How to Create an SEO Optimized Blog Post (Using 11 On-Page SEO Techniques)
In this article, you will learn a step by step method to creating an SEO optimized blog post with 11 advanced on-page SEO techniques and realistic data and statistics.
Outline:
A. Introduction
B. Importance of writing SEO optimized blog posts
C. How to write SEO optimized blog posts
■ Paid tools
■ Manual tools
■ Targeted keywords
■ Selecting a low competition, high volume, income-generating keyword
II. How to create perfect content by analyzing competition
III. On-Page SEO
■ Finding perfect images
■ Graphs if needed
■ Tags and alt tags
■ Avoiding keyword stuffing
■ Using LSI keywords
■ Setting a readability score is also necessary.
D. Conclusion
A. INTRODUCTION
In the modern digital world, for any online market, firm, or business, it has become necessary to create SEO (search engine optimization) optimized blog posts to generate organic traffic for better results and sales.
Every blog is built on a rigid foundation of content. Every online business, market, and website owner’s dream is to reach the number one spot on Google.
The reason is simple. The number one spot will open the doors for more organic traffic to your site, which will lead to more visibility and potential for sales to skyrocket your business or website.
Is it possible to rank among the top 10 if you are a newbie?
YES. It is possible, but tricky. Unfortunately, ranking among the top 10 to get a targeted audience for a specific blog post is difficult.
If you don’t know how to rank your content and target a specific audience, this achievement rarely happens.
That’s the case even if you’re one of the most skilled and accomplished marketers, writers, business owners, or website owners.
It’s difficult, but it is not impossible. If you know how to create an SEO optimized blog post, the process to rank your blog posts becomes much easier.
Writing is an art. It is easy for an accomplished writer to make a reader understand what he/she is trying to say and explain in the reader’s own words.
If a reader is unable to comprehend your choice of words, then something is clearly not working.
A beginner can rank his/her blog post “articles” on Google
Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, you can rank your articles on Google.
You just need to follow this article and the steps towards success.
This article is for everyone (mostly for common folks) who doesn’t know how to gain success and wants to make some money in the content writing jungle.
Don’t worry, this blog post will guide you step by step, and in the end, you will know exactly how to write an SEO optimized blog post.
B. IMPORTANCE OF WRITING SEO OPTIMIZED BLOG POSTS
SEO optimized content will get you free organic traffic that you would need to pay for otherwise (e.g. Facebook Ads, Google PPC AdWords).
SEO optimized blog posts are possibly the most important competitive digital marketing advantage you can have.
Let’s say:
■ You have written a killer, helpful blog post which covers the user intent.
■ You thoroughly researched the topic and gathered useful data.
■ You compiled the data into a comprehensive and dynamic blog post.
■ You inserted essential images and graphs to guide the reader.
So, why is Google not ranking your blog posts?
In this advanced era, if your blog posts are ranking past the first page, you won’t get much traffic.
If you’re serious, you need to get a grasp on your SEO game.
Why won’t Google rank you? Why are they ranking others? Well, others working on the same topic may have the advantage of conducting keyword research and optimizing their blog posts by doing on & off-page SEO.
Those people have a firm understanding about how to gain user trust and give people exactly what they want.
The websites that are ranking on the first page are run by veterans in this game.
Not only is their SEO OPTIMIZATION strong, but their content writing skills are versatile and unique.
What should you do to outrank them?
You need to be smart like them. Regardless of your skill level, you must learn how to optimize your blog posts.
You need to research keywords. Learn about on-page & off-page SEO (this article will cover it).
Write compelling, unique, attractive, and most importantly, user-friendly blog posts.
C. HOW TO WRITE AN SEO OPTIMIZED BLOG POST
It’s not rocket science as to why strong blog posts can lead to a lucrative income.
People write blog posts to generate traffic (mostly organic). That traffic will lead to clicks on your ads (Google Ads, Affiliate Ads, and your products).
Writing a valuable blog post that drives traffic and generates leads is easier said than done.
Sure, simply writing articles of 300-500 words is nice. But guess what? It’s not going to impact any search query need.
You need to follow a pattern, a systematic approach that you can implement regularly to build your brand through your fantastic blog articles.
Now, enough of all that! Let’s dive into the steps and process of creating well-executed SEO optimized blog posts.
Here are some steps that will guide you through the whole process. Keep reading; it’ll ultimately be worth it!
