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Do you want to raise awareness about your small business? Then you need a blog to improve your marketing efforts. Do you want to drive traffic to your blog? Then you need SEO-friendly blog posts. The bond between effective promotion and optimization is undeniable and unbreakable.
Manipulating the search results isn’t an option so you need to take the optimization process seriously and get ready to write optimized posts. By applying the following tips, you’ll be able to increase interest in your readers, keep your website fresh, and motivate other websites to link back to you which will raise your traffic rate. Here is what you need to know about writing SEO-friendly blog posts.
Create a Relevant Title
The title is the first thing that the users see. It can make or break your posts. However, the users aren’t the only ones who appreciate a good title. Search engines value posts whose title accurately describes what users can expect.
According to this Tampa SEO agency, here are a few pointers to keep in mind:
- Use a keyword
- Make it relevant (describe what the readers can expect in the post)
- Aim for character length around 55 to 60 (so it won’t break in the SERPs)
- Use attention-grabbing words (these power words can give you some inspiration)
Keep in mind that you should never try to fool search engines by creating an attractive title that misleads the users. Relevancy is the number one priority.
Write Short Paragraphs
Search engines keep track of how long users stay on your page. It is not enough just to lure them with an interesting title, but you need to retain their attention as well.
One of the biggest turn-offs for readers is a long text without any spacing or structure. Considering that most readers skim the post first, you need your post to look organized and easy to read.
Writing short paragraphs will help you create a readable structure. The paragraphs shouldn’t be longer than 3 sentences. Using different formatting such as bold, italic, or underline can help you emphasize what is important.
Long Tail Keywords Are Preferred
Keywords have always been emphasized as one of the key aspects of optimization. However, long-tail keywords are what everyone is talking about these days.
The reason why is that they convert very well. Just consider that Amazon makes 57% of its sales from long-tail keywords.
Long-tail keywords are keyword phrases that consist of three or four words and give the reader more specific search results.
Use Google Keyword Planner to type in your initial keywords and watch out for results to get some ideas for a long-tail keyword.
Try to add the main long-tail keyword in the title, meta description, the main headings, content, and conclusion. But do keep in mind that keywords stuffing can harm your SEO.
Aim for 0.5-1% keyword density, meaning that if your blog post is 1,000-words long, mention the keyword from 5 to 8 times throughout.
Add Links to Your Other Posts
Linking to your previously written posts will decrease your bounce rate and keep the users on your website longer.
Another benefit is that it shows Google that your posts are related.
Neightan White, a writer at Best Essay Education and a blogger advises how to make the selection of links that you want to include, “Any link you add need to be relevant to the topic you are writing. Besides, it needs to provide important additional information to the reader.”
When you are lacking inspiration for new topics, just go through your old posts and look for the ones that can be upgraded or further explained. Then, add a link to that previous post to show the readers where they can start from. You’ll get them to check out two of your posts and you’ll provide them with truly valuable information at the same time.
Encourage Social Media Sharing
Search engines rely on social media signals such as shares, likes, comments, etc. to determine the importance of the posts.
Encouraging social media sharing will help you improve your social media presence and promote your post.
There is no doubt that people spend lots of time on social media so when users share the post, it will drive more traffic and signal search engines that your posts are appreciated.
You can ask at the end of the post if they find it useful and whether they would like to share it if they did. Also, add social media sharing buttons to give them a subtle push to share your post.
Edit and Proofread
You might know by now that both search engines and users value high-quality posts. Writing and publishing a post that is full of spelling and grammar mistakes is simply unacceptable.
Not only will it hurt your ranking status, but it will also negatively reflect on your business. Think about it, who will find your business professional if you can’t even proofread your blog posts?
Check out the following options for editing and proofreading purposes:
- Wow Grade and Fiverr – You can browse through these platforms until you spot service or an individual that seems fit to help you out. Working with an editing expert will bring your post to the desired quality.
- Supreme Dissertations and Grammarly – Both of these options can help you with the editing and proofreading process. You just need to make up your mind whether you want to work with an expert or you need a quick online editing tool.
- Readable and Webfx – Once you’re finished with the editing and proofreading, run your post thought readability test. The result will show you whether your post needs further changes.
Error-free posts will improve your blog’s and the website’s credibility.
Glam It Up with Visuals
Retain the users’ attention by adding visuals that will break up the block of text.
The social media obsession that is currently going on tells you enough about how much people love aesthetically pleasing imagery.
As a part of your writing process, add complementary images or videos that will emphasize your content. Keep in mind that the visuals need to be closely related to what you are writing about.
Optimize images by adding a relevant name (for example, red-velvet-cupcake.jpg instead of image1485.jpg) and a relevant ALT TEXT (image description).
Use the ALT TEXT as an opportunity to add another keyword in the post.
Conclusion
SEO matters. It can help you grow organic traffic and raise awareness about your small business. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to exploit this benefit of the digital world. With the above-mentioned tips, you’ll be able to write optimized posts that still provide value to the users.
- Like
- Digg
- Del
- Tumblr
- VKontakte
- Buffer
- Love This
- Odnoklassniki
- Meneame
- Blogger
- Amazon
- Yahoo Mail
- Gmail
- AOL
- Newsvine
- HackerNews
- Evernote
- MySpace
- Mail.ru
- Viadeo
- Line
- Comments
- Yummly
- SMS
- Viber
- Telegram
- Subscribe
- Skype
- Facebook Messenger
- Kakao
- LiveJournal
- Yammer
- Edgar
- Fintel
- Mix
- Instapaper
- Copy Link