Okay. So, we’ve looked at methods of optimizing your entire blog, we’ve looked at keywords, and linking. Today, we’re going to explore ways you can SEO-optimize your blog posts.
In order to SEO-optimize each blog post, you’ll want to choose a specific keyword search string for that blog post. The ideal keyword string is not so specific that hardly anyone is searching for it, but not so popular that there is too much competition for it.
Let’s say I’m sharing a recipe for bread on my blog. The search term “bread” is way too broad. I want to choose a slightly less popular search term, like “multigrain bread recipe” or “sourdough bread recipe.” When in doubt, consult the Google Keyword Tool.
Once you’ve selected your keyword phrase, there are a few places you want to make sure you use it in your blog post, to maximize your SEO.
- In the Title of Your Blog
- In the direct URL of your published blog post
- In a sub-heading of your blog (ideally in a <H1> or <H2> tag, as those get the biggest weight from Google
- In the first paragraph of your blog post
- A few times in the body of your post (aim for keyword density of no more than 6%)
- In your tags
Now, I should just say that you should write your blog post with your audience in mind, first. It’s possible that you might not be able to hit every single one of these points, 100% of the time. That’s okay. You should write for your audience first, and for SEO optimization second. If writing for SEO optimization makes your blog post sound like robots wrote it, there’s not really much point in doing it, is there? You can drive all the traffic in the world to your blog, but if you don’t have quality content there, people won’t come back, and your bounce rate will be high, which affects your ranking in the long run.
Next week, we’ll look at how you can use images inside your blog post, and how to optimize them for SEO purposes. And then, in two weeks, we’ll look at which plugins you should install on your blog that will help you to SEO optimize your posts.