Blog SEO – Complete Guide to Optimizing & Promoting Your Blog

There has never been a time in the history of human beings that has seen the need for information as in the 21^st century. Unlike in the past, people want answers to their pressing questions. The funniest thing about this is people want these answers without making much effort. Yes, they want answers from the comfort of their couches.

Thankfully, their search for answers is made possible by the use of hand devices. By use of mobile gadgets, these people are able to access different websites that provide them with the kind of information they are searching for.

I bet that you do this from time to time when searching for information online. Perhaps you did so this morning when you wanted to know where you can hire a cab/taxi near you, where to rent an apartment or even information on the best iPhone with 4GB memory.

Whatever it is that you were looking for, you were definitely directed to a site that has the information you were looking for. Yes, blogs play a pivotal role in giving you detailed information on the subject you are interested in.

In this blog, we are not only talking about the importance of blogs but their part in SEO. Therefore, if you are a site owner, webpreneur or own any online business, pull your chair and let’s discuss how you can optimize your blogs for the search engine.

In addition, you will learn the various ingenious ways you can use to promote your blog. Without further ado, let’s start by defining some of the keywords we’ll discuss on this blog post.

What is Blog SEO?

Unlike basic blogging, which you can do for fun (when you feel you should write something), blog SEO involves optimizing the content of your blog for the search engine.

It means that starting from the time you write your blog, the structure you adapt, and the HTML code you include on your site structure are meant to be in line with the best SEO practices.

With that in mind, you should then include things such as on-page optimization, post interlinking, page speed improvement, and the installing of important plugins among other practices.

Unless you do these and other things that we’ll discuss later on this bog post, it would be hard to say that you blog is optimized for the search engine.

Besides, it would be hard to imagine that your blog or any of your content for that matter would be shared anywhere because readers cannot find it on the search engine.

 

Why is Blogging Important for SEO?

Without a doubt, the search engine is the number one source of traffic to any site. It’s true that some of the visitors who come to your site are referrals from friends and social media pages but it’d be wrong to downplay the role of the search engine.

A recent survey that involved 1000 bloggers revealed that while email marketing brought many visitors to their sites, the search engine featured among the top three traffic sources.

That alone indicates the role the search engine plays when it comes to giving your clients the information they are looking for.

Reasons Why Blogging is Important for SEO

As you can imagine, when done right, blogging for SEO can bring immeasurable benefits not just to your blog but to your online business.

Let’s now discuss a few important reasons why blogging is important for SEO.

Increases Organic Search

To be on record, approximately 80% of the people tend to ignore paid search results. As such, they prefer to click on results they deem organic. Without a doubt, it then means people, including your clients, are tired of manipulation.

All they want is organic results – the results they get from the internet upon doing a typical search from their devices.

Some people think that it’s hard for their content to reach as many people as possible without doing any form of marketing. However, studies show that it is very possible to hit thousands, even tens of thousands of organic traffic each month without spending a dime.

You can do this by employing the best SEO practices. We’ll discuss much about this later on this blog.

For now, it is enough to mention that with the best SEO blogging practices, you are able to increase the amount of traffic that comes to your website.

It is true that creating content that people want to read takes time and requires patience. However, if you take your time to immerse in your business, you will soon realize that you will become an expert in your niche.

A single blog that you took your time to write five years ago can bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to your site for many years than a blog you hastily wrote and perhaps spent hundreds of dollars in marketing it.

Helps You Create Fresh Content

One thing you need to know about consistent blogging is the more you create fresh content on your site, the frequent the search engine tends to index your site. Besides, the more you update your social media pages with fresh pictures, links, articles and downloads, the more the clicks, shares, and re-shares. This results in the search engine visiting your website more often.

The other benefit that comes with SEO blogging is the search engine loves updated content. Perhaps you’ve seen that the more you check on the highly visited content on your site, you often find a few mistakes.

I’m sure when you find the mistakes you do not sit back as if nothing happened. As you click on the ‘edit’ tab, correct the mistake(s) and maybe add something on the blog post and update, the search engine gives you a mark.

Yes, the search engine loves updated content.

You should also note that some parts of your site remain dormant for a long time. The Home Page, the Service Page, Privacy Policy (if any), the Contact Page, among other pages are usually dormant unless otherwise.

Therefore, when you keep updating your blogs and other parts of your site, you are simply telling the search engine that you are serious about your business. Besides, there is no better way to build lasting relationships with your readers than your continued publishing and updating of your site.

Word of caution: As you strive to observe consistent publishing, make sure you do not compromise on the quality of your blogs.

Helps you Build Credibility

If you have done blogging for some time now, there is no doubt that people associate you with certain business. Yes, it could be your business on air conditioning, gardening thanks to the gardening tips, landscaping, or even pet training.

Whatever it is that you engage yourself in online, people have already ‘tied’ you to what you talk to them about. That is how people build their credibility along the way. You too will be regarded as one if you do not quit.

Your blogs show authenticity and indicate the level of mastery for the topic. They will help you pass or fail the test that usually the search engine and the readers put you through.

With reputation and authoritative voice, you will soon start to get massive organic traffic to your site, something that would be hard to get from paid strategy.

When the search engine realizes that more people are not just attracted to your site but visit and spend their quality time, it raises your site authority.