Complete steps:
I. KEYWORD RESEARCH
II. WRITING THE BLOG POST BY ANALYZING COMPETITION
III. ON-PAGE SEO
Before we dive into the keyword research topic, let’s clarify the meaning.
Keyword research is the process of finding words, phrases, and terms that people write in the search engine.
In a broad sense, the keyword search is finding queries that people will write in the search engine.
Importance of keyword research in SEO
■ Keyword research is the 1st and most important step of SEO.
■ Keyword research gives you a complete idea about what people are searching for and how many people are searching for the term or query.
■ Keyword research provides you with insight of your targeted audience so that you can make your blog post more powerful, according to the user’s intent.
■ Keyword research provides you with complete structure and sketches out the format your audience wants for your blog post.
How keyword research helps you grow your traffic
Precise keyword research provides you low competition, high CPC (cost per click) and high-volume keywords that boost your traffic.
Your targeted audience will start visiting your site because you’ve optimized and sketched your blog post according to their intent.
Manual methods (without keyword tools) of keyword research
There are tons of manual methods to find keywords (keyword research).
How to use the Google Search engine for keyword research
When you write a phrase or term in the Google search engine, it will provide you with suggestions.
For example, let’s write the word marketing.
This list of suggested keywords are essential to creating a strong keyword list.
Why are these terms important?
One of the major reasons is this: Google itself suggests that people are searching for these specific terms.
Finding keywords from Google search related terms
When you search a term or phrase in the Google search engine, you will find search-related terms at the bottom of the page.
For example, let’s write the words keyword research.
Scroll down the pages
*These terms are suggested by Google, so make a list of these terms.
How to use YouTube for keyword research
Open YouTube and write a term in the search bar.
For example, let’s write keyword:
These are the suggested keywords by YouTube, so make a list of these keywords.
How to use Reddit for keyword research
You can discover plenty of keywords from Reddit because part of your audience may use that platform.
That means you can find them through some searching.
Here is the step by step guide:
»STEP 1: Make an account on the Reddit platform.
»STEP 2: Search the name of your industry in the Reddit search bar.
For example, let’s say that you have a site of plants.
»STEP 3: Find a post which has lots of comments and upvote.
»STEP 4: Make a list of these phrases and terms.
How to find keywords using forums
Your targeted audience may hang out on these forums. Here is the method to find keywords from forums.
Write these on Google with keywords.
“keyword” + “forum”
“keyword forum”
“keyword” + “board”
For example, you are going to find forums related to marketing:
Just visit these forums and select the most viral topics.
Free tools to do keyword research
In this section, we will discuss free tools through which you can effectively conduct keyword research.
There are plenty of free tools to find keywords, including:
Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is my personal favorite tool for finding a keyword because it provides us a date directly from Google.
Google always provides reliable and accurate insights, making it a dependable tool for SEO experts.
Here is the step by step guide to finding keywords from Google Keyword Planner:
»STEP 1: Make a Gmail account if you don’t have one.
»STEP 2: Search “keyword planner” in the Google search engine and select the 1st result.
Click “Go to keyword planner.”
Click“discover new keywords”
Write your desired keyword. For example, “marketing” is my desired keyword.
You will receive a list of important keywords, which can be downloaded by clicking “download keyword ideas.”
Also, you can filter these results by countries.
Keyword Everywhere
Keyword Everywhere is a favorite keyword research tool used by many SEO experts, including Brian Dean of Backlinko.
Install the Keyword Everywhere extension in your Chrome browser. It will automatically give you a suggestion whenever you write in a search engine.
Here, I write “laptops” in the Google search engine.
You can export this list of keywords by clicking the “Export to CSV” button.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a wonderful tool for finding various keywords.
After you write your desired keyword, this tool will suggest plenty of other keywords for your blog post.
For example, let’s say that I want to find keywords related to cat food.
Click “keyword ideas.”
Ubersuggest provides a list of keywords for a blog post.
How to find low high search volume keywords
In simple language, if you are working on a keyword with high volume, you will get high traffic on that keyword.
Finding the volume of a keyword is the most crucial part of keyword research. If you are working with a keyword that has zero volume, it’s difficult to get traffic – even if your blog post is perfectly SEO optimized.
There are plenty of free tools to find the volume of a keyword, including Google Keyword Planner, Keyword Everywhere and Ubersuggest.
For example, let’s say I want to find the volume of “digital marketing.”
Google Planner result:
Ubersuggest result:
Keyword Everywhere result:
Each tool provides different results for the volume of “digital marketing.” But not to be confused! These tools are not 100% accurate; they can just give you an idea.
