This article will teach you how to write SEO-friendly posts for your blog.
Writing blog posts that have high visibility is a great way to get organic traffic to your website, but it can be difficult to know where to start.
Do you want more people to find your blog posts? Then, you need to make sure that you include search engine optimization (SEO) as part of your blogging strategies.
Did you know that most online search traffic is organic? This is one of the main reasons learning how to write for SEO is essential for bloggers.
Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts
If you want your blog posts to be easier to find for search engines, there are few things you should keep in mind.
Firstly, SEO takes a long time to learn. You won’t get the hang of all of it overnight.
The topic of SEO comprises a very large number of practices you can use to improve your blog or site.
One thing to always keep in mind is that you are writing for people and search engines. Yes, your readers are THE most important part of the equation, but they need to be able to find your content.
With SEO, you can make your site visible so that engines can deliver your content to its intended audience.
Here are some tips that will increase visibility and boost traffic for your website.
Research Relevant Keywords
Researching relevant keywords is one of the most important steps when writing an SEO-friendly blog post.
When researching keywords, look for words or phrases that are commonly used in searches related to your topic.
Once you have identified the keywords you want to include in your blog post, use them throughout the article in a natural and meaningful way. This means you should avoid keyword stuffing – loading your blog post with your targeted keywords.
Keyword stuffing will have the opposite effect you’re looking for. If you over use them, you could lower your rankings. Search engines don’t want you to use keywords to spam!
If you need some tips on keyword research, we have a useful step-by-step keyword guide to direct you in this process.
Optimize Your Headlines
Headlines are important because they help capture the attention of readers and draw them into the content.
Great headlines can also improve SEO and help you land on the top pages of search engines.
To optimize your headlines for SEO, make sure that they contain keywords related to your topic. Avoid words not many people use, unless you are using strategically.
To improve your headlines, you can also add a call-to-action phrase that encourages readers to click through and read more.
Additionally, headlines should be short, snappy and concise. Lengthy headlines can easily become lost in search results. They can also cause readers to lose interest before they even reach the body of your post.
Use Headings Correctly
If you are writing blog posts with more than 300 words, you should be using headings or heading tags.
Using headings correctly can give structure to your posts and make them easier to understand.
Having an organized post allows users to find what they’re looking for quickly! This can increase user retention and lower your bounce rates.
Headings also create a hierarchy. You should use them to go from the most important to the least important topic you cover on the blog post.
Your article should always start with the H1 heading. This is used for the main title of your blog post. This heading is only used once.
Break down your subtopics using your H2, H3, H4s and so on (in logical order of importance and only used as needed).
The deeper you go into a general topic, the deeper you go into your headings. You can use them all the way down to H6, though this is uncommon.
Take a look at this outline to guide you:
In addition to improving the accessibility and organization of your site, headings can serve to boost your SEO rankings (though this happens indirectly).
Remember to always include your main and secondary keywords as part of your heading tags in order to further boost your rankings.
Break Down Longer Posts
First off, remember that you don’t have to write all of your blog posts in long form.
You can mix up and publish different blog post lengths to cater to people with short(er) attention spans. Your content should also match the intent of the visitor by quickly providing the information they’re looking for.
Long blog posts are great for SEO because they include more information. However, in order for these posts to actually work, they should be valuable to the reader and match their search intent.
One of the downsides of publishing long form content all the time is that it can become overwhelming for your visitors. This is yet another reason to include some shorter posts in your editorial calendar rotation.
When you do publish long posts, you should make them easy to read and scan, not just for your readers, but for search engines as well.
Some ways to make your posts more readable are:
- Breaking up long paragraphs (2-3 sentences per paragraph is ideal)
- Always using line breaks to make content scannable and digestible
- Including numbers and bullet points
Link Internally & Externally
Your blog posts should always include internal and external links. Both types of links are vital for SEO purposes.
If your blog or site is small (you have less than 500 pages published), you should properly connect all your pages with internal links.
When your pages are linked correctly, Google can quickly discover and index your content.
Internal linking can give search engines a clear idea of how your blog or site is structured.
Internal links refer to links within your own website while external links refer to linking out from your website.
When linking internally, link back to other relevant posts on your site so that users can explore more content related to what they just read without having to leave your website entirely.
External links on your blog should link back to credible sources such as news articles or industry reports. This sources gives readers the option to explore additional information about a topic if desired.
Linking externally will also help build trust with readers who may be new visitors on your site. It shows them that you take research seriously!
Additionally, both types of links, internal and external, will increase user engagement time on each page. This will boost overall rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Optimize Your Anchor Text to Make Blog Posts SEO-Friendly
Another tip when creating links on your blog is to optimize your anchor text.
The anchor text refers to the clickable words that make up the links. This text usually appears in a different color (usually blue) and it changes to a different color when the cursor hovers over it.
The anchor text for both your internal and external links should include names, keywords or descriptive phrases related to what people will find when they click the link.
You should avoid using generic phrases like “click here” or “read more.” These phrases don’t provide any important information to the reader when used for links within the body of your post. It’s fine to use them for buttons, unless you want to optimize those with more specific phrases as well.
Make Images SEO-Friendly for Blog Posts
Blog images and visuals are a key part of your blog and should be optimized to make them as SEO-friendly as possible.
You don’t want large or heavy visuals to slow down your site!
Images that take too long to load can be very frustrating for readers and cause them to leave.
Did you know that one in two visitors abandon a page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load?
We wrote a post that can teach you how to optimize your blog images so you can improve your page speed (and the overall experience of your visitors).
Summary on Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts
Writing blog posts optimized for SEO is an essential part of increasing organic traffic from search engines like Google and Bing.
Make time to research relevant keywords and optimize headlines with call-to-action phrases. Use headings correctly and always link both internally and externally within each post you write. And or course, don’t forget to optimize your images to improve user experience.
When you use SEO to your advantage, you ensure each piece of content you publish has the best chance at being seen by potential readers!
With these tips in mind, take some time today and start optimizing your blog posts!
Make it a habit to go back and edit older posts every now and then to make them more friendly for SEO.
You’ll be glad you did when you start seeing increased organic traffic coming through soon after publication!