Blog Writing 101: An SEO Guru's Best Friend

Today it seems like everyone is a blogger. You know that travel blogger that you follow? Well, there’s a reason that her articles are placed on a travel site. Businesses are using blog content to help amp-up their website’s SEO, and the stronger the blog, the better the SEO.

Just because writing a blog may seem like an easy thing to do, doesn’t mean that you, or that freelancer from Australia, is doing a good job at it.

If you’re looking to write quality blogs that can improve your website’s overall content quality and ranking, there are some things to consider.

What Your Audience Wants

It’s like writing content for your website, and the goal is to craft a blog that appeals to your buyers and the questions that they might have. Remember all the time you took writing research papers in school? Treat each blog with as much care. It can seem tempting to dash off a quick post, but quality ALWAYS matters, especially with blog posts.

I like to outline my blogs, with the main points that I want to cover and different sections of the blog. If you’re wondering what type of content your audience might find appealing, look at competitor’s post, find trending keywords and phrases associated with your field, or step into your buyer’s shoes and try to imagine questions that you might have. Outlining your buyer personas can really help. Not sure how to do this? Check out, “Understanding Your Audience: SEO Marketing.”

Don’t be afraid to do some digging. When I’m looking for relevant topics that my audience would be interested in I go to a few different places. Look at the following:

• Public Forums and Discussion boards are great tools for finding trending questions and concerns that current and potential might have for products and services like yours.
• Questionnaires can be used to collect customer satisfaction information, feedback, and plenty of ideas for blog topics. If you’re looking to connect with customers, this a solid way to do it.
• Competitors’ websites and social channels can give you perspective on the types of information that is currently being shared and how customers are reacting to that information. I like to look at my competitor’s blog posts and consider why they shared that content; if it seems like my customers might want to know similar information, I find a way to write a stellar post with even more information than my competitor.

Gotta Love Keywords

Remember how I talked about keywords and SEO optimization? If you missed it, check out “Capturing Keywords & Amping-Up Your SEO” for a quick guide on finding and using keywords and keywords phrases in your content.

Even if your writing a blog post, using the right keywords, can help land those blogs higher in organic search results and can help your website’s overall SEO and ranking.

Headings & Subheadings

I use keywords in the main content of my posts and in the headings and sub-headings of my blog. Google’s web crawlers will analyze your post and give weight to the keywords used in headings.

When you read a blog, do you like to see those subheadings? Me too, it makes it easier to read and navigate. Search engines bots (web crawlers) look for content that is readable and clear, by using headings and subheadings, you are making those crawlers happy and showing that you care about your reader’s experience – Voila! Google will give the content a higher SEO score.

Blog Length – It Does Matter

Blogs come in all shapes and sizes, from super short to “oh, my gosh – this will never end” lengths. Google likes long articles, and you should at least 300-word at a minimum for your blog articles. If you get too lengthy, you can scare away readers who may be looking for a quick, digestible read.

Some things to keep in mind when you’re writing content for your blogs:

• Although length is important to consider, don’t skimp out on writing high quality writing. Do. Not. Fluff.
• Challenge yourself to be even more in-depth with your content - trust me, your readers will thank you.
• Consider who your audience is when you’re looking to write a lengthy piece. If your readers can’t spend more than two minutes reading an article, keep this in mind.
• Do you research before you write long blogs. Nothing is worse than reading a post that is purely fluff and surface-level information. If you’re going for a longer blog post, make it worth your readers’ time.

Love Your Links

Remember that term, “authority?” Well, Google finds that your website has more authority if there are internal and external links. If you are writing a series of blog posts about different hair care products, maybe one blog is about shampoo and another is about conditioner, if you link the conditioner blog post in the shampoo article, you indicate that you have more authority. It also drives readers to different pages on your site, which can up your traffic and SEO. It’s a win-win!

Be a Consistent Blogger

Sharing high-quality blog posts with your readers on a regular basis can help keep traffic flowing to your site, and you can increase your internal and external linking, which will ultimately impact your SEO. Google crawlers like to see that your website is alive, and believe it or not, if your website is not consistently sharing new content, Google will crawl your site less often and it can negatively affect your SEO.

Ready, Set, BLOG!

Get your fingers ready, if you’re serious about writing some killer content, these steps can help you not only craft solid copy, but you can optimize your blog posts for SEO. Remember that you are writing real content for real people, and try to be a considerate writer, one who shares articles that are interesting and not fluffy. Now, go forth and write.