You Attract Backlinks

With quality and consistent blogging, backlinks are inevitable. But you may ask, what are  backlinks? Well, a backlink is a link that is inserted in one website but connects to another website.

As a thumb rule; no site can connect to your blog naturally unless your site stands out as an authority. I mean it is common sense, even you, there is no way you can associate yourself with a crook. Instead, you would be comfortable to associate yourself with someone respectable, mannered, and reputable.

Besides, you will tend to associate yourself with someone who shares your values. It’s the same thing with building links.

Businesses will link to your site the moment they are able to ascertain that you know what you are talking about. Trust you me, nobody is going to put his/her business in jeopardy just for hearsay or because your site’s design looks awesome.

I’m sure, before they build natural links with your site, they would have studied your site for some time. In fact, some can take several months or even years before they settle on you. During that time, you should prove to them that you know what you are talking about by producing quality content.

Whether it is you linking to other respectable websites or it is other websites pointing to yours, the benefit is mutual. Visitors will still find your site, the search engine will continue to regard your site as an authority, rank it, and ostensibly increase your conversions if any.

 

Factors That Affect Blog SEO

Blog SEO does not come easy. You need to work for it. As such, several factors affect blog SEO. What are those?

1. Dwell Time

Dwell time may appear to be a minor factor when it comes to site ranking but it is a big thing in matters of user experience. Without a doubt, user experience is fundamental to SEO.  How better do you understand dwell time anyway?

Well, the term dwell time refers to the amount of time a reader spends on your site. It is measured from the moment the reader clicks on the post or page link, to the time the reader leaves the page, blog post or even the site.

Ideally, if the reader spends short time on your site, it tells the search engine that the reader did not find your site valuable enough. However, if the reader spends some amount of time on your site, the search engine resolves that the information proved to be beneficial to the reader.

In the end, the search engine uses those results to rank your site according to its performance.

Point to note: The longer the readers spend on your site, the more relevant the blog, page or site is to them.

That said, there is something else you need to beware of. Depending on your content structure, it may be hard for the search engine to understand your blog. That is why, the search engine considers ‘dwell time’ an indirect SEO indicator.

For instance, if you craft short blogs, let’s say 300 words or thereabout or write your articles in a such a way that makes it easy for your clients to find the answers fast, they will definitely not stay on your site for a long time.

As such, readers will visit your site, and within a few seconds, they are out not because they didn’t find what they were looking for but they actually got the answer to their pressing questions.

With this, it’d be hard for the search engine to consider their jerking as bouncing back or a satisfying endeavor. You can make this better by providing a more meaningful reason for your clients to stay on your site.

One of the best ways you can ensure clients stay longer on your site even with short content is doing proper interlinking.

2. Page Speed

Visual elements on your website can without a doubt affect your site’s page speed. However, that does not mean you are left without help. While raw images contribute to a sluggish site, other things carry weight.

Unnecessary plugins and codes on your blog can definitely slow your site. To start with, you need to edit raw images before you upload them on your site. Secondly, you can get rid of the unnecessary codes and plugins that cause a jam on your site.

Some people are overly obsessed with plugins, some of which promise to transform your site but honestly speaking, you do not need to fill your back end with dozens of plugins.

As you embark on cleaning your site for page speed, remove plugins that you do not use. Remain with those that you deem important – those that help in the day-to-day running of your website.

Plugins that are a threat, especially those that deal with the front-end should be dealt with as early as yesterday.

3. Mobile Responsiveness

Your site must be mobile responsive. No discussion about this! More than any other time in the history of man, people use their mobile gadgets to access the internet.

Apart from communication, people use their mobile devices to do shopping, search for information online, send, and receive payments.

Mobile phones have become a central part of our lives. A person traveling abroad can cancel a flight to pick his or her phone left behind. That is how important mobile gadgets have become.

With that in mind, then you know that readers should be able to access your site on their mobile devices.

“A half of Google’s search traffic in the US comes from people who use mobile devices,” says Google.

It is then reasonable to conclude that optimizing your website for mobile devices is inevitable. You can start with building your site on mobile-friendly themes, using light images, and definitely reducing the number of plugins on your site.

Your website’s font type and size are also key. Pick a font from mobile-friendly font families. If you do not know how this goes, talk to your developer about your fears and objectives.

Afterwards, do a regular page speed probe on mobile responsiveness using Google Analytics.

4. Index Date

The day you publish content on your site is important but indexing date is more important. The latter is the date the search engine crawls on your site and finds a new post. That day, the search engine marks a new item on its data.

A few days following indexing, the search engine embarks on yet another intriguing process of retrieving information from parts of your post and displaying it on the SERP. This is the message that pops up when a reader searches for the information online.

It is good to note that the search engine will not show up your site on the SERP if it deems the information on your site irrelevant. Of course, you need to ensure you do proper keyword research and write compelling articles if you want the search engine to work in your favor.

Date of Publishing and Date of Indexing: Are They the Same?

The simple answer is yes and no! If you publish a blog post for the first time, chances are the search engine will crawl and index the post the very day. However, in some incidents, for some reason, a blog post can be backdated. When this happens, the post’s publishing date and indexing date can differ greatly.

Some posts take a few days or several weeks before they are indexed. If your site has no major issues such as Google penalties, you have no reason to worry. Your posts will be indexed fast, allowing your readers to find what you have published for them.

