Want to master your content strategy and boost your organic traffic hits? Well, here’s your easy guide to help you create SEO-friendly blog posts.
If you’re tired of pouring your heart and soul into blog posts that barely get any views, then fear not, dear reader, for the secrets to help you create SEO-friendly blog posts are easier than you may think.
As a savvy business owner, marketer or website owner, you know that a well-crafted blog post can help boost your online presence and establish your authority in the digital realm of your niche. But if you’re not optimising your content for search engines, you could be seriously missing out on a ton of potential organic SEO traffic.
That’s why we’re here to help you level up your blogging game with these simple and effective tips for creating SEO-friendly blog posts to maximise your organic, targeted search traffic.
Table of Contents:
- Plan Your Post Using Keyword Research
- Create Topic Clusters
- Form an Internal Linking Strategy
- Use Schema to Create SEO Friendly Blog Posts
- Create a Meaningful Blog Structure Using Headings and Subheadings
- Include a Table of Contents
- Ensure Your Content is Long Enough
- Use Natural Language
- Optimize Older Blog Posts
1. Plan Your Post Using Keyword Research
Identify relevant long-tail keywords and use them in your content to target your audience effectively.
When it comes to improving your blog post’s SEO, choosing a specific long-tailed keyword is a crucial step and basically, you want to make this keyword the star of your post. Long-tailed keywords are longer phrases that are more specific and typically have less competition. This is because they are narrowed down to a specific niche topic.
To get started with your research, a good trick is to use a frequently asked question that your customers might be curious about as your keyphrase. For instance, if you’re writing about how to create SEO-friendly blog posts, you could use “how to create SEO-friendly blog posts” as your main focus keyword. This will help you attract the right audience and boost your rankings on search engines. If you get stuck, you can also use tools like Answer the Public to help you research popularly searched questions concerning the topic you want to blog about.
Choosing the right focus keywords for your blog post is crucial for improving its SEO and once you’ve identified your key phrases, it’s important to use them effectively throughout your content. Here are some tips to help you make the most of your focus keywords:
- Choose 1-3 focus keywords for your post: Limiting the number of focus keywords helps you stay on track with your content while making it easier for search engines to understand what your post is about.
- Use your keywords naturally: Don’t overstuff your content with focus keywords. Use them organically and only where it makes sense. Remember, quality content always comes first.
- Include variations of your keywords: Utilize variations of your focus keywords to improve your content’s relevancy and search engine visibility.
- Add your keywords in the first 100-150 words: Placing your focus keywords in the opening paragraphs of your blog post helps search engines understand the context of your content and can improve your rankings.
By implementing these tips, you can optimize your blog post with focus keywords to improve its search engine ranking and attract the right audience.
2. Create Topic Clusters
Group related content into clusters and interlink them to help search engines understand your website’s structure and content.
Topic clusters are a relatively new concept in creating SEO-friendly blog posts, but they’ve been gaining traction recently. According to research by HubSpot, they’re highly effective.
The idea behind topic clusters is to create one pillar content page that covers a broad topic and several cluster content pages that focus on individual long-tail keywords related to that topic. By linking these pages together, you create a clear structure for your blog that makes it easy for search engines to crawl and understand.
Creating topic clusters might sound overwhelming, but it can be relatively simple. Start by choosing the broad topics you want to rank for, and then create a pillar page that outlines each topic. From there, develop cluster content pages based on relevant long-tail keywords.
This approach not only helps you generate high-quality content, but it also improves your blog’s overall structure and internal linking strategy.
3. Form an Internal Linking Strategy
Add links to other relevant pages within your website to help users navigate easily and improve your website’s authority.
Internal links are links within your post that direct readers to other parts of your website or blog.
Why is this important? Well, internal links keep readers on your site longer while helping boost the authority of your web pages by promoting other relevant content that you’ve previously created.
It’s an easy way to keep your readers interested and engaged with your content, improving their overall experience on your site and decreasing bounce rate.
4. Use Schema to Create SEO Friendly Blog Posts
Implement schema markup to help search engines better understand the content of your website and display rich snippets in search results.
Schema is an essential tool for creating SEO-friendly blog posts. It’s basically code that tells search engines what your content is all about by providing them with a clear, structured way to identify the key information on your page.
Google provides a free structured data tool that can help you create and validate your schema markup. However, if you’re not familiar with the technical aspects of schema, it may be necessary to work with a developer.
Implementing schema markup can significantly improve your chances of being featured in a Google featured snippet which are highly visible and valuable, as they appear right at the top of the search engine.
5. Create a Meaningful Blog Structure With Headings and Subheadings
Organize your content with clear and concise headings and subheadings to improve readability and make it easy for readers to navigate.
The title tag is an essential component of a blog post as it communicates the relevance of the post to search engines and users. For SEO-friendly blog posts, it is recommended to incorporate the focus keyphrase in both the title tag and the H1 tag.
Additionally, headings and subheadings should be utilized to create a clear and organized structure for both users and search engines and keywords should be thoughtfully incorporated into headings where appropriate. Recent studies suggest that using the question form of your focus key-phrase in an H2 heading can boost your chances of appearing in a featured snippet – prime real estate on the search results page.
6. Create a Table of Contents
Make it easier for readers to navigate your content by including a Table of Contents at the top of your blog post.
Including a table of contents at the top of your blog post (like we’ve done above) is a simple and effective way to improve your post’s SEO. By including your headings in the table of contents, you increase the keyword density along with making your post easier for your audience to digest.
Additionally, using section links in your table of contents also creates a better user experience by allowing readers to easily find and navigate to the information they’re looking for. Take a look at the example at the beginning of this post to get an idea of how it’s done.
7. Ensure Your Blog is Long Enough
Write in-depth, informative blog posts that provide value to your audience and satisfy search engine algorithms.
“What is the ideal length for a blog post?” has been a subject of ongoing debate among SEO experts for a while. The (commonly) recommended length is 1200 words, although I would suggest that quality is always more important than quantity. Keep your blog post comprehensive and informative and always strive to provide value to your readers. Include detailed explanations and imagery where appropriate, but avoid adding irrelevant content. Remember, as with keywords, quality should always take priority over quantity.
8. Use Natural Language
Write your blog posts using a conversational tone to engage readers and make your content more accessible.
To ensure that your blog posts are readable by both humans and search engines, it’s important to write in a conversational tone, as if you were talking to a friend. Here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Avoid using too much industry jargon that might confuse your readers.
- Limit the use of difficult words, especially those with four or more syllables.
- Use transition words to help your writing flow smoothly.
- Avoid using too many abbreviations that your readers might not be familiar with.
- Use tools like Yoast to check the readability of your content.
- Keep your paragraphs clear and concise.
9. Optimise Older Blog Posts
Keep your old blog posts updated with fresh information and internal links to improve their visibility and relevance.
It’s important to remember your previously published blog posts. Take the time to revisit them and see if there are any opportunities to optimize them for SEO. This could include adding new internal links to more recent content and identifying areas where your SEO strategy could be improved. Keep track of their search engine rankings to see where you stand. If the content is outdated, consider updating it and republishing it with a note indicating the original publication date and the updated date.
If you want more guidance to help you create SEO friendly blog posts, check out some more of our articles and if you get really stuck, feel free to reach out to get some expert help.
