Simple SEO Tips for
Your Next Blog
Writing blog posts and writing for SEO purposes are two skills that may seem worlds apart. However, you can write a blog post that is both SEO friendly and interesting for your readers. Read on to learn some simple tips you can follow for your next blog post.
Conduct Keyword Research
For your blog post to dominate the search engine results pages, you must know the keywords you need to use and what you should write about. Therefore, do some keyword research and have a list of a few keywords you will focus on in your post.
Think about the central idea of your blog post, the purpose of the post, and what you would want your readers to do at the end. Think of the reader's search intent to help you figure out the main theme or central idea. An easy way to understand search intent is to type in the focus keyword in the search tab and look at the results.
Write an Outline
A readable blog post has a clear structure that the readers can follow. Your blog posts should have these three parts:
- A paragraph that introduces the topic
- A section where you write your main message
- A conclusion that summarizes your ideas
An easy way to figure out your structure is to write down what you will include in all those three sections.
Use Paragraphs and Headings
To write proper paragraphs, ensure the sections are long enough. Furthermore, each paragraph should have a single main idea that you can summarize into a single sentence. If you cannot summarize the idea, you can use more paragraphs to explain the different ideas.
You should also use proper headings so readers can understand specific parts of your post. Subheadings help people find their way through a blog post and clarify the post's structure.
However, the importance of subheadings goes beyond readability. Subheadings are good for SEO too. Use some keywords in your subheadings, but avoid stuffing the keywords into the subheadings, as your text will look unnatural and clunky and kill reader interest.
Use Transition Words and Related Keywords
Transition words are a great way to help your readers understand the relationship between paragraphs and make connections between your ideas. Words like "similarly," "however," and "furthermore," and phrases like "in conclusion" give signals to and allow your readers to follow the text naturally.
Furthermore, apart from your focus keywords, you can use related keywords within your text. Related keywords prevent you from keyword stuffing that puts off readers. Remember, as Google becomes more intelligent, the search engine penalizes black-hat SEO techniques such as keyword stuffing.
Use Internal Links
You may have written content on the same or a topic related to your current blog post. In such cases, you can link to these posts to establish authority on the subject. Furthermore, your readers may be interested in reading the related posts.
Internal links are also crucial for your Google rankings as the links help Google understand the relationship between content on different pages of your site.
Optimize Blog Post Length
Blog posts can be as little as 300 words long. Your post can be more than 300 words, but not so long that the post bores the readers. Ideally, you should write long blog posts if you are a skilled writer with in-depth knowledge of the subject.
Update Content Regularly
When you update content to your blog regularly, Google understands that your website is active. Google regularly crawls active blogs and may rank active blogs better than inactive ones. Ensure you post reader-worthy, high-quality blog content that matches your readers' search intent. You can create an editorial calendar for your blog to help you publish regularly.
While these tips can help you figure out how to write blog posts, you need to talk to a professional to establish a proper SEO plan for your business needs. Contact us at Aronson Hecht Agency for your blog and SEO strategy.