You should also put in mind the issue of content updating. When you update an already published content, Google re-indexes the content. In this case, a strange scenario takes place within Google’s unique algorithms.

Instead of treating the content as fresh, the search engine simply updates parts of the blog. However, depending on your theme and structure of content, the post may show the date of update.

At the search engine’s backend, however, the content age does not change. Google knows that your blog post is aged thus accords the post it’s fair share of dignity, but also puts into consideration the newly-added ideas.

Whichever the case, your site tends to gain a lot from occasional updates. As mentioned earlier, your reader and the search engine love new information, revised views, and fresh ideas, which indicate that you remain informed, something that shows concern for your audience.

5. Recent Data

This point is related in one way or another with a few things that we have highlighted in the previous section. As it were, recent data acts as an SEO ranking factor, although indirectly. When you include recent data on your blog, you not only show that you stay informed but also indicate that you care about your audience.

Take the case of a blog post you did eight years ago that talked on a study conducted in 1970s. Although you gave a detailed information on how the study was conducted, who were involved, and the possible outcome, you cannot turn a blind eye if a new study has been done.

Possibly, the new study would involve more people, cover a large area and maybe, deliver different results. As such, it’d be prudent to inform your readers of the new development(s).

Turning a blind eye simply because the blog post continues to bring substantive amount of visitors to your site would be suicidal. If you do not provide an update of the study, your visitors will find out from someone else. They will abandon you soon or later.

Alternatively, if you do not want to update your blog post with up-to-date information, you can still provide a link to the new study. Your readers will appreciate the efforts. After all, isn’t one of your aims of blogging to inform your audience?

You would also be surprised that by choosing the latter method, you would be building backlinks. In other words, you would be telling the search engine that the other site also matters and that you trust its information.

Over time, you will see that your audience will see your site as a rich source of credible information. That would keep them coming to your site to look for something new.

In addition, you will also see that you will reduce your site’s bounce rate significantly.

 

How to Write Blog Posts for SEO?

As stated at the beginning of this blog post, blogging isn’t just about telling your audience what you know. It is about ensuring that the search engine finds your content before it passes it on to your audience – the intended user.

You are not wrong then when you think that it calls for a lot of work to write a blog post for SEO. Thankfully, you are not in the dark.

Here are some of the premium tips on how you can craft blog posts that stand out for the search engine:

1. Find a Keyword

By the time you are searching for the keyword, I’m sure you have decided and chosen your audience. Yes, I mean, before you stock your shop with new shoes, you already have in mind who is going to buy.

In other words, you have done your visibility study, if offline, and ascertained the people living in your area, their age, and perhaps gender. That way, it’d be easy to decide which brand of shoes they might like.

Away from the offline set up, it is time to know what keywords will attract readers. Trust you me, keyword research can be a daunting task. Thankfully, you can pay someone to do keyword research for you.

Expert tip: When finding the right keywords, go for those that have moderate search volume but with less keyword difficulty. You can use available tools (free or paid) when conducting your research.

In recent years, some webpreneurs have tried zero search volume (ZSV) keywords and they are reporting good results. You can try that and see how it turns out.

Whichever trick you use, ensure you conduct a thorough keyword research before you start to write.

2. Check Search Intent

This action goes hand in hand with the previous one but some people may choose to ignore it. The term search intent has been misunderstood for a long time. As such, it is easy to overlook it and move to other things.

However, it is important to know why a reader looks for certain information. For instance, a question like, ‘can I place a laptop on my laps?’ could have different search intents.

On one hand, the searcher would have bought the product for the first time and perhaps he or she is travelling yet they want to know if one can carry a laptop on their laps or it has a special way of carrying it.

The second searcher would be more worried of his health. As a writer, you need to know how to satisfy these two visitors. You need to provide each of them with a comprehensive answer.

As you can imagine, it would be hard to know what is in the mind of a searcher. However, knowing that you have been destined to help the searchers would compel you to do your own research so that you can provide each with convincing answers.

3. Choose a Winning Format and Angle

Unless it is a completely new topic in the world, there is no doubt that there is some information about the topic you are about to write. Yes, in one way or another, there is information out there. In real sense, several sites, perhaps hundreds of sites have some if not all of the information you intend to publish.

With that in mind, you now remain with a huge task ahead of you. To beat your competitors, you need to choose a unique angle. Yes, you need to stand out and be different. There is absolutely no way you are going to beat your competitors if you are going to do things the same old way.

Change is a rest, so they say.

To stand out, thus get many organic visitors, you need to come up with a unique blog post format. That means, if your competitor is using a comparison format to approach the subject in question, you revert to using something else, perhaps, a plain format.

Alternatively, you can include charts, visuals, tables or even diagrams to create a change. Who knows how much you will gain from these?

In addition, you can decide to choose a different angle – the approach of the blog post. As mentioned in the example earlier, one searcher would be interested in knowing if it is okay to place the laptop on the laps.

Yet, the other male searcher wanted to know if it was safe, perhaps healthy to place the laptop on his laps as he works.

If upon your in-depth research, you find out that most bloggers have given preference to the former, you can resort to giving your blog post the second approach. Alternatively, even if you find out that they have talked on the second or both scenarios, still, you can approach your blog differently from theirs.

The important thing here is you do not use the same format and angle as your competitors’.

4. Craft a Data-Driven Outline

It is reasonable to argue that not all blog posts require data. However, if you are writing a blog post that has data, you should learn to deliver them in a very easy-to-understand manner.