How to find low difficulty keywords
This is the most important factor of keyword research! Why? Well, you must select a keyword with low difficulty in order to rank in the search engine.
I will suggest some free tools and manual methods to identify the difficulty of the term.
These are the free tools that can help you find low competition keywords.
Keyword Everywhere
Type a keyword and it will tell you the competition of the term.
For example, “dog food.”
The market value is the keyword difficulty of a particular term.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest also tells you the competition of the keyword.
For example, “digital marketing.”
Again, the market value is the keyword difficulty of the keyword.
Manual method to find keyword difficulty
You can find keyword difficulty by using these two operators in the Google search engine.
allintitle : “keyword”
For example, all in title: “jade plant”
Basically, these are the results of those blog posts which use “jade plant” keyword in their title.
Fewer results indicate that a keyword is not competitive because fewer people are working on that term.
PRO TIP:
If you are a beginner, find a keyword with less than 1000 results in allintile.
allinurl: “keyword”
For example, allinurl: “jade plant”
How to find high CPC (cost per click) keywords
Finally, if you write a great SEO optimized blog post, then it will rank in Google. CPC plays an important role in creating a successful post.
You can find high CPC keywords through free tools such as the following.
Keyword Everywhere
If you write a keyword in the Google search bar, it will tell you the CPC of that term.
For example, let’s say I write “dog food.”
The marked value is the CPC of the keyword.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is another free tool to identify the CPC of the desired keyword.
Write the particular keyword in the search bar of Ubersuggest.
For example, I write “digital marketing.”
The selected value is the CPC of the term.
II. WRITING BLOG POSTS BY ANALYZING COMPETITION
Do you ever think about why people search for anything on Google? The answer is obvious: to get what they want.
Let’s study an imaginary case with realistic facts:
Suppose there is a person named Simon. He wants to know about electric cars that cost under $10,000 in the U.S.
Simon thinks it is easy to use Google because it presents millions of websites with such information rather than visiting different car showrooms.
Simon begins his search.
He searches “Electric cars under $10,000.” He crawls the top 10 websites. Simon goes through all of those blog posts, getting increasingly frustrated.
He visits the eleventh website. This time, he gets what he wants and leaves positive reviews on that website.
Eventually, that eleventh website reaches the top 5 for “electric cars under $10,000” search term.
Why did Simon get fed up with those top 10 websites?
All of those websites had huge blog posts with plenty of images and graphs, excellent word count, and affiliate links. However, none of them helped Simon find what he wanted.
Why is that?
Simon wanted to search cars under his budget. He was not interested in learning about features, model numbers, reviews, top 10 cars, fuel consumption, etc.
He made that clear with his search term “cars under $10,000.” Obviously, that refers to a list of cars under that budget. He was interested in a simple list, not a monstrous post that was unrelated to what Simon was specifically looking for.
So why the eleventh website?
That website was SEO optimized. That’s why it ranked at number 11th and had the list that Simon was seeking.
That website covered the user intent. It wasn’t a dizzying mess of words completely unrelated to his interests.
Why did Google reward the eleventh website?
It’s simple. Google rewarded the eleventh website for being user-friendly and providing VALUE to its users.
Google has mentioned in multiple blogs that content should cover the user intent.
If you are writing a blog post and desperately want visitors on that post, then you must use a systematic approach. That systematic approach is knowing what users want.
You must know:
■ How to create headings and subheadings
■ What type of headings
■ Where to insert images
■ What type of style to be used (formal/informal)?
■ Knowing what users are searching
■ What Google is suggesting to you about their search
How would you know all of this?
The answer is in front of you. GOOGLE.
Google will tell you everything you want. You might be wondering how to navigate this. Don’t worry! I’ll guide you through the whole process; just be patient.
Understanding the process by conducting a case study
Let’s learn the process of writing SEO optimized blog posts step by step while conducting a case study.
GO NICHE
If you are just starting your online campaign, it’s extremely difficult to compete with large organizations that have seemingly unlimited content and a vast marketing budget. They’ve been at this for a long time.
You’ll end up wasting your time and money trying to outrank them. The key to outranking is using specificity (go niche).
Going niche means choosing more specific, micro topics.
Let’s say:
• There is a website called “plants online.” There are a million species of plants, and this website has been working on it for a long time.
• If you want to start a plants website, it’s going to be tedious to work on all types of plants.
