8 tips to help you write SEO friendly blog articles
Having blog articles on your website can be a huge magnet for generating readers. This is particularly true for the B2B niche, where marketing specialists see 67% more prospects compared to their non-blogging competitors.
But many blog posts are not enough, you should know how to write a blog article with SEO in mind.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, it’s a set of skills that help your content to be easily understood by different search engines, namely Google, Bing and Yahoo. When your blog articles are well understood, they can appear earlier in the search results page.
Let’s take an example if you sell handmade soaps and use all of these skills to refer to your blogging items for marketing purposes. Your potential customers will be able to see your website listed on the search results page when searching for handmade soaps.
There are many ways to do keyword research, and we have listed some basic elements so that you can start optimizing your blog articles and get more prospects for your business.
1. Always write for the reader
First of all, write good content.
Good content speaks to the reader. It is easy to digest and brings added value to the reader. You can bring value by entertaining your reader or by telling him something he didn’t already know.
Providing unique content that is interesting and usable for your readers is really important. That’s why you have to create a reader profile, or we call it an avatar. Your reader avatar, those who read your messages, should overlap your buyer avatar, those who need to buy your products or services.
So before you start stretching your fingers to type a blog article after a blog article, start looking for who you’re writing for.
A simple list that can help you better determine and therefore write better content for your readers is
- In what age group do your readers belong?
- What is their profession?
- What types of problems/situations do they face and how can you help them?
- What is their interest?
You can certainly have a more complete list to create a more detailed version of your reader’s character. The more details you have, the easier it is to really talk to them by creating very good content that they really need.
If you write good content, there is a better chance that people will share, like or make links to that content. This can help you increase your domain authority and rank higher in the classifications of search engines.
2. Use relevant keywords
Keywords are very important for referencing. Keep a list of the different types of keywords that are a mix of short, high-value keywords and less competitive long-range keywords.
Short-sled keywords tend to have a higher volume of research, but it is also more difficult to classify them and determine exactly what exactly a reader wants.
With longer and more specific keywords, you can easily assess the search intention and provide specific content to your readers, even if there are fewer (at least in Google Keyword Planner anyway).
Since Google released its Hummingbird update way back in 2013, the search engine has become smarter than ever. It includes context, synonyms, idiomatic expressions and phrase turns.
So instead of reusing the exact keyword over and over again, you can also use LSI keywords to help you create richer content that remains just as relevant.
When choosing an LSI keyword, there are a few key points to consider
- Is the volume of research large enough to attract readers?
- Are the keywords related to the content you create?
- Would it be better to be an autonomous keyword for another content or is it only worth it to be a keyword of accompaniment?
- Is this something that will be relevant to readers and to the long-term main keyword?
3. Use a clear structure
Not only for SEO but also for your human readers, use clear structures in an easy way to understand each blog article. Basic writing principles.
Always start with an introduction and a hook for the reader.
Be brief, in the era of scrolling, scrolling, going out, you want to get to the heart of your message before your readers click on this X .
Divide your main points into separate sections using headers and sub-headings.
Also, make sure that the headers come off so that your readers can easily scan and stop to read the information they are actually looking for.
Keywords, never forget the keywords, I know I look like a broken record but you need keywords for SEO. Use your keyword in at least one of your headers, some people swear it doesn’t matter anymore since Google is so advanced in understanding languages that man does, but I’m getting away from the subject if there is nothing wrong with that, AND it helps deliver your points in a more impactful way without the whole sentence looking weird, so why not.
Keep your sections short. Most bloggers say that a limit of 300 words is a good target to target. Short but packed, that’s what you should aim for.
Finally, write a conclusion for your blog article. Include a conversion opportunity, such as a link to your contact page, in your conclusion. Or recommend other similar articles to read, you know, keep them hooked like wikipedia.
4. Write short paragraphs
If you want your blog article to be easy to read, you must write short paragraphs.
