Keywords and SEO Blog SEO Tips How to

Keywords and SEO Blog SEO Tips: How to Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts

The 3 Types of SEO 1) On-Page SEO On-page SEO relates to the content on your website. This type of SEO includes: Keyword research: Finding the best keywords to target on a page of content Content creation: Publishing high-quality content focused on target keywords Keyword optimization: Using the target keyword in all the right places and using good meta tag SEO. • This includes using keywords in alt text for images. Pictures don't get rated, text will. • •

2) Technical SEO relates to non-content elements of your website. • Technical SEO improves a site’s readability (which makes it easy for search engines to crawl and understand the site) and provides a good user experience, which helps search engines see that the site is high quality. (Example, mobile friendliness, site speed)

3) Off-Site SEO Off-page SEO techniques help strengthen the influence and relationship your website has with other websites. Most off-site SEO relates to high–quality backlinks (more on types of backlinks).

Guest blogging • One of the most effective off-page SEO techniques is guest blogging because it helps with both link building and reputation building. • When you write a guest post for another website or blog, the site often lets you link back to your website in the post or author bio. This link adds a site to your backlink profile. It comes with an added benefit of reputation building as your name and brand are being featured on another website. • Other ideas

Keywords

• Your work to create SEO-friendly blog posts begins before you start writing. First, you must select the best keywords for each page. • When search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, crawl your website, they would like to locate words which are connected to what people are looking for many.

Head vs. longtail keywords • Head terms are keywords phrases that are generally shorter and more generic -- they're typically just one to three words in length, depending on who you talk to. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are longer keyword phrases usually containing three or more words. • So “new parent” vs. “new parent of twin boys” • Or “blogs” vs. “how to write a great blog post” • How to find longtail keywords

Vs.

1) Identify one primary keyword. • Is closely related to your blog post. Look for a phrase that captures the main theme of your content and is naturally tied to your topic. • Is popular with users. Choose a variation of the phrase that is frequently used by searches. • Has a low competition rate. Find a variation of the keyword that has a competition level you can compete with. For a higher chance of success, choose low competition keywords that are within your reach. This is called “difficulty rate. ” The higher the value, the harder to rank on first page. • Use Google analytics to see what keywords people have been using to find your site

Paid example from Alexa:

Also key is monthly search volume and CTR (click through rate=clicks/times on Search Engine Result Page):

• Although more and more keywords are getting encrypted by Google every day, another smart way to come up with keyword ideas is to figure out which keywords your website is already getting found for using website analytics software like Google Analytics or Hub. Spot's Sources tool. • Also Google trends • Google has a keyword search for its ads

2) Identify a few secondary keywords. • Once you identify a primary keyword, choose two to four secondary keywords to also use in your post. • Latent Semantic Indexing keywords (LSI keywords), are related keywords that are closely tied to your main keyword. By incorporating a few secondary keywords in a post, you help search engines understand properly rank your SEO blog posts.

So what were travelfashiongirl’s first and secondary that allowed her to turn up high in my search?

To find related keywords: • Enter your primary keyword in a Google search. • Look at the related search list. • Choose two to three search phrases that relate to your primary keyword. • Other paid and free like Moz

• Pro tip: Use Google Trends to evaluate seasonal searches and prepare competitive content months before it spikes.

Write your content

• SEO for blogs: Optimizing your blog posts for keywords is not about incorporating as many keywords into your posts as possible. Turns out that’ll actually hurt your SEO because search engines will think you’re keyword stuffing (i. e. , including your keywords as much as possible with the sole purpose of gaining ranking in organic search).

• Write for readers, not search engines. • There is a minimum word count you can use as a benchmark. Writing 300 or more words provides enough information to help search engines understand the page and rank it better. There are many different opinions about what word count is best for blog SEO, but as a best practice, write as much as you need to cover your topic while writing between 500 and 2, 500 words.

• Use the primary keyword naturally throughout the text. A good keyword density is about 2%, so use the keyword naturally about one to two times for every 100 words. • PRO SEO TIP: Rather than writing with a keyword in mind, draft your text and then go back and add the keyword where it fits naturally.

• Use the secondary keywords once throughout the text. • Secondary keywords provide additional context for your content, which helps search engines further categorize the text. Use two to four of your secondary keywords at least once in the post.

More on the primary keyword • Use the primary keyword in the first paragraph. • Use the primary keyword in a subheading. A subheading is text that creates a break in the page and is formatted with H 2, H 3, H 4, etc. Great SEO content uses subheadings to break up big blocks of text. This makes it is easy for web readers to scan the content and for search engines to understand the copy. Utilize subheadings and use the primary keyword in at least one of your subheadings. • Use the keyword toward the end of the page.

• Write original content. Search engines do not like duplicate content (identical content used on multiple webpages). • Write grammatically correct content with no spelling errors. It’s not just readers that value high-quality, well-written content. Search engines also rank pages using signals from their grammar, syntax, and spelling. • The best blog posts are easy to read and written for easy consumption. Both readers and search engines value this, so use short sentences and paragraphs and avoid lengthy and complex terms.

Links help SEO • Add inbound links. Inbound links are hyperlinks to posts or pages that exist on your website. Also, when you add links to inbound pages, use anchor text that is closely related to the keyword of the page you are linking to. • Add outbound links. Outbound links are hyperlinks to posts or pages that exist on another website. These types of links should be used to source information in your content and guide readers who are interested in learning more about a topic. Having at least 2 outside hyperlinks boosts your SEO. Be certain you link to purposeful posts, but maybe not your competitors • PRO SEO TIP: Set your outbound links to open to a new page so your webpage remains open even if users move to another website.

Optimize Your Post Once you write your copy, improve your blog SEO by optimizing the following page elements.

• Use the primary keyword in the page title. The page title is the actual name of the page that readers can view on the page. Create a title for the page that uses the primary keyword. If possible, try to put the keyword toward the beginning of the title. • Use the primary keyword in the permalink. A permalink is the text that comes after the main domain or subdomain (so your link to a particular blog post, not the blog itself) To create an SEO-friendly URL, include the primary keyword and limit the other text that is included in this part of the URL. • Use the primary keyword within the first 65 characters of your title, which where Google cuts off search engine result pages, URL and meta description)

• Use the primary keyword in the SEO title. Unlike the page title, which users can see while viewing the blog post, the SEO title is a secondary title for the page that is used as a backend description of the page. It is visible on search engine results pages and helps search engine crawlers understand what is on the page. This SEO title should include your primary keyword and not exceed 55 characters, as that is the limit for SEO title characters to show on search engine results pages. • Use the primary keyword in the meta description. A meta description is a blurb that describes a webpage. Like the SEO title, the SEO meta description adds backend information that informs search engine crawlers. The text is also usually visible on search engine results pages, which can help users make decisions about which results to choose. Write a meta description for your blog page that includes the primary keyword and does not exceed 155 characters, so the full text can appear on search engine results pages.

• Use headers. Web crawlers look for header 1 and header two on websites. Failure to use headers will hurt your SEO.

• Assign appropriate categories and tags.

• Adding images to a blog post makes it look reliable and useful to both search engines and readers. So include at least one image in your content. When you include images, use the primary keyword in the image “alt tag, ” which is a text description of the image visible to search engine crawlers but not to users.