• This will take years to assemble. You definitely won’t outrank your competition with this mess!
• Earning won’t be attainable because your competitive website has a large domain authority and Google’s
So, what should you do?
■ Go more specific, go micro (go niche). Choose one category and work on making that specific rather than general.
■ Let’s say you are working on succulents.
■ It is easier to target specific, income-generating, high volume, and low competition keywords to write SEO optimized blog posts.
■ Your blog posts can outrank your competition even if they are the parent category (plants).
■ This is because you are more specific to that topic, you have more material, and your keyword “succulent” is in your domain (Google will reward you for that).
These more specific keyword phrases will likely be much easier to rank.
After going niche, you must choose a keyword since you have already learned how to conduct keyword research.
After conducting keyword research, suppose “jade plant” is a keyword for your blog post.
After going niche & selecting “jade plant” as a keyword, analyze the competition to create a blog post.
You have successfully researched a keyword! Now it is time to start creating content.
Follow these steps:
Step 1. Type your keyword in Google search and see the results:
■ After typing the keyword, look at the titles of the top 10 websites. Analyze their strategy by framing a picture in your mind.
■ Open all of the top 10 websites in different tabs.
■ See the Google suggestions for this keyword; check the frequently asked question and suggestions at the bottom of the page.
■ Google search suggestions will help you to write your title because Google shows suggestions of the most searched query (which people are searching).
■ If someone is searching for “how to grow jade plants?”, Google will show you that in search results, in the FAQs and at the bottom of the page.
If you apply these search suggestions in your titles or at least somewhere in your blog post as a subheading, Google will rank your website. Why? You are giving the users what they are searching for.
Step 2. Analyze the top 10 websites
It’s time to analyze the websites that you have opened earlier.
Check their word count:
■ Copy their blog posts into Microsoft Word and see how many words are there. Follow this step for all ten websites.
■ Note the word count for each website and calculate the overall average. Google ranks posts that are high-quality and heavy on words.
■ If someone is writing 300-500 word SEO Optimized blog posts which are not generic & unique, they will be outranked by a blog post of 1000 or 2000 words of similar quality.
Why?
Because, one, with the input of more data into longer posts, they will make more sense than the shorter ones. Google recognizes this; that is why it is necessary to count the words of each post.
After counting the words of each blog, you just need to create a blog post that has more words than your competition.
Check the images:
■ Next thing you should do is to check the images of your competition. Count how many images they are using; see which websites contain the most
■ Check what type of images they are using. Are they too fancy, simple, etc?
■ What you need to do is insert a greater number of images in your blog post.
■ Create your images using Canva or edit the text in them by yourself.
■ You can purchase the images from Shutterstock, which will be premium. If you are a beginner, free images will be the better option.
■ Edit text in the images or use a watermark to make it fancier and more useful.
■ Images should be relevant to the topic. If you are talking about “how to water a jade plant,” then insert an image of a jade plant watered by a spray, etc.
What I am trying to say is: your images should be useful, creative, and HD. They must cover the intent of the topic that you are trying to describe.
Google rewards websites that use more images in their blog posts. Users also find it easy to see images that cover the topic.
It also shifts the focus of the readers to a visual aspect of the content (images) because people can easily get bored by reading plain text.
They will also help boost your SEO.
Read all of their content:
If you want your blog posts to be SEO optimized, you must spare some time and read your competitors’ blog posts.
From start to finish, read it with critical thinking, like:
♦ Is the tone formal or informal?
♦ Is it a first-person or third-person narrative?
♦ Is their content humorous, interactive or serious?
♦ Are they writing their headings like Google suggests (what people are searching) or not?
♦ How much data did they gather (valuable)?
♦ Are they doing justice to the topic by providing realistic information?
♦ How many comments did they get on their blog post?
♦ Are they overusing affiliate links and ads in the middle of the post?
♦ Is their post messy or clean?
♦ What kinds of fonts are they using?
♦ Are they using schema markups?
♦ Is their blog article visually appealing?
♦ Do they use citations and references?
You should thoroughly read their “SEO OPTIMIZED” blog posts while keeping the above things in mind.
After that, you might have an idea about the type of content they have and whether you can outrank it or not.
Now you must evaluate how much content to produce and how you can make it useful to the readers.
Check for the missing pieces:
There are a lot of other SEO ranking factors within a blog post. Check those other missing pieces in a competitor’s blog posts like:
♦ Infographics
♦ Videos
♦ Graphs and tables
♦ Animations
If you don’t see these elements, then you have a strong chance of outranking your competition by adding them.
