Write Blog Posts that Get Your Website Noticed
If you have a blog to help drive traffic to your online business website, you know the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). When you blog for SEO purposes, you optimize your posts, making them more visible to internet users searching for keywords related to your brand, product, or services.
Getting in front of internet customers today means ranking above the fold on Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP). “Above the fold,” according to TechTarget network, …
“is the portion of a Web page that is visible in a browser window when the page first loads. The portion of the page that requires scrolling in order to see content is called “below the fold.”
Note, below, the full-screen view of a Google search for “e-commerce platforms” shows the above the fold results.
To help you get started polishing your blog for SEO purposes, we’ve put together a few suggestions about SEO and selecting the best blog platforms for SEO.
Blog for SEO Purposes to Rank Above the Fold
As Google cranks out new algorithms — like Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, Pigeon, Mobile, RankBrain, Possum, and Fred — learning blog SEO may seem like an ever-changing challenge. Even so, you can move your blog up the ranks, by blogging specifically, for the keywords your prospective customers use. You’ll actually find that by following guidelines for ranking on Google’s search engine, you’ll become a better blogger.
Focus on Long-tail Keywords
When using keywords on your blog, you want to find a balance. If you use too few, you won’t rank high on SERPs. If you use too many, Google will nail you for keyword stuffing. Make sure that you use your keyword 2 or 3 times in your text, once or twice in headers, and once in your meta description. In addition to a primary keyword, you may have a secondary keyword; just don’t go overboard with having too many keywords or using any of them too frequently.
Make sure to use long-tail keywords, like, “cameras for sports photography,” rather than “cameras,” “sports,” or “photography.” By doing so, you’ll find that you write better-focused content overall and rank higher on the SERP. Blog posts with long-tail keywords help you rank higher because they often have less competition. They bring you more qualified buyers because people who search for specific phrases know more about what they want.
Create Descriptive Page Titles
When Google says, “Create descriptive page titles,” they’re telling you that your title tag should reflect your page content. Take time to learn to write effective descriptive title tags. Your H1 title should contain the primary keyword, and, in fewer than 55 characters, it should tell your reader exactly what to expect on your page.
Look, for example, at this snippet for the blog post, “Becoming a Digital Nomad: Working From Anywhere (And How to Get There),” on Shopify’s blog.
Observe, first, that the title was actually over the 55 character limit, but gave away the article’s subject matter within the first 55 characters. Notice that it included a primary keyword phrase, “digital nomad,” and a secondary keyword phrase: “working from anywhere.” Those two strings exactly matched the search phrase, and the snippet was above the fold.
Create Good Meta Descriptions
Again, straight from Google comes more effective sound writing advice: “Create good meta descriptions.” A look at the Shopify snippet again shows the use of the primary keyword phrase, “digital nomad.” The meta description describes the article content by wise use of a definition containing the blog post’s main ideas.
Write Interesting, Original, Researched Content
The actual body of your blog posts should contain interesting, original, researched content. It should be long enough to thoroughly cover your topic, without beating it to death. To blog for SEO purposes, Google says that it should contain at least 80 words but should not make the page appear, “to be too long to be a news article.
As search engines evolve, they become better at reading text like us. Making your text readable and credible will help you get more traffic. Be sure to review and edit your blog copy before publishing it, watching out for errors like broken links, incorrect information, and grammar and spelling mistakes. FirstSiteGuide recommends using style, spelling, and grammar checkers can all help you improve your writing habits and reduce errors.
Cut the Spam
Excessive ads and forum spam will also kill your SERP rank. Avoid too many ads in your blog posts. Your blog text should be easily readable and visually continuous.
Also, watch those spammers in your comments section. Edit or delete them. SEOChat writes,
“One of the devastating effects of comment spam is its effect on search engine rankings and trust in major search engines like Google. If your site is infested with lots of spammy blog comments, it will lower the website’s trust and authority in the search engines.”
WPBeginner explains how to use Plugins like Akisimet and WP ReCaptcha to help keep them to a minimum. Plugins like this will help you keep blog spam under control so that search engines show people how good your content really is.
Best Blog Platform for SEO
One of the best things that you can do to learn and practice good SEO techniques is to use the best blog platform for SEO. A platform that’s SEO friendly will have tools to prompt you, via easy-to-use, fill-in-the-blank style forms, right on the page you use to edit your text.
WordPress, for example, offers several options to guide your blog’s SEO. One of the most popular, Yoast, actually provides traffic-light-style feedback by giving you a green, yellow, or red light on your SEO effectiveness. It literally teaches you to write better SEO content by giving you the green light when your copy is well written.
Other platforms, like Blogger, Weebly, Tumblr, Ghost, and Medium, all have distinct advantages and disadvantages. Some have plenty of plugins, like WordPress, and others, like Blogger, have none, but are easy simple to use, finance, and get started.
Blog For SEO Purposes Conclusion
To blog for SEO purposes, choose the best blog platform for SEO, go over the pros and cons of popular options. “As your blog grows,” says WPBeginner, “you may want to change the look of your site and add more features for your growing audience. That means it’s important to choose a blogging platform that’s flexible, with room to grow.
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If you’re dedicating time to blog, make sure that your website gets noticed. To blog for SEO purposes, make sure that you get your keywords into your title, subtitles, meta description, and copy, and edit your writing carefully. Good SEO copy, along with a good blogging platform will get you above the fold.