The first step to writing a truly effective post is taking the time to write it. (Yeah, I know—I’m as shocked as you are.) But once you’ve got your content in hand, there are plenty of ways for you to boost its SEO value with a few simple tweaks. While some of these tips may seem like common sense, they’ll help ensure that your content is optimized for search engines and resonates with readers alike:
Do keyword research.
Keyword research is the first step in any SEO campaign because it tells you what people are searching for online. Knowing this information will help shape the content of your blog posts and landing pages.
The type of keywords you target will depend on your business goals, but generally speaking, you’ll want to focus on high-volume long-tail keywords (e.g., “how to lose weight fast”) as opposed to short-tail ones (e.g., “lose weight fast”). This is because high-volume keywords allow for more traffic from search engines like Google and Bing, while short-tail terms can be too competitive due to their popularity with other marketers looking to capitalize on those searches as well.
As a side note: Pay close attention not just what people search for with their fingers but also how they interact with content through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter!
Create a keyword-optimized title and URL.
You may be wondering why we’re talking about titles first. After all, your content should be the most important part of a search engine optimization strategy. However, this section is going to take you through some basics for writing an SEO-friendly title and URL that goes above and beyond what most people do.
First things first: make sure your title has a descriptive headline that tells readers what they’ll find when they click through (i.e., “How to Cook Tacos”). Then include relevant keywords in the title so that Google can figure out what type of content it is—in this case, “cooking tacos.” Your target keyword should also be included somewhere in the first 50 words of the post itself so that Google knows exactly what kind of information its indexing here! Finally, keep in mind how many times you mention each word or phrase on average per page so as not to go overboard with keyword density (no more than 2%).
Write meta descriptions with keywords.
Meta descriptions are important for SEO because they provide Google with a quick summary of your particular piece of content.
Without them, you’re relying purely on the title to draw people in. A good meta description acts as an advertisement, enticing readers to click through and read more.
Use a keyword tool like SEMRush or Keyword Planner to find keywords that are relevant to your post. You want some variation between each meta description, but don’t be afraid to use similar terms multiple times if they’re helpful in explaining what your post is about! You can also add some additional details about where/how this information was found (i.e., “based on research from…” or “in my experience…”) if it helps tell the story at hand better than just listing off different keywords over again would do so by themselves!
Use a heading at the top of your post.
You might be tempted to skip a heading for your post, but don’t.
Headings help readers scan the page and find what they’re looking for. They also let search engines know what your content is about, making it easier for them to pick out keywords that are relevant to your post’s subject matter. If done well, headings can make readers feel like they’re getting a sense of what’s going on without actually reading anything substantial; this makes them easier to skim through (and click away from).
The best way to go about writing headings is by thinking of them as mini introductions; they should be short (usually no more than four sentences), written in the second person voice—so “you” instead of “I”—and should have some sort of keyword built-in somewhere so that people searching online will see it when they look at search results.”
Include keywords in subheadings.
Subheadings make your content easier to scan, which is important if you want people to actually read it. They also help search engines better understand what your article is about, which means they’ll be more likely to show your page in their rankings.
Include keywords in all of the subheadings within an article (the first one should always be the most descriptive), but make sure that each heading has at least one keyword in it. In fact, some SEO experts recommend using a keyword in every heading—including the ones at the end of paragraphs or sections within an article!
Use keywords in your post.
Use keywords in your post.
Keywords are important for SEO and for ranking well on Google, but they’re also important to keep readers engaged with your content. If you use the right words, people will be more likely to click through and read what you have to say. This can help boost your traffic and engagement as well.
There are several places where you should incorporate keywords into your posts:
The headline – It’s no secret that headlines are crucial for getting clicks on social media posts (and search engines), so make sure that each one includes a few of the keyword phrases relevant to what is being discussed in the article itself (for example, if there is a piece about SEO writing best practices, then include those terms).
Subheadings – These should also contain at least one of these words/phrases so that readers know what they’re getting into when they click through from Facebook or another platform with limited character counts per copy space allocated by social media managers or marketing directors who want quick results from their efforts spent generating traffic online (and yes I am aware that technically isn’t correct grammar but it’s how most people talk so don’t judge me). * Body text – And finally there needs to be instances where those same terms appear within paragraphs themselves so people who visit directly from Google searches will get an idea about what type of information exists within each page before diving into deep waters without knowing whether it’ll be too difficult or technical for their skill level.”
Practice long-form content.
When it comes to content, longer is better. Long-form content gets shared more often, ranks higher in search results, and people are more likely to read through it all the way through. With this in mind, you should be writing blog posts that are at least 1,500 words long—and preferably 2,000-3,000 words for maximum impact.
That may sound like a lot of work when you’re just getting started with SEO writing—but once you get into the groove of things and start seeing those pageviews rack up from your search engine optimization efforts (hint: they will!), creating additional high-quality articles won’t feel so overwhelming after all.
Link out to authority sites
When you link out to another website, you’re giving them a vote of confidence. And they’ll return the favor by linking back to your site. Links are a form of social proof that can help your site rank higher in search results—especially if the sites you’re linking out to are high-authority sites with lots of traffic and good SEO practices themselves. Plus, links from authority sites like Wikipedia or Time Magazine can help build credibility for your own brand and business—and drive more traffic back to YOUR site!
Include internal links in your posts.
Search engines love internal links. They are the best way to help search engines understand the structure and organization of your site. Search engines also like internal links because they can be used by visitors to navigate directly from one page to another, which is exactly what you want—your users should never have to leave your site in order to find what they’re looking for!
Internal linking helps you build a successful blog by improving user experience (which means more readers will come back) and boosting PageRank (which means Google will rank your content higher). Internal linking is also great for SEO because it helps increase keyword relevance – i.e., when there are lots of internal links pointing at relevant pages on your site, Google knows those pages must be about similar topics as well.
Publish regularly and link to older, related content.
Publish regularly
When you publish content on a regular basis, search engines can see that you’re an active website. This helps your rankings because it means you’re consistently adding content and keeping the site fresh. And if Google sees that your site is constantly getting new content, they’ll rank it higher in search results because they know it’s current and relevant to readers.
Link to older posts
You should also make sure that each article links to a previous one as well as any related articles or other pieces of content on your website. You can do this by adding links back within the text of each post: “If you’d like more information about [topic], check out this article I wrote last week.”
Conclusion
In my experience, I found that these SEO writing tips helped me write better content than before. I would recommend that you try them out too!