Once you have learned about SEO friendly content, you’ll see just how easy it is to apply these tips to your blog posts.

These days there isn’t a place on the internet that doesn’t talk about SEO friendly, SEO audits, or SEO content. The trouble with all this information is most of us do not understand what SEO is or even how to create an SEO friendly content for our blog post, or a website!

Why is SEO so important?  

SEO simply means Search Engine Optimization.

Think of it this way, say you are trying to sell newspapers; remember the movie Newsies?

Well, you know how they were all shouting, “read all about it!”, trying to get someone to buy their paper?

This is essentially what SEO is, the process of getting people to your website through online searches on Google and other search engines.

As a result of Google crawling authority websites, an SEO strategy is a plan that provides you with techniques to help you improve your website’s ranking and get exposure online.  

Much like when you’re scrolling through Instagram and you see an ad showing you how a product can change your life, you come across that almost organically.

Furthermore, SEO brings your audience to you in organic ways. The higher you rank, the more traffic you will get online.

The reason why businesses, bloggers, and solopreneurs have to pay attention to SEO is that there is so much traffic online that it is hard to get noticed.

10 steps to creating an SEO friendly blog post.

-Create a plan before you write. Such as an outline or brain dump.

Having a plan will give you a better understanding of what you should be writing.

Because of this, research is an essential part of creating exceptional content. Not only do you need to get keywords, but you also need to focus on what it is your audience needs help with.

Creating a brain dump will give you a jumping-off point.

For instance, say your business is selling books. Your brain dump could start off with book clubs, series for adults, etc.

Once you have a list, the research begins, and you’re gathering keywords at the same time.

-create a blueprint of the structure of your post.

An outline is a great way to lay out your blog post or article.

As a result, an outline gives you the chance to make sure you’ve included your keywords without stuffing and to make sure you have plenty of Headings throughout the article.

Next, choose the graphics you want and where.

Include any authoritative links you want to add and which links to the previous blog posts you feel are relevant.

-Use Paragraphs and Headings

Google loves headings, it demonstrates a user-friendly experience, and it breaks up the content.

Despite making my eye twitch, white space is a good thing for your blog post. So break up your content.

Nothing over three sentences!

25% of small business websites don’t have an H1 tag (Fresh Chalk)

-Use transition words

Transition words, what the heck are those? Google loves transition words because it makes the user experience better. They are integral for great readability, content, and of course, SEO.

Think of transition words as a way to help the text flow from one idea to another while showing a clear relationship between sentences, paragraphs, and concepts.

Often times you’ll find that transition words are found at the beginning of a sentence.

For example: As a result, the bookseller was able to increase their sales by 50%.

Of course, you could sprinkle these babies throughout the article, for instance:

I love reading books because it gives me peace.

Rain is very soothing; although this may be true, many people develop seasonal depression due to excessive rain.

Some examples of transitional words, above all, most importantly, finally, meanwhile, similarly, etc.

-Keywords related and researched

I’ve always found that researching keywords leads to content ideas.

Locking down what your target audience is searching for gives you a direction on what you should be creating and how to speak directly to your audience.

For example, I created an article on Long content vs. short content based on questions I was getting from clients and from my keyword research.

I discovered many SEO platforms such as SEMrush.com and Neil Patel; all focused on this topic. So I created a different piece from what was out there. So far, this is my most read piece.

-Length of your article

Speaking of content length, a lot of clients wonder about this very question. How long should my articles be?

I feel that really depends on what you are trying to provide for your audience.

if you are educating them, then perhaps you want to have lots of examples; this would mean more words.

On average, you’ll discover many blogs will only post an article that is between 600-1000 words.

Take a look at my article on Long Vs. Short Content, you’ll never guess which one Google loves more.

• The average length of content that ranks in the top 10 Google search results is 1,447 words. (Backlinko)
• For articles, the top Google search result averages 2,416 words. (serpIQ)

(Source)

-proofread/run through Grammarly, and have someone read it.

Google is picky and wants good grammar and excellent writing online. Their bots keep an eye out for valuable content that is well written and demonstrates your authority.

-Links

Be sure to use previous blog links within your post. If you’ve already written content about the same topic, link it back to that post.

There may be some valuable information there that could increase your authority level. Plus, your linking to other content is important for your rankings in google.

This is called internal linking. Internal linking keeps Google happy while keeping your audience on your site a little longer.

-Be consistent and post regularly

Your audience loves what you have to say, but let’s face it, attention spans are short, and there are a lot of other blogs online.

Regularly adding new blog posts to your website tells Google that you are still here!

If your site isn’t regularly attended to, Google will crawl it less, eventually ignoring you.

Having said this, don’t post on a whim. You want to post high-quality content that is relevant to your pillar topic.

An editorial calendar is extremely useful to help you stay organized and produce blog posts. Don’t forget about older posts! Updating those will keep Google and your audience interested.

Should you find that it is too much to write blog posts constantly, perhaps you should look for a freelance writer. 

-Optimize your images and other media elements.

Google loves fast loading times and good user experience. (AS does your audience.) If your images or other media are too large, they will slow the loading of your site.

Which increases your bounce rate.

For instance, does your content align with the user intent behind the search terms your page ranks for? If not, you’ll likely have a high bounce rate and low conversion rates.(terakeet)