Writing a good blog post that includes solid information that draws in readers and also performs well on search engines isn’t as easy as it might seem. You might think that all you need to do is type up the information and make sure your article’s meta tags are optimized, but there’s much more to it than that! Today, we’re going to cover everything you need to know about how to write a good blog post for SEO. We’ll discuss what makes an effective article, why links are important, how long your posts should be, and much more!
Understand What Your Keyword Phrase Is
Whether it’s buying Adidas or SEO tips, understanding what you want to rank for will help guide your content decisions. You need your post topic, but you also need specific keywords the words people type into search engines when they are looking for information about your topic. These are called keyword phrases. You might have heard of long-tail keywords (for example, how to boil eggs instead of just eggs). The more specific and targeted your keyword phrase is, the better chance you have of ranking well in search engines. Keyword research is often considered one of the most important parts of an effective SEO strategy. The good news is that Google provides some excellent tools to assist with keyword research. Start by using Google AdWords Keyword Planner Tool. This tool allows you to enter a few different keywords related to your business and then gives suggestions on other related terms that may be useful as well. If you don't know where to start, try entering broad terms like business management or marketing strategies. You can then refine these terms by adding additional words around them until you find something that works for your business.
Create Compelling Content
While on-page factors account for roughly 50% of your overall search ranking, off-page factors make up the other half. Creating content that users will actually want to read (and share) is an important part of growing your site's authority in Google's eyes. The more popular your content becomes, the more likely you are to rank well in search results. To make sure that you're creating good content that drives traffic, try using Google Analytics (free) or SEMrush (paid) to track what types of content perform best with your audience. Once you've identified which type of posts lead to increased page views, shares, etc., you can use these tactics even more frequently when creating new posts. This will help you create great content without having to worry about its effectiveness—you'll already know it works!
Boost Engagement
When your post shows up in Google’s search results, you want it to stand out and encourage people to click through. Adding images is a great way to do that, but first, make sure that you have appropriate permissions. Unless you own or control all of the images on your site (including any images embedded from third-party sources like Flickr), then avoid using copyrighted content in your posts; not only does it run afoul of copyright law, but it will also come back to bite you if any legal action is taken against you. Use relevant stock photos or add an interesting quote instead.
Optimize Title Tags
As we’ve previously covered, title tags are one of Google’s most important ranking factors. A poorly optimized title tag might help drive traffic to your site, but it could negatively impact your rankings. On top of all that, you want your title tags to accurately represent what your post is about. As such, always include keywords (avoid keyword stuffing) in your titles and make sure they are long enough. One or two sentences are usually plenty; anything more might lead people away from clicking through to read further. If you can say it all in one sentence, do so—but again be wary of keyword stuffing (i.e., don’t put more than three important keywords in any given title). Also, keep your meta descriptions short and compelling. Again, having too much text here will likely cause searchers to click off rather than read on. For example, When writing your meta description for a new page on your website consider using strong call-to-action phrases like click here and find out now. The more enticing you make it sound when someone lands on that page with their mouse hovering over those words without actually clicking them, the more likely they will click the next time around.
Optimize Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions are usually meant to entice people to search on search engines, but they’re just as important for your site’s ranking as well. Make sure each of your site’s meta descriptions is clear, concise, contains keywords, and appears short enough (about 155 characters) so it doesn’t get cut off when users view your page in their search results. You can do all of that by creating enticing descriptions in Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. For more information on writing good meta descriptions, see Google's guidelines here.
Optimize Image Tags
Google can't read images, but it can use them in ways that help improve your search results. Keywords in image tags have been shown to improve your click-through rate by 20% or more. If you're using WordPress (or another content management system), adding keywords is easy. Just upload an image, right-click on it, select edit, then add a title/alt tag like you would any other piece of content—then make sure to optimize that alt tag as well as possible. This could be done with tools such as Moz's Open Site Explorer, which offers a free tool to check all of your site's SEO elements, including page titles and alt tags. Or, if you'd rather do it manually, here are some tips: Use long-tail keywords whenever possible. You want to include variations of common terms people might type into Google when looking for your product or service. Try to avoid repeating words unnecessarily; keep things short and sweet. Keep in mind that anything under 100 characters will be cut off by most web browsers so don't waste space with superfluous text just because you can fit it in there!
LinkBack to Yourself Where Appropriate
While it’s important not to overdo it when you’re trying to improve your search rankings, an effective way of attracting new readers is linking back to your own content. Doing so increases your odds of getting more traffic through social media shares or search engines. When posting links in articles, try linking back from within 100 words of a page URL as opposed to just using click here or reading more. The closer you get to read more, Google will see that as less relevant. It can also help with anchor text – rather than putting something simple like click here, mix up your anchor text by using variations such as this page, etc.
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