Google's algorithm is extensive and complex. It includes more than 200 factors—yes, 200—and changes constantly, making it notoriously hard to pin down. Even in the face of all those changes, though, Google keeps rewarding content that engages readers.
In order to create an SEO-friendly blog, you need to learn what your target audience is searching for and deliver the valuable information so that your engagement remains constant and more and more people return to your blog.
Here's how:
1. Do your keyword research.
Your target market is out there right now, searching Google using words and phrases related to your business. To get those people to your blog, you need to know what those words are. Most bloggers do this by using a keyword service.
- What are my prospects searching for most?
- What are they searching for least often?
- Whose websites are ranking most highly for my keywords?
If you use Ad Words Keyword Planner, you can find out how much you'd have to bid on a paid search for a particular keyword. That tells you how many people are competing with you for a particular term. If the competition is too fierce, consider choosing different keywords.
2. Use your keywords wisely:
First of all, there's no target keyword density that will make your content rank highly. Some will tell you that your main keyword should make up 2-3% of your content. It's a myth, albeit a well-publicized one.
John Mueller, Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst for Google, advises bloggers and content creators to stop counting keywords and instead focus on working them into content organically.
Work your keywords into your titles and H2 tags if possible. Include related long-tail phrases and keywords, but don't let them upstage your main keyword.
3. Use Headings, Subheadings, and short Paragraphs.
Don't assume that if someone has clicked through to your blog post, they've already committed to reading the whole thing. Most readers scan, so it’s crucial to create visual interest in your blog posts by arranging your text for readability.
To do so, you can:
- Choose a readable font.
- Make your paragraphs short.
- Break up text with lists, bullet points, images, and videos.
- Bold important words and phrases.
This can be a particularly tall order for writers accustomed to magazines, newspapers, or books. Keep reminding yourself to be generous with line breaks.
4. Make your Content Shareable.
One of the best ways to improve the SEO of your blog is to earn yourself some back links.
A back link navigates to your site from someone else's, and is best when earned fair and square. (Paying for back links counts as black hat SEO, and Google doesn’t like that.)
To earn links naturally, work on creating content that other writers, bloggers, and marketers will want their readers to see.
- Get your blog posts out on social media.
- Include info-graphics and shareable data.
- Seek out guest blogging opportunities, and then link those posts to your own blog.
Market as much as you can, but don't neglect the content itself. The most shareable content adds value to not only the readers of that site but also other readers that are interested in the same topic. It's informative, well-organized, concise, and supported with authoritative sources.
5. Use internal and External Links:
Your content should include back links as well. Make sure you have internal links, which connect to other posts within your own blog or on your own website, as well as external links to other sites.
When you link to your own content, you give readers more opportunities to explore your blog/website further rather than just click out. And if you provide more information relevant to them on another page, you also increase your credibility on a particular topic.
It's hard to go wrong with internal linking. Just don't overdo it—you should have more black text than blue on your page—and make sure that the pages you link to are relevant.
Some bloggers avoid external links because they think that if readers leave a post, they won't come back. Fortunately, research indicates the opposite. The more you link to quality content, the more readers and search algorithms will trust your authority on the topic and look to you for information.
External links also show other content creators that you're participating in the internet culture of information-sharing. Think of it as the digital version of “You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours.”
6. Republish old Content:
Old content has great SEO value, believe it or not. If you have older posts that still offer value to readers, try updating and re-posting them. This can be particularly useful for posts with time-specific SEO content.
Let's say, for example, that you're a marketing consultant with an old post titled, “5 Web Marketing Tricks for 2015.” Any marketer worth his or her salt will know that a post with 2015 in the title isn't relevant anymore, but you can change that by removing the old year and adding “Updated for 2019.”
Just make sure that you update the content and references as well.
7. Test your blog posts.
Creating an SEO-friendly blog means that you're not done with a post when you publish it. Tools like Google Analytics will show you who's going to your blog and how often. If a post isn't doing well, you can test out some changes and see what might do better.
Keep checking performance and making improvements!
Key Takeaways
- Find out what keywords your audience is using to search and weave them into your content organically. Don’t overdo it!
- Structure your post so it's easy to read. Avoid long blocks of text.
- Link to other people's content as well as your own.
- Write great content that other people will want to share.
- Analyze performance, try out other options. Lather, rinse, repeat.
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