Although some subjects may be complex, you shouldn’t transfer their complexity to your audience. You should make it easy for your visitors to read and understand your blogs. Breaking down well-researched data will go a long way in ensuring your clients get the best user experience.

To start with, you can prepare an outline, showing how each section is unique from the other but at the same time relate the sections. By providing an outline before you elaborate, you will be communicating to your audience in a mature manner.

As it were, a section of your audience may not have the time to read the entire blog post while the other has a lot of time on their disposal. The former can skim through the outline to get a picture of what your blog is about and still be okay.

Besides, readers are different. Some grasp things fast while others are slow. For those that grasp things fast, a data-driven outline would work for them. As for the other lot, they can benefit from the in-depth explanation that you provide after the outline.

By creating a data-driven outline before you break down the data into various sections, you would simply be showing that you not only know your audience better but also care about it. You accommodate all.

5. Write a Catchy Title

The blog title is the first thing a reader sees. How you write it with determine whether the reader will continue to read it or not. If the blog post is among a list of blogs, the visitor will only click on it if it is attractive.

Nobody is going to click on a lousy title – the one that does not arouse curiosity or doesn’t seem to carry the information that the reader is looking for.

According to experts, a catchy title should, among other things, have the following features:

• Carries data
• Asks a question
• Arouses curiosity

It is true that every story piques its unique way, but you should always strive to achieve something with your title. Coscheduler, a renowned headline analyzer says that a headline is considered catchy if it carries the feeling of power, uses common or uncommon words.

The analyzer goes ahead to say that if a blogger uses the above features in their right position, there is no doubt that the headline will attract the reader’s attention.

To help us understand what a catchy title should look like, the analyzer goes ahead to give an example:

A Perfect Blog SEO Title Has 3 Elements According to Renown Title Expert

When you look at this title, the writer has used common words. There is nothing strange in the title that the reader is not familiar with. However, the title has statistics, something that is likely to arouse the curiosity of the reader to click.

Without a doubt, a reader would want to know what the three elements are. The word ‘expert’ is an emotional word. What that means is from the word go, the reader is aware that whatever he or she is going to read comes from the mouth of an expert – someone who understands what he or she is talking about.

From that title alone, it is evident that the writer is an authority or at least, is conveying a message from an authority in blogging or titling to be precise.

The number 3 on the title is another powerful element. By mentioning the number three, the writer is simply informing the reader beforehand that they will learn a specific number of elements – three.

It’d be strange if upon stating that there are three elements, the reader goes ahead to list two, five or even more elements. That would break the trust the title had built in the mind of the reader.

6. Write the Post

This is the main part. After all the preliminary preparations, now sit and write the blog post. With your audience in mind, write as if you were talking to it one on one.

Thumb rule: Talk to your reader.

It is true that you can give statistics, start your blog with a personal experience or even give an illustration, but after you are done with that, shift your attention to your audience. Speak to your reader.

From time to time, you can talk to a caregiver or support personnel if you are talking to an elderly person or the sick.

Pour your heart as you continue to write your blog post. Reading your blog post can be enjoyable if you start with simple facts before you talk about hard facts. Do not lie to your audience or underestimate the power of information.

If you do not know something, just refrain from talking about it or refer your readers to the site or expert who will help them solve their problem.

Use simple language. Unless it is a complex subject, which you should strive to simplify, your blog post should be fun to read. Simple and short sentences and paragraphs should always be your guide.

The length of your blog post should depend on the subject in discussion. For simple subjects, writing shorter blog posts is always the norm. Technical subjects may dictate that you write longer blog posts.

Whichever the subject, make sure you capture only relevant information. Avoid information that does not add value, answer client’s questions and concerns, or satisfy their search intent.

Lastly, do not wander. As you write, you may be tempted to provide the reader with excess information. Keep your obsessions at bay.

Sometimes, it is prudent to divide ideas. If you have decided to speak about one idea on a blog post, stick to it until the end. You can do another blog post that discusses the other ideas.

7. Focus on the Reader’s Experience

Throughout the blog, make sure you have your reader in mind. As an expert, you should choose your words wisely. Capture the mind and the heart of the reader. Let your readers know that you care about them not your own self-gain.

As mentioned before, many things come into picture if you want your reader to have the best user experience. At that point, we mentioned things such as how you format your blog post, what you decide to use when writing it (graphics, tables, charts), and of course you should care about the page speed.

Accuracy is also key. If your blog post carries some data, make sure the data is up to date and clear. Do not mix genders, age, or even places when you are doing your explanations.

Good user experience also touches on the arrangement of your blog post. Apart from a catchy title, a good blog post should include subheadings. The latter help in breaking down a topic and make it easy for the reader to follow through.

8. Include an Enticing CTA

Wait! What would be the need of a nicely-written blog post that does not have a call to action? Remember, as you head towards the end of your blog post, the reader is aware that you are parting ways.

Because you are not going to meet again (theoretically) to discuss about the topic, you need to find a suitable way to let your reader know what to do next. When creating your CTA, make sure it conforms to the article. You shouldn’t pull a CTA from the blues and place it on the blog.

It doesn’t matter what it is that you are trying to achieve with your blog. Whether it is selling a product, asking your reader to continue reading your blogs or even asking them to sign up for your newsletter, find an enticing CTA.

