How To Write Blog Posts For SEO

As business owners and digital marketers, we’ve got a lot on our plates. This means that for many of us, the idea of adding another channel to our marketing strategies is just plain intimidating. However, the benefits of blogging for SEO are clear: 

Blogging can increase:

• Visitors to your website by as much as 55%

• Website ranking potential by as much as 434%, meaning that your site will attract more traffic and leads from search engines like Google 

As an SEO Specialist and, more importantly, human, I understand the hesitancy to start investing your time in yet another marketing channel. In this blog post, we’ll dive into making blogging for SEO as easy and time-efficient as possible– in 6 (hopefully simple) steps. Let’s get into it. 

1. Define Your Audience and Niche

If “write a blog post” is on your checklist for the day, it's tempting to sit down and bang it out as quickly as possible– we’ve all been there. 🤷‍♀️

But before you start typing, you’ve got some homework to do to make your content strategy as effective as possible in the long run. 

So, before diving into writing, take some time to brainstorm, either alone or with your team, who your audience is and what niche you want to target. This will shape your content strategy moving forward, making sure that your posts resonate with the right people and address their needs and interests effectively.

2. Create a Content Calendar 

Developing a content calendar is important for maintaining consistency and staying organized– especially if you’re managing more than one marketing channel. However, speaking of other channels, if you’re also creating content for social media, email newsletters, or even YouTube videos, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel for every channel. Simply adapt your content to each channel to fit the needs in terms of audience and formatting. 

3. Conduct Topic and Keyword Research 

While you might have a pretty good idea about what topics might resonate with the audience you’ve identified above, it’s important to make sure that those topics are actually being searched for online. 

I recommend using keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to see what users are searching for, and then identifying relevant keywords with sufficient search volume and moderate competition. 

Keyword research not only helps you understand what topics are trending in your industry, but also provides valuable insights into the language your audience uses. For example, a coffee shop owner might think that their audience is searching for, say, “blonde vs medium roast coffee”, but “best light roast coffee” actually has significantly more search traffic. This slight adjustment in language will ensure that your blog post is more likely to be discovered by potential readers.

4. Create High-Quality Content Optimized For SEO 

Now, let’s dive into the actual process of writing your blog post. According to Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, make sure your blog post reflects your brand’s experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, while incorporating your chosen keywords naturally throughout your content.

Additionally, optimize your blog posts for search engines by paying attention to on-page elements such as title tags, meta descriptions, headings (H1, H2, etc.), and URL structures (also known as canonical URLs) as well as best practices for internal linking and backlinking. 

Make sure that your title tags and meta descriptions accurately reflect the content of your posts and include relevant keywords to improve your chances of ranking higher in search results. For more information on SEO best practices for blog posts, check out my guide to the subject. 

5. Post With Consistency 

I like to think about building SEO the same way I think about going to the gym. While I’d love to do one push up and have impressive biceps, that’s simply not the way exercise works. The same is true for building SEO through blog posts– you’re going to have to show up with consistency to see long-term results. 

Whether you choose to post weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, strive to deliver high-quality content unique to your brand over time.

6. Monitor and Adapt

Just like any marketing platform– or your trip to the gym– SEO is an ongoing process that requires monitoring and adaptation if something isn’t working. As a result, it’s important to keep an eye on your blog’s performance using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to see what’s working, and what can be adapted, over time by tracking metrics such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, and user engagement. 

Additionally, just because you’ve published a blog post doesn’t mean that you can’t revisit it in the future to make updates. If you notice that longer pieces of content on your site are gaining more traction, for example, it’s probably worth going back to shorter pieces and adding more to them. 

Now that we’ve covered 6 steps to start blogging for SEO, I hope you’re ready to dive in! If you still have questions, concerns, or you’re sold on the benefits of regular blogging but need to delegate to an expert, get in touch today.