Like many content marketers, you probably spend many hours figuring out what to write about, researching the subject, and painstakingly typing out the words to get your message across. But don’t publish your next blog post just yet. You need to optimize it for search engines, too, or you run the risk of nobody ever finding out that it even exists.
And while SEO is best left in the hands of experts in search engine optimization services, it’s also important for you to know some basic blogging SEO if you’re a writer. Where do you start? Here’s a 5-point SEO checklist for blog posts.
Nobody will read a blog about a topic nobody is interested in. This is why topic research is key to blogging success.
Don’t forget to put relevant keywords at the start of your title. They should appear in the first half. Keep in mind that Google and other search engines put more weight on words that occur early on in the title.
Examples of a good blog title:
Top E-commerce Tips for New Entrepreneurs
5 Ways To Define The Target Market For Your Brand
Why Should You Seek Professional Mobile Application Development Services
According to data from HubSpot, the ideal length for optimized blogs is between 2,100 to 2,400 words. That seems like a lot—and it is.
But don’t worry. Not all topics warrant a super long post. In fact, some topics do well when expressed with brevity. And even shorter blogs can still rank well on search engines if they have other interesting elements within them, such as social media embeds, videos, infographics, and other media-rich content. (See number 4.)
Headers do wonders in breaking up sections of text into more readable parts. They also help readers transition to the next idea. So go ahead and use them in your blogs, along with bullet points and number lists that highlight your main messages.
But don’t stop there. There are plenty of other ways to make your blogs more readable. Here are some of them:
Keep your readers engaged by using relevant and original graphics and videos that are either informative, entertaining, or both, depending on your goals. These elements make your blog post more interesting and they can also help your rank on Google’s image search results.
You will probably see this step on every SEO checklist for blog posts simply because it works. A variety of visual stimuli is always better for boosting reader engagement. You can use a wide range of media such as GIFs, videos, infographics, screenshots, or custom graphics. Attaching audio files or relevant podcasts is also a great idea to engage your readers. After all, humans are visual beings who process images as much as 60,000 times faster than text. This is why blog posts with pictures, infographics, and videos tend to get more page views and shares.
Before you hit that ‘Publish’ button on your next blog post, think about how you want your readers to take the next step to learn more about your organization. A ‘Call To Action’ (CTA) prompts the user to do what you want them to do—whether that’s to leave their contact information, call your office, sign up for your newsletter, or buy your products. Without a clear CTA, your blog post might not achieve its goal. You can enhance conversions by including more CTAs in several formats, addressing different parts of your marketing funnel.
The following are some of the different CTAs that you can add to your blog post to achieve different results:
Do you need help writing or optimizing blog posts that convert? Talk to us at Pulse Solutions. We offer a wide range of content development and search engine optimization services.
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