Do not use forceful words.

Rule of thumb: Every blog post must have a unique CTA.

After years of writing blogs, we have concluded that a good CTA can come in the form of hyperlink, button, or even a widget. If you want your reader to read more information on your site, you can simply do that by including a hyperlink as a CTA.

However, if you want your reader to buy something, use a bold button. It is also important to point out that if the reader clicks on the button, they are going to purchase the product. Do not hide any information from your reader.

9. Add Visuals

The search engine loves visuals. Well, at least not all times but some subjects require the use of images, videos, and even graphics.

Using images and a few videos on your blog will go a long way in capturing the attention of your reader. However, do not overuse these visual elements. Whether the blog post demands for visuals, moderation is key.

There is no way you are going to put five images and four videos on a 1000-word blog post. Even if it were 10,000 words, five videos would be on the higher side. Google also demands that you use elaborate alt texts for screen readers.

Visually impaired readers should also feel at home when reading your posts. “Images speak a thousand words,” so they say. Although this is true, it would be hard for visually challenged clients to know what your blog is talking about if you do not use alt text on your images.

If you decide to use alt text, make sure the font size, type, and color are not distractive. The alt text should not cover most part of the image for regular clients who can see the image.

 

How to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO?

Unlike writing a book, writing for the web is different. You have to understand how the search engine behaves for you to write a blog that will be friendly to the robots before they tell it to your readers.

To achieve this, you must do a few yet important things such as:

Include Your Keyword in the Title

As mentioned, your blog title is the first thing your readers see. Depending on how it looks, they will click on it or not. Your readers should know what your blog post is about by reading the title. One of the basic ways to tell your reader what the blog post is about is by using the main keyword in the title.

For instance, before the reader starts to read this blog post, he or she already knows what the post is all about – blog SEO.

If you do not include the main keyword on the title tag, your readers will not know what you are talking about. The search engine too, will be confused thus, unable to send the right audience to your blog.

It doesn’t matter which part of your title carries the keyword. The important thing is to make sure the title carries the main keyword.

However, as a thumb rule, you should endeavor make your titles as short as possible for this affects how your title will appear on mobile devices. Besides, it is reasonable to believe that short and precise titles are easily sharable. Many people do not want to associate themselves with long titles.

Most Content Management Systems (CMS) have a section where you place your blog title with some giving suggestions on the length of the title. Take advantage of this and tweak your title as much as you want to make sure it fits.

Keep Your Title Tag Short

I already tipped you on this and even went ahead to give you the reason. Well, there is no harm in emphasizing that a short title is attractive not just to the search engine but also to your readers.

A short title that carries the important features such as the main keyword fits mobile devices. Besides, it becomes easy for people to read and share it with friends. The opposite is also true. If the title is long, it will appear absurd on mobile devices.

You can imagine how this title will look line on a hand-held device:

Experts Warn That Global Warming Is Among Ten Most Dangerous Things That Will Soon Devastate Human Beings, Animals and the Earth in General

That is a whole sentence that upon reading, the reader does not need any further explanation. The title does not give room for any curiosity. It is complete information thus the reader will be satisfied by reading that sentence alone.

By keeping your title tags short, you are ingeniously holding back some information from your reader, which he/she will read later in the blog post.

Use Keyword in H1, H2 or H3 Subheadings

This is debatable but the fact is it is important to include the main keyword in your H1, H2, or H3 tags where applicable. Including the main keyword in H1 may be simple but trust you me it is tricky to include the whole keyword in H2 or H3.

However, with experience, you will master the art. If it is hard to include the main keyword on the H2 or H3 tags, then at least you should strive to insert a part of the keyword on those tags. That way, you will be communicating to the search engine that you are sticking to the subject of the day.

It is important to include the keyword or part of it in the H2 or H3 tags especially for long articles. With a lot of information, it is easy for you to wander but by using keywords on the H2 and H3 tags, you will keep your movement within the right lanes to the end.

Use Keywords Strategically Throughout the Blog Post

The other important thing is to remain focused throughout the post. You can only manage to do this by ensuring you use the main keyword on strategic locations on your blog post. Already, we’ve mentioned that you need to place the main keyword on the title.

Your H2 and H3 tags should also carry the main keyword. The other place where you need to use the main keyword is the body. Now here is where you need to use your discretion. You are not going to smear the content with the main keyword on every sentence.

Depending on the number of words, you can make sure you use the main keywords the ideal number of times that will tell the search engine and the reader that you understand what you are talking about.

It is reasonable to use your main keyword on the introduction (preferably the first paragraph). Besides, it is also important you use the main keywords sparingly in the article body. Your conclusion should also carry the main keyword.

In general, let the reader know what the whole blog post is talking about.

Use 1–2 Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail, semantic or related keywords are another important thing. When it appears that the use of a particular keyword is monotonous, the use of long-tail keywords will be the best practice.

Semantic keywords do not substitute the main keyword but add weight. They help in improving reading. Besides, long-tail keywords can help in ranking. You may want to rank for your target keyword but depending on the difficulty and the competition of keyword, your blog may not show up in the SERPs.

This is where semantic keywords come in as saviors. In the event that someone types any of the long-tail keywords you’ve used a number of times on your blog, chances are the search engine will show up your site on the SERPs.

