How to optimise a blog post
Content writing is the basic yet vital element of every SEO strategy. How do you give your blog post the best chance of ranking well in Google? What steps do you need to take? In this post, we’ll discuss the very basics of SEO, how to optimise a blog post.
Choose a keyword
The very first step of every content SEO strategy should always be keyword research. Take some time and work out what search terms you want to be found for. Understand your audience. If you were them, what would you be searching for to find the content on your blog post?
Once you have your keyword you’ll need to make sure you implement it properly. There are many SEO content writing plugins available across all content management systems, with WordPress we’d recommend Yoast. Once you have chosen your keyword, Yoast will give you live feedback on how to improve the SEO of your blog post.
Using the keyword
If you want to rank high for a certain keyword, you need to use that term quite often in your text. That way, Google will know that your content is about that specific keyword. but the worst thing you can do is over use it! Google doesn’t like over-optimised text whatsoever and it will result in a penalty or a negative ranking. Your post needs to make sense, its not effective for your ranking, or to your audience if you are just stuffing the page with your keyword. Ideally you should write at least 300 words, which will allow you to use your keyword enough to have a positive ranking impact and male sense to your audience.
Creative an effective snippet
A snippet is what Google shows in the search results. It’s the title of your post and a short description, the first thing people see when finding you on Google, and sometimes the ‘decider’ as to whether someone clicks through to your website. Does it talk to your audience? Does it describe what they are looking for? Again, the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress will help you optimise your snippet: it shows you a preview of the snippet and allows you to easily edit the content.
And of course, write an awesome post!
You should definitely optimise your post to help it rank on Google, but most importantly you should write an awesome post! The topic of your post should be original, the message of your text should be appealing to your audience. On top of that, your text should be engaging and simple to read.
Here are 10 steps to write an awesome blog post:
- Think before you write!
- Use paragraphs
- Use headings
- Use signal words
- Let other people read your post
- Optimise the length of your article
- Link to previous content
- Add content regularly
- Use a content writing plugin like Yoast
If you would like more detail about each of these steps please feel free to contact us, alternatively look out for future blog posts where we will discuss each step in depth!
If you like this post, you may also find one of our pervious posts useful 10 basic on-site SEO tips to get you started. Enjoy!