Not only will it make your blog post look visually appealing, informative, authentic, but it will rank in the top positions.
Step 3. Place your fingers on the keyboard and start writing.
Though it can be tedious, you must devote time to creating an exciting and comprehensive post.
To create a valuable blog post, you need to make it as practical as possible. Offer your readers some benefit; they are tired of reading generic posts that don’t serve them.
The introduction and conclusion are the most important parts of any blog post.
Engage your readers. Develop your post from point A to point B. This will only happen with a unique opening segment.
1. Write a great title
According to a study, headlines with numbers in them get 36% more CTR (click through rate) than headlines without a number.
What is a headline with a number? It means including a number in your title to make it engaging, like:
EXAMPLE 1.
The original title would be: “Cars under $10,000″
Title with a number would be: “Top 10 cars under $10,000″
Title is the head of a blog post, so nailing it is crucial. The above technique will make it more user-friendly, catchy, and effective.
You can also use brackets in your title to make it even more enticing (people should want to click and check what’s lying inside).
HubSpot analyzed 3 million websites and found that headlines with brackets and parentheses boosted CTR (click-through rate) by an average of 38%.
EXAMPLE 2.
A blog post title without brackets and parentheses will look like this:
Top 10 cars under $10,000
A blog post with brackets and parentheses will look like this:
Top 10 cars under $10,000 [including vintage cars]
2. Opening paragraph:
“The first impression is the last impression” not only is a catchy quotation, but it describes the significance of an introduction.
An opening paragraph works like a mystery genre movie. It builds the suspense and excitement for the ultimate reveal!
Your opening paragraph is your chance to capture the attention of readers.
Include these elements in your opening paragraph:
■ Introduce readers to your blog post and tell them what they will get from your content.
■ Make an abstract (a statement that summarizes what your blog post is all about).
■ Answer the problem or the solution that you have stated in your heading (if your blog post headline is “how to care for a jade plant”, give an answer or statement about the topic like “caring is easy because jade plants like succulents don’t need much water and do well indoors without much maintenance,”)
You need to be smart; don’t just state without restating the problem.
Readers won’t stick around if you spill everything in the opening segment. Don’t spend much time on the introduction; make it precise and to the point.
Depending on your topic, you can engage your reader by doing the following:
■ Show practical results by quoting an industry expert.
■ Make a comparison.
■ Ask a question.
■ Identify the point of the debate.
■ Explain the situation.
■ Describe the current problem.
Don’t start your opening segments with the obvious question.
The obvious question would be something like, “how to grow jade plants.” Here, you are matching their search query before they even type it.
Ask a question that will open up the discussion, something like “do you know how to grow a jade plant indoors?“
Asking versatile, specific, and interesting questions will make it more engaging.
Google is the world’s smartest brain; it will rank your SEO optimized blog post if it’s more engaging.
You know why?
If your introduction is unique and engaging, readers will stick around a little longer to read the entire blog post to know what happens in the end. Google knows it through its crawling robots.
It will measure the total time that a reader spent on your blog post, and Google will rank your post accordingly.
3. Show your readers realistic data and results
Data-driven blog posts are always attractive due to their authenticity.
Give them the realistic data and results; no shenanigans.
For example:
■ If your topic is “how to grow a jade plant”, then you must insert images and videos showing results of growth.
■ Show them the data of before and after “caring;” how the plant looks after a certain period.
■ You will find those images and data on Google. You can also get them from a nearby nursery.
■ The point is this: Due to lower attention spans, readers only read 19% of your blog article on average.
NOTE:
If you attach great data and realistic results, then your reader will not just be a casual visitor. You will be able to make him/her a loyal fan.
4. Write subheadings that match the search query
SEO optimized blog content needs to contain subheadings that match the search query results on Google.
It will ultimately lead to more organic, loyal traffic to your blog.
Search your topic on Google using these suggestions:
I have already emphasized the importance of executing a proper search query. Search your topic and check the Google results.
Those results in the search query will tell you what users need and what they are searching for.
Prepare each subheading according to the search query. Google will ultimately read that portion from your blog post and rank it.
5. Explain and justify your subheadings
Writing the titles that match the search query is one thing, but writing the content that justifies that title is different.
For example:
You write the title:
“How many times should a jade plant be watered in a month?
Your answer to the title is a couple of paragraphs explaining everything about watering a jade plant.