It is important that you do not overuse semantic keywords so that they do not overwhelm or cover the main keyword. As a rule, use 1 or 2 long-tail keywords on your article.

Point to note: Long-tail keywords define your article, are more impactful and tend to convert more than short keywords. In other words, they tend to show the reader that you know what you are speaking about because they are ‘super specific’.

Use of main keyword variations is not a bad idea though.

Use an Evergreen URL

Your post url is another key thing you need to watch. It may increase or reduce your traffic in one way or another. Like human beings, the search engine loves fresh things. You cannot write about the same thing all the time and expect the search engine to like it in equal measure.

It would be in bad faith if you publish an article with unusually long url that is filled with question marks, dashes, symbols, and other funny characters. Remember that some readers may want to share your post with their friends.

If they do this, how is it going to appear on their social media pages? A simple yet communicating url structure will go a long way in bringing the right traffic to your site. A good url structure is the one that communicates.

While the title of the post should communicate the message, the reader should be able to tell what the message of the post is by reading the post url.

I have seen most website owners allow their urls to carry the category or section of their sites on their urls. That is not a bad idea because that tells the reader where they can find additional information of such kind in case they want to.

It also means that the url structure such as https://samblogs.com/blog/ helps categorize sections of your website, which in turn aids your readers in the easy finding of your content.

Pro Tip: NEVER change the blog post url after you’ve published your article. Take your time to review, edit or even change your blog url structure before you press the ‘Publish button’.

In the event you realize that the blog post url does not follow your long-term and perhaps most valued style, which is perhaps known and liked by your readers, do not change it. Instead, tweak the post title to match what you want.

Craft a Compelling Meta Description

The aim of a meta description is to give the search engine and the reader a glimpse of what is contained in the post. Because of the role meta descriptions play, it is important that you take your time to craft them properly.

Remember that the search engine may decide to pull the meta description as the snippet thus give your page prominence. Use of long-tail keywords when writing meta descriptions is always recommended because this specifies to the search engine and the reader of what the post says.

It is also important to put in mind the user intent. The more detailed the meta description, the more likely the reader will click through and vice versa. However, note that some SEO plugins that help in the crafting of meta descriptions such as Yoast, have restrictions.

Some of the tools in the market tell you how long a meta description would be (I have seen some that cite 165 characters). If you use such tools, ensure that you do not go beyond the specified amount of characters.

Otherwise, you may end up publishing a meta description that does not contain all the characters you intended.

Optimize Images

People think that it is hard to optimize images for SEO. It isn’t true. If you put the same effort on images as you do on written copy, you will reap big. The search engine puts emphasis on images just as much as it does to written copy.

A good image should communicate or resonate with written content. It is therefore imperative that when you choose your images, go for those that convey the direct message. For instance, if your post is talking about how to descale a Keurig using vinegar, it’d be awkward if you place the image of a Keurig rather than a bottle of vinegar.

It’s true that the content will speak about the two but this time, vinegar, which provides the solution (search intent), should be given prominence. In other words, you must be able to use your own judgment when deciding.

If you make a wrong judgment, you are likely to pass a wrong message to your audience.

Besides, stock photos do not always fulfill the desires of your readers because although agreeable, many people use the photo. If possible, find your own raw images. I know it is hard to find quality images (because it requires travelling a lot), but the effort is worth it.

Once you have fresh images that no one owns copyrights apart from you or your photographer, you need to edit them. As mentioned earlier, images, especially raw images are heavy. You cannot post them as they are. You need to edit them.

Best practice dictates that you need to introduce alt text on images. This has not only become prominent in latter days because of Google’s emphasis but also because it is a good gesture to your visually-challenged readers.

It is also good practice to caption your images whenever possible.

Add a Table of Contents

As it were, a table of contents is like a post sitemap. A good table of contents provides a roadmap, which helps readers understand a post. It is especially important to provide a table of contents for long posts.

If you decide to use a table of contents, make sure it doesn’t distract your readers. A sticky table of contents wouldn’t be a good idea especially if the blog post is long and has many subheadings.

However, think about how a table of content for a long post such as this would appear on your computer or mobile device. That is why; it’s advisable to use a non-sticky table of contents.

It is also reasonable to say that the position of your table of contents matter. Some of the tables of content available allow you to decide where to place it on your site. Although you have the liberty and discretion to decide, it is reasonable to believe that placing the table of contents at the end of the blog post doesn’t make sense at all.

While placing it at the top would be a good idea, some readers may not find it soothing. Many experienced site owners decide to place the table of contents on the left or on the right side of the post.

Besides, it’d be ideal to leave it to the reader to decide whether to click on the table of contents or not. If this is what you want, then a non-sticky table of contents would be ideal.

The font size, type, and color of your table of contents also matter a lot. There comes a time in your blogging life you need to mind a lot about branding. I mean, what is the main color of your website? Which colors, font type, family, and size do your readers associate you with?

If your clients are used to a specific color, font type, and size, then it’d be wise to use the color(s) they are used to rather than introducing funnier and perhaps unfriendly colors.

A disappearing table of contents would be ideal especially for mobile users compared to sticky table of contents.

Even if the table of content is important, you also need to choose when it should appear. For instance, it’d be useless for a table of content to show up on the screen yet the blog post is barely 300 words. When the blog post is short, there are few subheadings thus no need for the table of contents, which help break down the post.

