If an SEO friendly blog post, let alone an SEO friendly blog page, feels out of reach, you’ll be pleased to know that all it takes is a little planning and intentional research. You’ve got this.
The Playing Field
Since the earliest print magazines, independent writers have worried about whether or not their copy would ever reach an audience. Today, anyone can publish their writing online as a blog for everyone to see, but the challenge of actually reaching a wide audience remains. It requires effort and forethought to write SEO friendly blog posts that solicit a considerable readership.
An overwhelming portion of customers find their products and services exclusively online, using search engines like Google and Bing; this makes it absolutely necessary that you understand as a business owner, how to optimize your content for maximal reach on these platforms.
Crafting content that will show up in search engine results is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. It may sound like a lot of programming and HTML, but actually, optimization primarily relies on the proper sourcing and formatting of your blog’s content.
Check Out These 5 Tips on How to Write SEO Friendly Blogs
Structuring content for optimized, SEO friendly blog posts is as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5:
1. Prepare a Strong Outline Based On Search Intent
Writing business blogs is all about predicting what your customer base wants to know. Start the writing process by asking yourself what your customers are asking.
What are they typing into the search bar? What are they trying to find that my business can provide?
Make sure that your content has a clear purpose that satisfies the search intent of your audience. This might be explaining a term, promoting a product, or providing instructions.
Type in a few searches of your own, and notice the websites that come up. Think about their structure; then write up a simple outline of your own. You can use these guidelines:
- Start with a one-sentence summary of the blog’s purpose around which to build the introduction. Consider shortening this and implementing it into your title.
- Prepare at least three specific instructions, arguments, or clarifications you want to make in the body of the post.
- Finally, develop a call-to-action for the conclusion that complements or satisfies the search intent you’re focusing on.
Preparing this draft will ensure your blog is concise, focused, and has a reason to show up in your audience’s search results.
2. Conduct Thorough Keyword Research
This step should be done in tandem with your drafting. It’s okay to start with a hunch when predicting search intent and search queries, but you don’t want to rely solely on guesswork: relevant keywords are one of the primary identifiers search engines look for when processing search results.
Google Trends can be an excellent starting point. Type your search hunches into their browser for a breakdown of the phrase and an analysis of each term’s popularity.
Another free tool is Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest. With it, you can find:
- The best performing keywords on your competitors’ websites
- The top SEO pages for searched keywords
- Further keyword suggestions based on your searches
Take note of the keywords you find through this research, and use them while preparing your outline. List them at the top of your editing document, and refer to them as you write.
3. Separate Your Thoughts With Subheadings
Use your outline to develop straightforward subheadings that will summarize each major point in your blog post.
Clear subheadings help search engines understand what the content of your page is about. When Google crawls your page (scans it to see how well it applies to search results) the subheadings help inform the “crawlers” about the writing that follows, just as they do any other reader.
If a blog’s content appears consistent and comprehensible to the crawler, it will mark the post as relevant, which will lead to a higher ranking in search results.
It’s important to note that mindlessly plugging keywords into subheadings is not going to make them stand out to search engines. Using headers for SEO is about making your content clear; it is not a trick to make your keywords more powerful.
4. Link to Reliable, Recently Updated Webpages
The exact criteria that search engines use to determine a website’s ranking is intentionally undisclosed, but we do know that links play an important role.
It’s good practice to encourage others to share inbound links to your content, but it is vital that you share internal and external links on your blog too. Internal links direct readers to other pages on your website, while external links direct them to websites other than your own. You should aim to include three to five of each type of link in every blog post or one of each for every 250 words.
Of course, internal links help readers find more of your content; less obviously, external links help establish your credibility. Search engines will note if websites are promoting high-quality or low-quality links; linking to buggy websites that don’t perform well hurts SEO.
High-quality websites share high-quality links, so make sure your external links lead to relevant content from trusted sources. Aim for pages and posts that have been updated within the last year or two.
5. Shorten Paragraphs and Adjust Keywords
Once you’ve drafted a complete blog post, take a moment to revise it for optimal readability. An SEO friendly blog is nothing if it can’t be easily understood.
You might be used to writing longer paragraphs, suitable for other types of works, but these are harder on the eyes. And this increase in reader strain can lose you viewers.
Once you’ve trimmed, double-check for keywords. Don’t force keywords where they don’t belong, but ensure that you’ve constructed content in such a way that naturally incorporates them throughout. Excessive and/or meaningless use of keywords, or “keyword stuffing”, will damage performance.
Go Forth and Rank Highly, With SEO Friendly Blog Posts!
With these five steps, you will be able to consistently write SEO friendly blog posts. Combine this with regular WordPress maintenance and a strong meta-description and you’re well on your way to a high-ranking blog!
