There is a wonderful correlation between writing good content which captivates your readers, and having good SEO. In this post, we want to give you some tips on how to create SEO-friendly blog posts by focusing on having captivating content.
Think before you write
Take a moment and think about the message you want to convey. What is that you want to tell your readers? What is the main purpose of the text? Do you want your readers to take any action at the end of the post, and if so, what? If you know the answers to these questions, it can help you stay focused as you create your awesome content.
Have a clear structure for your post
A well-written post, like a well-written essay, needs a clear structure. Every post should have an introduction (where you introduce your topic), the body (where the main message is written), and a conclusion (where you summarize the most important ideas). You can write down what you want to include in each of these sections to create a nice summary of your post. Having the structure planed out can definitely help you create SEO-friendly blog posts that are engaging and fun to read.
Use paragraphs
Your first reaction to seeing “use paragraphs” was probably, “yeah, everyone uses paragraphs.” This is very true, but we don’t all use paragraphs that make sense. Each paragraph should have a main idea or subject. Don’t just start a sentence on a new line because it looks nice, there should be a reason for starting a new paragraph. Ask yourself what the main idea of each paragraph is. You should be able to summarize the main idea of each paragraph in a single sentence.
Use headings
Using headings will structure the entire page. They are important for readability, and also for SEO. Google uses headings to understand the main topics of a long post, which can help your rankings. Having good headings will help people scan your page and understand the structure of your articles. But make sure you follow good heading structure; H1 for the page title, H2 for your main headings, H3 for subheadings under the main headings, etc. Look at any Wikipedia article to see an example of how to use headings and subheadings.
Let other people proofread your post
Having another pair of eyes take a look at a post is always helpful. Before you hit that nice, big, tempting Publish button, ask someone to read your post. If she/he understood the main idea of your post, this is a good sign. A friend might also catch typos you’ve missed, and can help point out sentences that aren’t formulated correctly.
Optimize the length of your post
“They” say Google likes long articles, so whenever possible try to have a minimum of 300 words. Of course, you aren’t just writing your awesome post for Google, you’re writing it for actual people to read. Readers might be less interested in reading your post if it is too long, so try to keep it to around 700 words long. But don’t sacrifice quality to make it shorter; if it needs to be longer than 700 words, let it. Compelling content is the most important thing.
Link to previous posts
Do you have any older posts that discuss the same topic? Great! You should definitely link to them. Firstly, because your readers will very likely be interested in them. Secondly, it makes your post stronger because you show more authority on the subject. And lastly, linking between posts can help your ranking in Google.
Add content regularly
When you add new content to your website frequently, it shows Google that your site is active. When you have an active website, Google will crawl your site more often, which can have a positive affect on your ranking. If you have an inactive website. Google will crawl it less often, which can have a negative affect on your ranking. Adding new content regularly doesn’t have to mean daily either, it can be once per week, once per month, once every other month, etc. Pick a schedule that makes sense for you, and do your best to stick with it.
Use the Yoast SEO plugin
We have added the Yoast SEO plugin to your site. This plugin helps you create SEO-friendly blog posts and pages by analyzing your content to make sure you are using your focus keyword in the right places, and have easily readable text. For more detailed information about how to use this plugin, read our SEO tutorial.
Conclusion
Gone are the days where some SEO tricks would help get your site to the top of the list. These days, you have to start with compelling, readable content. Good content means more people are likely to share your post, look at the other parts of your website, and most importantly, return to visit your site again. The more visitors your site gets, the better it looks to Google, which means your ranking improves.
