We often talk about the importance of blogging within your SEO strategy - the power of uploading regular, optimised content that gives your users helpful, valuable takeaways is immense. To make these frequent efforts worthwhile, we’re here to give you some top tips on optimising your blog posts for SEO, to make them work as hard as they can for your rankings.
TOP 10 tips for SEO friendly blogs
Do your research
Finding out what your audience are searching for is a key element of optimising your blog post - you can write the most detailed article in the world, but if no one’s looking for it, it will never be found; and it won’t make any difference in the SERPs.
Determine what topics you can talk about authoritatively, thinking carefully about the purpose it will serve to the user - what will they be able to do by the time they finish reading it?
Then, it’s time to do keyword research on tools such as Ahrefs or keyword keg around those topics, paying close attention to the search volume. A higher search volume means more people are searching for that keyword, so you’ve got a captive audience to get in front of with your blog.
Create a good blog title
As clever as pithy titles may seem, they do little to benefit your SEO, so concentrate more on including your keyword and making it clear what the blog is about. Blog posts that start with numbers perform well, for example, as do ‘Best X’ articles.
There’s no harm in creating a little intrigue, such as ‘What We Learned From X’ or ‘Top 5 X You May Not Know’, providing that ‘X’ makes the topic of the blog post clear.
Structure your blog properly
Once you’ve decided what you’re going to write about, and you’re confident on the keywords you need to include to stay relevant to your user, it’s time to plan out the article. Use the header tag hierarchy to make your content readable, and give Google some context as to what your blog article is about.
Be helpful, original and authoritative
Writing well-researched articles about what you know, providing it’s relevant to what you do, in order to answer the questions your users are asking is a winning formula. Google prioritises helpful content, so if it sees that not only are you an expert in your field, but that you’re using that know-how to give users valuable takeaways to help solve a problem or fill a gap in their knowledge, it gives you a better chance of rising through the rankings.
SEO is largely about being heard above the noise. Including some original material that users can’t find anywhere else, such as examples of your lived experience to demonstrate a relevant point. It strikes your blog out from the rest!
We go into more detail on this in our article about Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines.
Include your keywords
Do this - and we can’t stress this enough - naturally. They should occur organically as you write anyway, particularly in your headings, but in general take care not to overuse them, as this can be interpreted by Google as spammy.
Internally link to other content
If you refer to something that is mentioned on another page or blog post on your site, link to it within the blog post. Internal links tell Google how the structure of your site works, and what content to look at, so make sure to include them.
Add visuals
Google considers the whole user experience, so it's good SEO practice to make your post pretty, with images relevant to the topic - bonus points if they’re original!
Creating infographics is not only a good way to illustrate your point, but they also make your content more shareable. So, if you can, make some time to create those too.
Include a Call To Action
Whilst the purpose of your blog isn’t to sell, sell, sell, a call to action can create the next stepping stone on your user journey, which is all for the good in Google’s eyes. Make sure it’s relevant to the subject of the post, and ensure it links to an appropriate page on your site.
Make your meta description SEO-friendly
Your meta description displays under the main result on the SERPs, so you want it to describe what the post is about, whilst being inclusive of the main keyword, as Google reads these too!
Follow this formula regularly
As satisfying as it is to write, optimise and publish one blog post, it’s not a post-and-run approach that benefits your SEO - regularly following this process will give Google fresh pages to crawl, reminding them that your site is alive, kicking, and providing value to searchers.
Need help with your blogs?
From backlinks to boosted domain authority, the benefits of blogging are not to be passed up - they’re an essential part of your SEO strategy. If you’re still baffled by blogs, don’t have the time to create them, or writing’s just not your thing, working with an SEO agency like ours means that your website doesn’t miss out. We’ll work together with you to determine what your audience needs to read, and create it in a way that makes it irresistible to Google too. So if you need some assistance, get in touch with the 427 team today.