This is true even if you write on a highly technical subject. It is your job as a blogger to break down complex ideas so that they are easy for everyone to understand.
Short paragraphs make each point clear and easy to understand. Nobody wants to read a session article.
You must also take into account the device that your readers use. If they access your blog article on a mobile phone, a text wall will divert them.
That said, just because you write short paragraphs doesn’t mean you have to write short blog articles.
5. Write long blog articles
This is a subject that has been debated many times among marketing specialists. Some say that short blog articles are better suited to people’s short attention span. Others argue that long blog articles are more user-friendly for referencing.
Instead of worrying about the number of words, focus on quality. Blog articles on general subjects can be relatively short. But others must be longer … much longer.
You should write a mix of short news blog articles and long “persistent leaf” blog articles.
Evergreen blog articles keep their value over time. These are the publications most likely to feature prominently in research rankings.
Your permanent content must contain more than 2000 words. It should cover a narrow subject in depth, offering a lot of value to the reader. Niche and long lag research will prioritize this content, but it can also be a magnet for backlinks and sharing.
Take your time with the contents of your blog. Excellent content is not something you can usually pump during your lunch break. You will want to integrate images, graphics, videos and even interactive elements to divide the text into long blog articles.
You can also create a table of contents at the top of your long blog articles to facilitate the navigation of readers. It can also help search engines navigate your page.
The average blog ticket now has 1,142 words and over 85% of the online content contains less than 1,000 words. Writing long blog articles allows you to stand out.
6. Internal and external link
A link (or hypertext link) is an object on a web page that takes the user from one page to another. They can also be calibrated to open pages in a new browser window.
When examining a blog article, there are three types of links: internal, outgoing and incoming. Incoming links (sometimes called backlinks) are links to other people’s websites that go to yours.
You don’t have a lot of control over them, but there are backlinking strategies that can help. Often writing quality content is the best way to get backlinks. This should be one of your main priorities.
Internal and outgoing links are two types of links that you can control. Here’s how to use them :
Internal links
The internal link essentially means a link only to the pages of your website.
These are links from your blog article to your other blog articles or to other pages on your website.
Wikipedia is a master of internal links, if you are like me, I am sure you have spent more hours than you would like to admit by clicking from one page to another and … another on Wikipedia.
This kind of unstoppable itch to keep clicking and reading is what you want to replicate in your own internal liaison efforts.
Having a good internal link structure can also help search engines navigate your website more easily in addition to distributing page authority and classification power evenly on your website.
If you’re using WordPress, Internal Link Juicer is a great free WordPress plugin to automate your internal link structuring.
Outgoing links
Outgoing links are hyperlinks that lead to another area (i.e. another website).
They are important for several reasons:
- You can (or not) get a link from the website to which you link, if so; yes more backlinks!
- You offer more value to your readers by providing them with more precious resources
- The industry generally believes that search engines reward practice
- Outgoing links are necessary to name third parties, which makes your content more credible
A suitable place to launch an outgoing link understands when you use a statistic, you should come back to it, at least to show respect for their effort.
You may have a list of credits at the end of your blog article, but the most natural way is to simply link them with appropriate anchor text when mentioned.
7. Pay attention to these SEO attributes
Each page on your website has attributes that need to be filled.
If you use a CMS like WordPress, sometimes they will fill it for you. But it’s much better for your SEO if you can fill all of these attributes yourself, to make sure that’s what you really want, and for maximum referencing of course.
Some of these attributes are technical, so you may need the help of a web developer if you are not intimately familiar with your content management system. Or you can still use the help of some CMS addons
SEO title
Your SEO title is the title that will appear in the results of search engines. It is separate from the title of your blog, although they are often identical.
In case you have a different blog title and SEO title, the search engines will read and will always display your SEO title in the search results page.
Your main keyword should always be part of your SEO title, some say it should be located at the start of your title, and we think there is nothing wrong with doing so.
