot down the answers to these questions and consider the search intent of a potential user. A simple way to determine this is to examine the search results for the search term for which you wish to rank.
4. Create a proper content structure
The following step is to outline your blog post’s structure. By structure, I mean defining the various sections of the post.
Dividing a blog post into multiple sections can assist with writing. It’s more efficient and faster to write 200 words to cover a specific section of the post than to attempt to write larger sections.
Creating a proper content structure would benefit in many ways; it will make it easier for one to write, someone would be able to skim correctly, also you are more likely to get displayed in featured snippets.
5. Utilize SEO writing tools
Now this is a tip that most of the blog article writers use. There are various kind of SEO writing tools that can help you out when it comes to creating blog posts that ranks. Some of those content writing tools are; Surfer SEO, Semrush content writing assistant, Yoast plugin, etc.
While writing
6. Optimize the length of the article
Maintain a minimum of 300 words in your blog posts, but keep the length of your article balanced. Google prefers lengthy articles; however, if your article is excessively lengthy, it may scare away readers. I would advise you to write lengthy articles only if you are confident in your ability as a writer.
When your post is lengthy, you’re asking a lot of your visitors to read it completely. If you’re unsure how long a blog post should be, check out this article. Additionally, remember to incorporate your focus keyword throughout your text to ensure that you create an SEO-friendly blog post!
7. Link internally to your existing blogs
If you’ve previously written content on the same subject as this one, don’t forget to link to and from these previous pieces. It will strengthen your new blog post, as well as existing ones, by demonstrating your authority on the subject.
Additionally, your link structure plays a role in your Google rankings. And, of course, linking to additional content on a subject benefits your readers, as they may be interested in reading these related posts as well. It assists them in navigating your website.
8. Use paragraph and headings
Everyone uses paragraphs, but not everyone does so effectively. Do not begin each new sentence on a new line just for the sake of aesthetics. Additionally, avoid making them too lengthy, as each paragraph should contain a distinct idea or subject.
Consider the central idea of each paragraph. You should be able to condense that central idea into a single sentence. If this is not possible and you require additional sentences to explain the central idea, simply add more paragraphs.
Proper headings also assist your readers in determining the purpose of a particular section of your text. If you want readers to navigate your articles, use subheadings to direct them, assist them in scanning your page, and clarify the article’s structure.
They’re critical not only for readability, but also for SEO. That is why I would also recommend including your keyword in a few subheadings. I mean some of them, as including your keyword in each heading will make the text clumsy and unnatural. This will discourage readers from continuing to read.
9. Optimize your blog for keywords
Including your target keywords (and variations) in your blog posts will not land you in trouble; in fact, it is highly recommended. In other words, avoid inserting keywords into the text for the sake of it; rather, do so only when it makes sense to do so.
Here is where you need to naturally use your target keyword in your blog post;
- Meta title and description of the article
- In the first paragraph
- The major heading tag (H1)
- In some of the sub heading tags
10. Keep your blog post exciting
You are writing for people to read and respond. Maintain the excitement, so that your content is engaging to the consumers. Allow someone else to read your post before publishing it. Inquire about their comprehension of the post’s central concept and invite them to correct any typos or grammatical errors.
This can assist you by providing an objective assessment of your text’s readability and attractiveness. If you have a member of your team who is an expert on the subject you’re writing about, run your post by them. This way, they can ensure that you’ve covered everything necessary and offer suggestions on how to improve your post.
11. Add images as necessary
If you are writing a blog post on, “Top 10 Australian theme wallpapers“, you can’t expect it to getting ranked without adding images. There is an easy way of determining, what type of picture you need and how many; just check the top 3 keywords for the following keywords.
Also, another thing that you need to keep in mind is; You’ll want to include alt text for any image you include in your post, whether it’s a featured image or a body image.
The alt text describes what is happening in the photo and explains to Google (and those who are visually impaired) why the photo is included in your post.
12. Add LSI keywords to articles
LSI keywords are those extra keywords that tells Google what an article is about. Google is becoming increasingly intelligent, and it wants you to create content that users will enjoy.
It does not require you to use your focus keyword in every sentence and has additional methods for determining the topic of your text. Google determines the subject of your text in part by identifying synonyms and other keywords that are related to your focus key phrase. That is why you should sprinkle your copy with synonyms and related keywords.
13. Optimize Meta title and description
Are you optimising your post’s meta description? If the answer is “no,” you are probably not maximising the exposure of your post. Let’s look at why they’re significant.
We’ve already discussed three methods for a blog post to communicate with Google: subheaders, keywords, and snippets. That is not, however, an exhaustive list.
Google also crawls meta descriptions to determine search rankings. Meta descriptions are the one- to three-sentence summaries that appear beneath a result’s title.
After writing
14. Regularly update content
Regularly updating your website’s blog posts informs Google that your site is still active. This is critical because if your site is inactive, Google will crawl it less frequently, which will affect your rankings negatively. However, avoid posting for the sake of it.
Assure that all content you publish is of a high quality: informative, well-written articles that entertain readers while also satisfying their search intent.
15. Write conclusion and ask people to engage
The optimization of blog post does not stop after you are done with the content. In order to ensure that your blog post ranks well for the days to come you need to constantly throw updated information to the blog post.
Also, asking people to engage helps in terms of visibility, building your brand, creates a trust factor and more. For example,
“What do you think about these tips, do you have any more tips we can add- Please write us on comments?”
Conclusion
This blog post’s takeaway lesson is as follows:
Prior to beginning a new post, spend some time conducting research and determining what to write about and what you hope to accomplish.
Adhere to the guidelines outlined above when writing SEO-friendly blog posts, and if you already have some that aren’t optimised, set aside some time to go back and make the necessary changes.
Create a publishing schedule that you can adhere to for an extended period of time.
If you’ve just begun learning SEO, don’t lose hope; results may be slow in the beginning, but if you continue to publish high-quality optimised content, traffic will eventually flow in.
