Do you know that 68% of online experiences start with a search engine? That indicates that you must optimize your content for it. However, If you are new to SEO, it can be challenging to know where to start. It may even be a daunting task to understand all the P’s and Q’s.
Thankfully, this blog post has everything you need to write SEO-friendly blog posts. We’ll guide you through creating SEO-optimized content, followed by the top tips so you can enjoy the benefits of an organic search traffic boost.
So, what are we waiting for? Let’s learn how to write SEO friendly blog posts.
Table of Contents
What Is SEO-Optimized Content?
SEO-optimized content simply refers to content that you have optimized for search engines. It refers to content that is more likely to appear at the top in search results thanks to the various SEO tactics you use to make it rank. Typically, this involves using keywords, creating appealing and informative content, and connecting your content to relevant external resources.
It forms an important part of the content marketing process.
Read our blog on Copywriting vs Content Marketing.
How To Write SEO-Friendly Blog Posts?
Here’s a step-by-step guide to writing SEO optimized blog posts,
1. Perform Keyword Research for Blog Posts
If you want your blog posts to rank high in search engine results, you need to do keyword research. This will help you determine which keywords to target in your blog posts and how many times to use them. There are a few different ways to do keyword research, but the most important thing is to use a tool that allows you to see how many people are searching for a particular keyword. This will help you determine which keywords will most likely bring your blog traffic.
2. Understand Search Intent
Search intent refers to the reason behind the search a user makes. It is about what people are looking for when searching for a topic.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself while understanding the search intent:
- What is the person looking to achieve by typing in a certain query?
- Are they looking to buy something?
- To learn something?
- To be entertained?
Once you understand the search intent, you can optimize your content to better match what people are looking for, improving your ranking in the search results.
For example, if you’re writing a blog post about a new product, it’s important to include relevant keywords so that people looking to buy that product can find your post. However, if you’re writing a blog post about the history of that product, you’ll want to use different keywords and focus on providing information rather than selling something. Understanding search intent is an important part of SEO, so take some time to think about what people are looking for when they search for your topic.
3. Set Content Benchmarks
After you know the right target keywords and understand the search intent, you can head straight to writing the blog post, right? Well, actually, not. You first have to set the content benchmarks for your blog posts.
Some of them include the following:
- Word count
- Target keyword density
- Focus on a specific keyword or phrase
- Number of outbound links
- Number of images or videos
These are a few of the benchmarks you should set for your content. By ensuring that your content meets these standards, you can help improve your SEO and ensure that your website has a better chance of ranking high in search engine results pages.
Read about Content Marketing KPIs.
4. Create Your First Draft
At this stage, you can forget the SEO for a while and focus on creating content that covers the topic better than your competitors. Make sure the content is easy to understand so that the reader doesn’t need to put in extra effort to get your point. Be as comprehensive as possible so that the readers get glued to your post.
5. Optimize Your Content for SEO
After your draft is ready, you can switch the SEO mode on. It is now time to optimize your blog post for SEO. You can start by ensuring that you use keywords and phrases throughout your blog posts that are relevant to what people are searching for. Doing so will help them rank higher in search engine results, making it more likely that people will find and read your content.
In addition to using keywords, you can do several other things to optimize your blog posts for SEO. These include using descriptive titles and meta descriptions and including links to other relevant websites. By optimizing your blog posts for SEO, you can help ensure that they are seen by more people and generate more traffic for your website.
Tips To Write SEO-friendly blog posts
Here are tips on how to write SEO-friendly blog posts,
1. Think before you write
Before writing an SEO-friendly blog post, it’s important to take some time to think about what should go into it. First, you need to choose a topic that is both interesting and relevant to your target audience. Next, you need to do keyword research to find out what words and phrases people use to search for information on your topic. Investing time thinking about how to write the post can increase your chances of success and help you get more traffic to your site.