Make your answers precise in the blog post and don’t fool your users. Only give them what they want; no shenanigans.
Your answers must match your headings. The answer should be written in the first or second line. Like this:
Answer:
“In the growing season, water your plants 1-2 times if it’s hot. In the winter, avoid watering as much as possible.”
You need to be accurate and straightforward or else you’ll lose your reader’s attention. Just justify what you are writing in the titles.
NOTE:
The question and answer are just examples; it doesn’t mean you need to follow this exactly.
6. Insert relevant images, graphs & videos
Find images relevant to your content; make graphs if there is some technical data.
If you are on YouTube, make a video of your blog post and interlink it. Find suitable videos and provide the link in your blog post.
It’s important to insert images, videos, and graphs into a blog post. Let’s talk about this.
IMAGES:
Images make a post visually appealing and clear.
Sometimes, readers get bored reading plain text. They need something to divert their mind but of equal importance.
Everybody loves to stare at images; it’s a fact of human psychology.
What you need to do is the following: provide them useful images that suit the topic that you are describing.
For a professional presentation, size should be equal for all of the images.
Inserting text in the image via paint or any other editing tool will make things easier to understand.
It is an engaging veteran trick.
NOTE: insert more images than your competition
GRAPHS:
If you want SEO optimized content, you should insert graphs. It gives a blog post more authenticity.
Collected data becomes more solid and your post becomes more relevant.
Readers will stick around if blogs have graphs in their posts. Readers will probably feel that this blog is more authentic and its content is researched.
Insert different types of graphs and charts in your post like:
▀ Bar chart
▀ Pie chart
▀ Donut graphs
▀ Infographics
Icons are visually appealing and descriptive.
People find it easy to learn about a topic through an infographic.
VIDEOS:
If you don’t have the luxury of a channel, no problem. Find videos that cover your topic and provide a link at the end or anywhere in the blog post.
It will make it more authentic, release the pressure of text reading, and provide an extra flavor of content.
NOTE:
Don’t provide a video that covers the entire blog post. Instead, provide a short video that covers a specific sub-topic. No one will bother reading the text if they have a full video version of it. That defeats the point.
7. Use bullet points and bold characters to highlight your main points
Users find it easy to look at the highlighted or graphically distinctive portions of the blog. If you have anything important in your sub-topic, try to write those in bullets or a table.
Bullets:
Bullet points make the blog attractive and easy to follow. In your blog post, you should use bullet points at least 2-3 times.
Don’t force anything; don’t try to insert a bullet point solely for the sake of it looking attractive.
That is wrong.
Only use them if you have any lists, one-line notes, any longer suggestions that could be broken down, etc.
Try to make your points as relevant as possible. Here’s another thing: make sure you provide a logical transition into your bullet points.
First, you should lead your reader to the bullets like:
EXAMPLE 1.
“here are the tips you are looking for”:
■ A
■ B
■ C
■ D
EXAMPLE 2.
“the following approach will make it easy for you to write an SEO optimized blog post”
■ Step 1
■ Step 2
■ Step 3
■ Step 4
See what I did there? I lead my readers into the bullet points.
Use of bold characters and highlighting:
Bold characters and highlighting of a line are used by elite-level writers. Sometimes, a single line or a word carries the meaning of an entire paragraph like:
EXAMPLE 1.
“If you want to SEO optimize your content, you should consider doing ON-PAGE SEO, which carries immense importance as far as rankings are concerned.”
I bold words with essential importance to the entire paragraph.
Readers and critics will directly look at the bold characters first because they are visually appealing, more authentic (they show you have researched the topic and know what you are doing) and engaging.
EXAMPLE 2.
“70% of new bloggers fail in their first attempt at blogging. The reason is simple: they don’t research keywords, they don’t know how to create an SEO optimized blog post, and they don’t look at their competition.”
I am trying to emphasize how important it is not to make the obvious mistakes. Always be smart and use critical thinking.
You have successfully researched keywords, analyzed your competition, and have written a blog post.
Now let’s dive into the 2nd most important part of this article, that being the ON-PAGE SEO.
III. DOING ON-PAGE SEO OF YOUR BLOG POST
If creating a user-friendly blog post is one side of the coin, then on-page SEO is the other side.
This is immensely important in the online marketing field. Google skyrockets posts that are high in ON-PAGE SEO.
For starters, paste all of the content on the WordPress editor.
How to paste content on the WordPress editor:
If you don’t know how, that’s okay! We’re here to help.