Try to stay relatively short, sometimes long titles are cut off from the search results page. Which is a bit bad and sad …
However, if you use our WordPress plugin, we automatically show you how optimal your title is. Is it too short or too long? Is the placement of the keyword correct? We will always keep an eye on you.
URL
If you are wondering “What is a URL?” just look where it says” https “in your web browser. It’s a URL .
URL stands for “Uniform Resource Locator”, which is actually a sophisticated way of telling the address of a specific page on the Internet.
Most content management systems will automatically generate the URL of your blog item. As a rule, it will match your SEO title, another reason why your SEO title should not be too long.
Your URL must include your main keyword. If your SEO title includes your keyword, you probably won’t need to change your URL
However, you may need to adjust your URL based on your website. If you publish several new content every day, such as a news site, it may be wiser to classify your URLs differently.
For example, you can organize URLs by subject or category, or by date of publication.
Some news sites simply generate random number chains.
Everything that best fits your needs, really.
One rule, however, is always better to have a URL that clearly shows what the page is talking about at a glance.
Having your keyword targeted in your URL is always a plus, search engines will have a better understanding of what your web page is if it is clearly indicated, just like human visitors do.
When they better understand your web page, they will classify them better.
Meta Description
Your meta description is a brief synopsis of your blog article, or more easily identified as this short description appearing under your SEO title and your URL on the search results page.
The meta description can play a big role in encouraging someone to consult your publication. So you want to keep this in mind when writing your meta description.
When an internet user searches for the keyword you are targeting, what does it need?
This should be your content and the juicy elements to show on your meta description to get these high click levels.
Again, be brief and make sure your keyword is there.
Canonical beacon
Canon tags indicate that search engines treat this page or blog item as a “main copy”.
In other words, if there is a duplicate of the page on your site, search engines will not penalize you for this.
Most bloggers do not copy or paste what they have written on another page. But Google still recommends that you generate a canonical beacon for each page and blog article, just in case.
And if you publish or organize your blog article on content curating sites such as Medium, you must absolutely configure the canonical tags to clearly indicate that all the link juice or the page authority must be directed to your work. ‘origin.
H1 tag
Your H1 tag is one of the most important, if not the most important, SEO attributes of your blog article.
Search engines will explore this tag to determine the subject of your publication. This directly influences the way your blogging items appear in a search engine.
Your H1 tag will usually be the title of your blog article. Like your SEO title, be sure to include your targeted keyword and keep it eye-catching to get those clicks.
Alt tags (also called “alt attributes”)
Alt tags are hidden pieces of text that accompany each image. Consider it a brief description of your image.
What they do is help visitors with screen reading technology to understand the images on your site. In general, people using this technology are visually impaired or have another disability. So the only way for them to understand an image is to use machines that read alt tags.
That’s what I mean when I said that the beacon should describe what was in the picture. This tag is an important tool for making your blog article accessible.
Search engines will penalize you if your images do not have alt tags. You can add them via your content management system (CMS).
As with everything related to SEO, you can also include a keyword in your tag, but it is not really recommended.
Although the keywords can help you determine how to write user-friendly alternative texts for referencing images, remember the original purpose of alternative texts. Filling keywords in your alternative texts will not have much effect on your classification.
Instead, use a few words to describe the image of your visitors. That said if it makes sense to add keywords to your alternative text, do so.
8. Publish regularly on your blog
Even if you have created the best home page of all time, you will need to write ongoing blog articles if you want to classify yourself as search results.
If possible, update your blog several times a week. Can you blog every day? Even better!
Just make sure you don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. A frequently updated blog with fresh, high-quality items will delight search engines.
Conclusion: write blog articles optimized for referencing
Getting high SEO rankings for your blogging items can take time. In fact, 55% of the fields classified in the top 3 are over 10 years old.
But reaching the top of research results can mean real income for your business. The sites listed on the first Google search results page receive 91.5% of all organic traffic via the search engine.