2. Create a structure for your post
There are a few key things to keep in mind when creating the structure of your blog post. As you already have a clear idea of what you want to write about, it is time to determine the overall theme of your post and the specific points you want to make. Once you have a general idea, you can start creating an outline of your post. This doesn’t have to be too detailed, but it should include the main sections or points you want to add.
Assuming you want a blog post about tips for living in a van:
- Introduction to van life and why it’s a popular choice for many people.
- Tips for making money while living in a van.
- How to make the most of van life, including enjoying the freedom and adventure that comes with it.
- Conclusion and summary of the main points.
Finally, you need to decide on the tone and style of your writing. This will come down to personal preference, but it’s important to ensure your writing is clear and easy to read. If you keep these things in mind, you’ll be well on your way to creating a great blog post!
3. Use paragraphs and headings
If you’re writing a blog post, it’s important to use paragraphs and headings to help structure your thoughts and make your writing more readable. Paragraphs help to break up your text and make it easier for readers to digest, while headings give them a way to quickly scan your article and find the information they’re looking for. Headings also make it easier to organize your thoughts as you’re writing, which can save you time and help you stay on track. So, if you’re wondering whether or not to use paragraphs and headings in your next blog post, the answer is a resounding yes!
For inspiration check these content marketing examples.
4. Keep your paragraphs short
When it comes to SEO-friendly blog posts, shorter paragraphs are better. This is because shorter paragraphs are easier for readers to digest and make it easier for search engines to index your content. Additionally, shorter paragraphs are easy to read and look more visually appealing, which can help keep readers engaged. So, aim for shorter paragraphs if you want your blog posts to be SEO-friendly and reader-friendly.
5. Use transition words
Transition words are a vital part of SEO-friendly blog posts. The list includes words like “Similarly’, ‘however’, ‘for example’ ‘Finally’ and many more. Using them helps create a flow and keeps readers engaged. Here are a few tips for using transition words in your blog posts:
- Use transition words at the beginning of paragraphs to introduce new ideas and summarize key points at the end of paragraphs.
- Try using them throughout the post to create a natural flow.
- Try to use different types of transition words to vary your language.
- Ensure that you don’t overuse transition words.
Read all about Content Marketing.
6. Use related keywords
Use main keywords in headings, subheaders, and alt descriptions to help search engines get to your page faster. These are the visible parts of your pages. In the world of search engine optimization (SEO), these details help Google (or any search engine, for that matter) get to the heart of your content. Search engine crawlers are intelligent pieces of software that crawl across websites, looking for optimized web pages. Adding relevant keywords in your blog post gives the crawlers something to get to and increases the chance they see that particular part of your page.
7. Write for humans, not search engines
One of the most important things to remember when writing blog posts is that you should write them for humans, not search engines. While it’s important to include keywords and phrases that will help your blog post rank higher in search engine results, stuffing it with too many keywords will make it difficult to read and could turn off your readers. Instead, focus on writing blog posts that are interesting, informative, and well-written. If you do that, the search engine algorithms will take care of the rest.
8. Use easy to understand language
SEO-friendly blog posts should be easy to understand for a variety of reasons. First, readers are more likely to continue reading easy-to-understand articles and share them. Your articles will reach a wider audience, which is good for your website’s SEO.
Additionally, easy-to-understand articles are more likely to rank higher on search engines. This is because search engines favor well-written and informative articles. The ones that are easy to understand are more likely to meet those criteria.
Finally, articles that are easy to understand are more likely to get links from other websites. This is valuable because links from high-quality websites are one of the main factors that search engines use to rank websites. So, if you want your website to have a good SEO ranking, it’s important to ensure your blog posts are easy to understand. You have to keep it in mind for effective content marketing.
9. Optimize the length of your article
Optimizing the length of the blog post is important. The lower limit is 300 words, but there is no upper limit. A long, well-written post is more likely to rank higher than a shorter one because it signals to search engines that the content is valuable and worth reading. In addition, a long post gives you more opportunities to include keywords and other SEO-friendly elements, which can further improve your ranking. If you’re looking to improve your SEO, it’s worth optimizing the length of your blog posts.
