You might be surprised but the fact is every day more than 5 million new blog posts are published on different digital channels. But, only a handful of them ranks higher. Now you might ask- why do some contents rank higher while others don't? The answer lies in Search Engine Optimization.
Whether or not your content will rank in Google depends upon the SEO factor. The more your content will be SEO-oriented the more will be chances of its ranking. So, the million-dollar question is - how to write SEO-friendly posts?
Writing SEO-friendly content is not rocket science but I must say it is an art or you can say the combination of art and skills. By art I mean, one must have the ability to think deeper and with great power of imagination along with the power of adaptability, analytical thought process, creative mind, and strong grip on the language.
By skills, I am referring to the ability to use knowledge. You might know the importance of keywords, links, titles, subtitles, Meta description, readability, on-page, and off-page SEO but if you don't have the skills to apply them in your content then forget that your content will ever rank in SERPs.
So, if you have both art and skills then it becomes quite simple to write blog posts that rank in the top position. You just need to keep in mind the 10 points that we have mentioned below. Once you complete reading this post, you will find yourself in a better position to maintain the balance between great quality content and well-optimized blog posts.
How to write SEO Friendly blog posts?
Take one thing on a serious note - rankings don't come accidentally. It takes time and effort. Even if you have written quality content and optimized it perfectly from the point of SEO, it might take some time to rank in the top position. Time might be anything between 15 days to 6 months or even more. Sooner or later, your blog post will do rank if you do as mentioned below:
Do research before writing content
It is important to understand the topic before you start running your fingers on the keyboard or pen on paper. Even if you already know about the subject, you take some time in research and analysis. Why? Because nothing is permanent in this world. Especially, the technology-based products, services, and processes, and methods are subject to constant changes. Apart from keeping your knowledge up to date, careful thinking and research are also important to find out the goal and target the specific audience.
Also Read: Content writing marketing
Carefully set the structure of your blog post
By the structure of content, I don't mean just introduction, body, and conclusion. To make your content easy to read and gripping you must use bullet points, bold, and italics fonts to highlight the heading, subheadings, and important points. To streamline the look of your content, you must use images as well.
Select the meaningful & catchy title
The title is one of the most important but often forgotten parts of the content. Remember that search engines and readers both read the title first. Your title must be good from the SEO point of view and readers. It must have a keyword and be decorated with power words.
For example, you have to write content on the topic- "SEO-Friendly Blog". Now a mediocre writer might use the keyword as the title alone. But, an intelligent writer will add powerful words to make it appear more effective and concise. He might create a title as - "Top 5 Steps to Write an SEO-Friendly Blog Post". So be a smart writer and use the power words in your title.
Use HTML tags
Let's not forget the importance of programming codes. Undoubtedly, the Google algorithm has become very smart. But, still, it needs help with coding to differentiate between the title, heading, and subheading. If you don't know then let me tell you that the H1 tag is given to the main title. H2 is given to the subheadings and H3 is given to the least important heading. So, use HTML tags according to the importance of the heading and subheading.
Keep paragraph short and concise
Google gives utmost importance to the readability and comprehensiveness of the content as it increases user engagements. And whenever it comes to enhancing user engagement, making short paragraphs is important. Content with short paragraphs looks appealing to both eyes and mind. Even a complicated topic could be made easy to understand if it is written in short paragraphs.
Use internal links
You can kill two birds with one stone by adding internal links to your content. That's to say that you can be double-benefitted by incorporating internal links. The first benefit - readers will switch from one page to another and your bounce rate will decrease. And the second benefit - your content will get more optimized in accordance with search engine algorithms. Apart from the internal links, you can add outer links as well as some popular sites. But remember too much of anything is bad. So, put links where they require.
Use keyword precisely
Keywords are important to use in content as they help the search engine to understand your content. Writing content with the combination of short and long-tail keywords can do wonders. Experts recommend using keywords in the title, heading, and conclusion. Experts also suggest avoiding keyword stuffing. It means you should avoid too much use of keywords. Generally, using 1% or 2% (max) keywords of total words of content is considered best practice.
Content length matters
The matter of content length from the point of ranking always has been a debatable question. Even today, it is difficult to say how many words a content must have to rank on the first page in SERPs. But, if you get close to the ground level, you will find that contents with more than 500 hundred words rank most often. For better results, I would suggest you write at least 1000 words or more. But, at the same time, make sure you are not over-writing because too-long content might scare away the reader. Do deep research and cover both sides of the story if you are going to write a long post up to 2000 words.
Meta description optimization is a must for SEO friendly post
Lastly but most importantly, you must optimize your Meta description of your content for a higher ranking. Your Meta description must have keywords, power words, and 160 characters. It should be clear, concise, and compelling.
Also Read: Online branding and reputation