Here it is:
■ Open your dashboard like this: “www.youwebsite.com/wp-admin”
■ Enter your passwords and username.
■ Move your cursor to post and click “add new.”
■ There is your title on the title box & your body in the body box.
NOTE:
WordPress Editor may be different on some websites because there is a “Gutenberg” update available and a new version of SEO. We are teaching the conventional, more common version of the WordPress Editor.
There’s a total of 11 parts of ON-PAGE SEO optimization, and they are:
1» Installing the Yost plugin
2» Titling tag portion
3» Using LSI keywords in your blog post
4» Headers (sub-headings) and body section
5» Setting URL (slug) of the post
6» Writing Meta description
7» Optimizing images by inserting tags, descriptions and alt text
8» Avoiding keyword stuffing
9» Interlinking and external linking
10» Greenlighting for keyword portion
11» Greenlighting for the readability portion
1. Installing Yost plugin
What is Yost SEO plugin?
It is a premium software used to optimize the content on WordPress Editor.
Importance of Yost SEO plugin?
The heart and soul of ON-PAGE SEO is Yost plugin. Without this, you can’t SEO optimize anything.
Yost plugin matches Google’s motives as close as possible.
It tells us how to optimize our content, how and where to use keywords, and how to set the readability of our post to impress Google.
More than 90% of websites on Google are using Yost SEO plugin to optimize their content.
It is as close as any software to understanding the ranking algorithm of Google.
How to install Yost SEO plugin?
■ Open the WordPress dashboard.
■ Move your cursor to the plugin.
■Either click on the install plugins that will lead you to the plugin market where you can purchase it or click on the add new if you already have one.
■ After clicking the add new, click on the upload plugin.
■ Select the ZIP file of Yost p
■ Now, click the installation and wait.
■ Finally, click “Activate”
CONGRATULATIONS, YOU GOT YOUR YOAST SEO PLUGIN
2. Titling the tag
The title is the first step for any reader to determine the authenticity and relevance of your blog post.
Include your keywords in the title. Google calls this the title tag in search results.
The ideal size of any title is 60 characters. Google cuts off the rest of the title after 60 characters on search engine results (SERPs).
If you can’t write your title within 60 characters because there’s too much content, then insert the keyword at the start of the topic like this:
Your title tag will be SEO optimized and your keyword will be saved, further increasing the overall relevance of your title.
3. Using LSI keywords and common names of your keywords in your blog post
LSI keywords are words and phrases that search engines use to understand what your content is all about.
For example, let’s say that you’re writing a guide on the jade plant. How weird would it be if your content didn’t include the terms like “how to grow a jade plant, how to care for a jade plant, propagation of a jade plant, etc?” Pretty weird!
Terms that are closely related to your content are called LSI keywords.
It helps Google to understand your content.
How would you know which LSI keywords to use?
It is a simple strategy; search for your keywords and scroll to the bottom of the page where Google shows you the searches related to the section.
Those terms will make LSI keywords because people are searching for them.
PRO TIP:
Find other names and synonyms of your keywords like “crassula ovata, money plant, money tree, lucky plant,” which are other names for the “jade plant” keyword.
It will boost your organic rankings because you are using multiple names.
Your post will rank for all of those organic keywords, which will be decided by Google itself. It is very beneficial to use them.
If a user is searching “crassula ovata” instead of a jade plant, but both are synonyms, then he/she will land on your blog post either way (proper keywords density).
Use synonyms and LSI keywords (other names) instead of your focus keyword in the same areas to get as much organic traffic as possible.
4. Headers (subheadings) and body
It is important to mention your keywords, its other names & LSIs in subheadings and body.
It means to include the keywords in the content, but in a natural and user-friendly way.
Don’t get too carried away or Google will penalize you for keyword stuffing.
Here’s how it’s done:
■ Include keywords in your headers a couple of times. Try to make your headers more relevant.
■ Yost plugin will tell you exactly how much you should use your keywords in your body.
■ Using too little or too much are both harmful. Yost will tell you about the quantity.
■ Don’t force it to make it SEO optimized. Use your keywords wisely on spots where it’s needed.
5. Set your URL (slug)
Google & searchers look at your URL (slug) and try to figure out what your post is all about.
Doing the following will make your posts SEO optimized every single time.
You need to make sure you have entered your keywords in your URL (slug).
One of the most important ranking factors is writing an effective meta description for an SEO optimized blog post.
A meta description is a summary of your entire blog post. It is a smart means of telling your readers and search engine about your post.