Read about good content marketing.
10. Try making content skimmable
If you want your content to be SEO-friendly, one of the best things you can do is make it skimmable. That means breaking your text into smaller paragraphs, using headlines and subheadings, and adding bullet points or numbered lists. This makes your content easier to read and more likely to be shared by others. It also makes it more likely that people will find your content when they search for keywords related to your topic.
11. Check For Grammatical Mistakes & Plagiarism
There are two main reasons why you should check blog posts for grammatical mistakes and plagiarism. First, errors in your blog posts can make your brand appear unprofessional and turn off potential customers or clients. Second, plagiarism can lead to search engine penalties, hurting your website’s ranking and visibility. Therefore, checking for grammatical mistakes and plagiarism is essential for maintaining a professional online presence and ensuring that your website performs well in search results.
12. Avoid keyword stuffing
One of the most common mistakes people make when optimizing their website for search engines is keyword stuffing. This is the practice of cramming as many keywords into your website as possible, regardless of whether they make sense or not. Not only does this make your website difficult to read, but it can also hurt your search engine ranking.
Google and other search engines penalize websites that engage in keyword stuffing, so it’s important to avoid this if you want your website to be successful. Instead, focus on creating quality content that uses your keywords naturally. This will not only help your website rank higher but also make it more likely that people will actually want to read what you have to say.
13. Link to your existing content
Internal linking is one of the best ways to improve your blog’s SEO. Internal links are links from one of your blog posts to another post on your blog. They help readers navigate your blog and find related content. They also help search engines crawl your site and understand your content.
When adding internal links to your blog posts, there are a few things to bear in mind.
First, make sure the links make sense in the context of the post. Don’t force them in just for the sake of SEO.
Second, use keyword-rich anchor text for your links. This will help search engines understand what the linked-to page is about.
Finally, don’t overdo it.
A few well-placed links will do more for your SEO than a dozen random links.
14. Add content regularly
You can improve your blog’s SEO by adding fresh content regularly. This could mean writing new blog posts, adding new pages to your website, or even updating existing content. Whatever you do, make sure you’re adding something new regularly, as this will help keep your blog relevant and improve your chances of ranking high in search engine results. It is one of the best content marketing tips around. In addition to adding new content, you should also promote your blog regularly on social media and other websites. This will help drive traffic to your site and improve your SEO further.
15. Keep updating content
If you want your blog posts to rank highly in search engines, it’s important to keep them updated with fresh, relevant content. This doesn’t mean you need to rewrite your entire blog every month, but it does mean you should regularly add new information to your posts. This could include new statistics, data, research, or personal experiences. By keeping your blog posts up-to-date, you’ll ensure that they remain relevant and interesting to readers and continue to rank well in search engines.
Read our Content Marketing Guide.
Set Out On a Journey To Create SEO-Friendly Blog Posts
You saw what it takes to create SEO-friendly blog posts, and you know that it is the need of the hour if you want to make your brand’s presence felt. Ranking on the first page of search engines is a must to get the maximum traffic which is why you have to invest time and effort to optimize your blog posts for search engines (we mainly mean Google ;))
Hopefully you now know how to write SEO-friendly blog posts!
Try following the tips above and see how you start competing with the leading websites. Once you strengthen your SEO content strategy, you can see a tremendous increase in traffic, which can help boost your business.
FAQs
To make your blog post SEO-friendly, choose a keyword you want to rank for & include it in your post, ensure your post is free of errors, and include relevant images & videos to break up the text to make it appealing.
Your blog post SEO checklist must include the following: use of transition words, use of related keywords, proofreading, avoiding keyword stuffing, links to existing blog content, and regular publishing of blog posts.
Yes, blogging can help with SEO. This is because when you blog, you create new content that search engines can find. Furthermore, your blog posts include keywords that will help you get more traffic to your website through search.