Add Schema Markup

Also referred to as structured data, is a search engine language to crawl, read and understand your blog. The search engine is definitely powerful but it also needs our help.

One of the reasons is they lack the intuition and ability human beings have. Therefore, applying schema markup to your blog(s) help the search engine have a correct understanding of your site.

Internal Link Between Posts

As the site grows in age, the number of posts grows, giving you a chance to interlink them. The good thing about interlinking posts is you increase the client’s screen time and reduce bounce rate.

It is true that when a reader visits your site, he/she has a specific objective. While the reader is allowed to leave the site after finding the intended answer, chances are they may stay a little longer depending on what they find.

That means if you interlink posts with closely-related information, chances are the reader may be tempted to click on the links hence land on another post that will provide additional valuable information.

In addition, when you interlink your posts, you are showing the search engine that you know what you are doing. Interlinking is a roadmap that projects you as an expert. When a reader visits your site and finds nicely-interlinked posts (perhaps according to keywords or topic), chances are they will stay longer than they planned.

Word of caution: Do not clutter your post with blue links. Remember that you have written and published the post for your visitors to read to the end. You may not achieve your goal if you fill the post with links pointing to other posts without providing a return link.

Even if you provide a link on the other post, that would finally return the visitor to the initial post, that’d be tiresome. People are busy. They do not have much time on their disposal.

That said; maintain a reasonable number of links on a blog post. Two or three links pointing to other related posts on your blog is a better number.

Put Your Blog on a Subfolder

Let this not confuse you, putting a blog or blogs into subfolders simply means telling your readers where they can find particular information on your blog.

For instance, you can be sure that upon completion and publication of this blog post, you will get it under https://samblogs.com/blog/

When your readers know where to find information on your site, it makes them feel at home. They will have more regard for you as an organized fellow and consider you a credible source.

Noindex Category and Tag Pages

Tag and category pages are almost a duplicate of each other. This is a serious problem especially on SEO. Google will certainly not index these useless pages. Because of that, you need to remove these pages as fast as you notice them.

Thankfully, you can identify noindex pages by monitoring your pages via the Google Search Console.

Create a Blog Sitemap

If you have been writing content for a long time, then you know that every time you post a new blog on your site, you are actually bringing a new thing to the market. Yes, you are giving your reader a new product, service or piece of information.

Because you have done your research quite well, the new blog carries the information your client wants. As such, Google or the search engine for that matter will always crawl on your site to index new content.

But you cannot just sit back and rely on the organic crawling alone. Do something.

Creating a sitemap is one of the tricks you can use to ensure Google crawls your site faster, easily and in your favor.

Thankfully, you do not have to do this manually. Many plugins out there can help you create good sitemaps. Yoast Premium is one of the best.

While you can link pages of your site to each other, creating an XML Sitemap is one of the best practices that make it easy for the search engine and reader find your site.

Reduce Your Bounce Rate

It is true that you may not have full control over this but at least you can do something to reduce the situation. There’re several reasons why a reader who upon searching for a keyword and lands on your site may leave almost immediately.

Some of the reasons for jerking back include:

• Poorly written content
• Bad structure
• Unusually small/large font
• Unresponsiveness especially on mobile devices
• Unusually large images
• Slow loading of your site and many more

All these are things you can solve. The good thing is we have talked about each of the above factors in detail.

To emphasize, make sure you provide your readers with the piece of information they need. Present it in a manner you would also like to see if you were searching for information. Talk to the reader and do not stray from the topic.

You can also reduce bounce rate by ensuring that you provide additional relevant information by interlinking your posts.

Publish Content Designed for Link Building

Traditionally, all content should be on point. However, when you have your business at heart and intend to build links, you should strive to produce extra high-end content. Such content will not only attract the eyes of your reader but also those of your partners who in turn may want to use your site as a form of ‘benchmark’ or increase their credibility.

With that in mind, your content should be factual. If it carries some data, make sure the data is up to date. Never leave misleading information to lie on your site. Pluck it out the moment you notice it.

Remember that if people are going to point to your post, hence your site, the reason is they have already built a degree of trust and credibility. Do not lose this lofty chance by publishing substandard content.

Content designed for link building should be well researched, detailed, and properly formatted. You should also put in mind that such content will end up in a number of social media pages thus the url structure, the title, the blog format, and images used should be on point.

In a nutshell, every time you sit on your laptop to write content, give it your best with the view that it will market your services far and wide. After all, you will not be happy if you write content that sits on your website forever without anyone noticing it, sharing it or wanting to associate with it.

Optimize For Mobile Devices

We cannot emphasize enough that you must write your content with mobile device users in mind and heart. Yes, nowadays, a majority of the readers use their mobile phones to read material online.

In fact, some have gone further to make their mobile phones computers. They can use their mobile devices to search for information, read, copy, store it somewhere, edit whenever necessary, and share it.

With all those things done on a single device – mobile device, there is no doubt that when you create content, you must put users in mind. Granted, studies indicate that a huge number of people who access material online do so using their mobile devices.

We have talked about this in detail already. But as a reminder, when you write content, ensure you do not use overly huge images. Monitor your choice of colors, font type and size as well as using mobile-friendly themes and plugins.

If you are not a tech nerd, you can talk to your developer on what you want.

Organize Content by Topic Cluster

You want to stand out from the rest, right? We have spoken on a number or things already. But that is not all. To be an authority in your field is no joke. You need to work hard for it. The other ingenious way of doing this is by organizing your content.