6. Write your meta description in the following way:
Include your keyword in the meta description to make it easy for Google & searchers to find the blog post.
Tell them what your post is all about. A meta description shouldn’t be a copied paragraph from your post.
It should be a small first-person narrative summary like:
EXAMPLE 1.
Topic: “top 10 cars under $10,000 [vintage cars included].”
“In this blog post, you will learn about a list of top cars under $10,000 including those vintage, rare cars [Contact info: of owners included]”
The meta description is unique, to the point, and describes the purpose of the entire blog post. It also has the keywords in bold letters.
7. Image optimization
Image optimization is another elite level SEO optimization trick that most bloggers ignore, but shouldn’t.
The Google search engine doesn’t look at the images as we do, but it does look for the image’s alt text.
An image alt text tells Google what images are about. This is because the search engine doesn’t look at images as we humans do.
Ultimately, it will help those images to rank in Google image results.
Follow these steps to optimize your images for better optimization:
♦ Write the captions to tell the readers what it’s all about.
♦ Write the descriptions to encourage search engines and users to look at them.
♦ Write alt text.
NOTE:
Mention your keywords in each category. It will help Google with an in-depth look at your blog post.
8. Avoid keyword stuffing
Yost SEO plugin will tell you exactly how many keywords you should use in your blog post.
Note: The idea of keyword stuffing and keyword use is taken from crassulacare site’s writer. A BIG SHOUTOUT TO THEM.
It only matters if you are using the number of keywords wisely.
Use keywords in a situation where it is necessary. Don’t overdo it and don’t stuff loads of keywords in.
NOTE:
Using keywords once in every 150 words is considered ideal.
9. Importance of interlinking and external linking
External links:
Google uses external links as an on-page SEO ranking factor.
It is very simple to use them on your site. Include 2-5 outbound links to authority resources on your blog post.
External links will help your readers see you as more credible by using authoritative resources.
Interlinking:
Whenever you publish a new blog post, make sure to link back 2-5 old pages (pages that you want to rank higher).
People mostly use interlinking 20-25 times per page in their blog post. Though it is nice to use interlinking, too much makes it dull.
Use 2-4 interlinks per page and link only to posts that need an SEO boost.
10. Greenlighting for the keyword
Another great feature of Yost SEO plugin is it will tell you how you should set your keywords according to the blog post.
If you scroll to the bottom where you have pasted your keyword (in the focus keyword section), you will see your progress and the things you need to make it right.
You need to make the keyword green by solving almost 90% of its problems like:
■ Placing the keyword in the first paragraph
■ The density of keywords in your blog post
■ Length of a meta description
■ Length of blog post
■ Where to insert a keyword in the title, etc
11. Greenlighting for the readability
Readability portion will tell you how to make it user-friendly as far as presentation and readability of the content are concerned.
Most people overlook it, but you shouldn’t.
Making most of the dots green will enhance the quality of your content, and it will be easy for users to access it.
Let me give you an example of the importance of readability portion:
EXAMPLE. 1
Case 1.
There is a paragraph of 300 words without any bullet points or little paragraphs. Just plain text.
Case 2.
There is some text as it was in the above paragraph but broken into small 20-30 words paragraphs, with bullets and bold characters.
Which one is easy to read?
CASE 2. It will be easy to set your eye on, read and understand rather than going through the plain 300-word text.
Readability tells you how to make your content readable and understandable for users.
WELL DONE. YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY CREATED AN SEO OPTIMIZED BLOG POST. CLICK THE PUBLISH BUTTON.
CONCLUSION
The purpose of an SEO optimized blog post is to provide value to the searchers, not just a pseudo ranking.
You might see or watch many bloggers explain that it’s “20% about writing the content” & “80% about promoting it.”
NO SIR. THAT IS WRONG IN OUR EXPERT OPINION!
Many successful bloggers/SEO experts follow the mantra “content is king.”
No backlink or promotion will ever outrank useful, relevant, data-driven content, which is there to provide 100% value to readers.”
CONTENT IS KING
If there is no readable value, spending loads of money and constantly promoting a blog post will not get you anywhere.
The reason is simple: the user will only stick to your blog if he/she gets what he/she wants, and that is valuable blog posts (content).
You need to work hard on your content and research rather than buying paid tools, spending money on promotions and backlinks.
Use these tools to your advantage and you’ll be thriving in no time!
“Sharpen your mind, research some data, and start tapping your keyboard.”
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