If anything, your clients want to read everything on their topic of preference from your site. While it may be difficult or take time to achieve this, it’s doable.

Organizing content topically helps you talk about the subject exhaustively. Besides, this helps you build credibility and authority in your niche. Precisely, if you want to achieve this, write all the related keywords and publish as many blogs as you can and put them in the same category or group before you move to the next.

Promoting Your Blog

Although it is a big step that your blog is now live, being on your site alone does not maximize the available opportunities. You can do more! Use the following methods to reach hundreds, thousands or even millions:

LinkedIn Syndication

According to LinkedIn, there are currently more than 830 million members on the platform. These members come from over 200 countries and territories. With that audience, you can imagine what will happen if all of them visit your site.

Despite of the huge number of members, only a handful talks about it. But that should not distract you. If you want LinkedIn to work in your favor, you need to post and repost on the platform.

 

That way, members will get to know your site and perhaps visit.

Facebook Boosted Posts (With Re-targeting)

Facebook, another social media platform is a rich resource for content promotion. Some bloggers create Facebook pages while others create a large pool of friends whom they can share content with.

Some even post on Facebook groups, which they are affiliated to.

Whatever strategy you use, make sure your posts have a link to your website. The good thing with Facebook is that it gives your readers a quick preview of what the post will talk about. That way, they may interested to click.

Guest Post Bonuses

Guest posting is a unique yet premium way of promoting your blog or website. This is where you publish content on someone’s website (by mentioning your website) with the hope that people will visit your site.

The good thing about guest posting is it brings visitors to your site. The bad thing is it brings a small number of visitors. But why the name bonus?

Guest post bonus refers to giving your readers reason to click. Yes, creating a great guest post is one thing but quite another in convincing people to click on your site. Remember this is a post on another website, perhaps an authority website.

In other words, give your readers enough reason why they should leave the site to click on the link to your site thus guest post bonus.

Collab with Other Blogs

When done in good faith, collaborations are a win win. Yes, they give two or more parties a chance to win.

You can collab with other bloggers by creating a product, service or even sharing views on a topic and decide to publish on one of the websites (yours or the other party’s).

While the primary aim of the collab is to promote your blog, you get to share the proceeds of the sale of any product or service recommended on the blog post.

Turn Blog Content into YouTube Videos

Creating a new YouTube idea from scratch is hectic. In fact, it might take you forever if you try to start each video idea from the scratch. Thankfully, you can now turn your blog content into YouTube videos.

‘How to’ blogs are the best for YouTube videos. Therefore, instead of embedding other people’s YouTube videos on your site; create your own.

Podcast Bonuses

Just like a guest post bonus, you can promote your blog through podcast bonuses.

When you are featured on a podcast, give your audience convincing reasons to click on your website. Like a live televised program, give your viewers irresistible reason why they should click on your website.

If possible, highlight the specifics (benefits) your reader will get by visiting your site. It can be a free subscription, an offer or reduced package for the first few clients to sign up.

Reader Case Studies

These are a huge blog promotion strategy. When you get readers to speak out their experience on your site, the whole world listens.

In this method, a satisfied reader visits your site, writes to inform you on the benefit he or she got from implementing sections of your blog.

You get all the information from the reader and publish it on your site. This can go a long way in putting your site out there.

Eye-Catching Social Media Images

As mentioned before, a good picture is worth a thousand words. The pictures you post on social media alongside the blog post link are very important. They will invite clicks or not.

Of course, you need to find relevant pictures not just any other as long as it is clear. If possible, pick a picture that is in the story.

Personalized Outreach

I’m sure you’ve received emails from people wanting to collaborate with you, sell you a product or service or even want to inquire something about your business. These are various forms of personalized outreach.

Personalized outreach wins because you get to express yourself freely. You tell the interested party of what you want, where you feel you can help and the strategies you will use to achieve results.

Point to note: When doing personalized outreach, make sure you mention how the party you are writing will benefit. Otherwise, you may end up losing.

Create Cool Visuals, Charts, and Images

Cool visuals, images, and charts communicate a lot too. As they were, custom visuals help you understand content more than you could without.

If possible, aim at creating 2-3 visuals, mini-infographics or charts on every post.

Remember that it is possible someone to understand the visuals better than the wordings. So, there is no harm in trying them.

Reply to Every Single Comment

There is shortcut about it; if you have enabled comments on your blog and a reader eaves a comment, you must reply to it. After all, why allow comments that are directed to you yet you do not want to reply?

If you do not want the audience to engage you (tell you if they liked or did not like your post), then disable the comment section.

But as long as you’ve enabled, reply to every comment as long as it is not spam.

 

Final Thoughts

Now what? You now have all the information you needed. Optimizing your blog for SEO has never been easy than it is going to be for you. Try to implement all the tips shared on this blog post. If you feel overwhelmed, especially the technical part, you can ask your developer to assist.

However, when it comes to copy creation, you need to continue pushing. There is no harm in your site having 1000, 2000, 5000 or even more blog posts. After all, that is how you can build credibility, trust, and authority in your niche.

Do not forget the most important part – promoting your content. Go out there spread the word. Use all the available channels namely podcasts, guest posting, social media publication, LinkedIn, collab with other premium bloggers and last but not least super personalized outreach.