Writing optimized blog posts for both search engines and users is a skill. And like any other skill, it can be improved by practice.
Despite what many people think, it’s not a complicated process. There are some simple steps to ensure that everything you publish on your website or blog is SEO-friendly.
In this post, you'll learn about the 10-step process I follow to SEO optimize all my blog posts.
10 Tips For Writing SEO-Friendly Blog Posts
- Think Before You Start Writing
- Do Your Keyword Research
- Create The Blog Post Structure
- Craft The Page Title And URL
- Optimize Your Headings
- Add Links When It Makes Sense
- Use Keywords Strategically In Your Content
- Optimize The Meta Description
- Improve On-Page SEO
- Update Your Blog Regularly
1. Think Before You Start Writing
Any time you spend in the beginning thinking about what to write in your blog post, it’s time that you will save later in the process.
This is what I do: On a daily basis, I read a number of articles related to SEO and marketing from various digital marketing blogs.
When I find a title or topic that is interesting and a candidate for one of my future blogs, I copy the URL and title to my notes.
At the beginning of each month, I create my publishing schedule. Among other sources, I also look into my notes and review all saved articles.
After I decide which topics to cover, I set a publishing date for each topic in a Google calendar.
When it’s time to write the post, I take the topic and do a more detailed analysis to answer these questions:
- What specific topics will be covered in the blog post?
- What is the goal of the post (to get better rankings for a keyword, to get more subscribers, to promote my SEO Courses, etc.)
- How will the new post benefit my readers?
Answering these questions in advance makes moving on to the next steps easier.
2. Do Your Keyword Research
When it's time to write a post, the first step is to find which keywords your blog post will target. This ensures that your content aligns with what your audience is searching for. There are two easy ways to do this:
If you already have a keyword in mind, perform a Google search and examine the top three ranking pages for that keyword. Analyze these pages using a keyword tool to identify the exact keywords they rank for.
If you're starting without a specific keyword, use a keyword research tool to get ideas. Begin by entering a broad topic related to your content. The tool will provide a list of relevant keywords, including long-tail variations.
Look for keywords with a balance of high search volume and low competition.
Remember, the goal is not just to find any keywords but those that your target audience is actually searching for.
Also, consider the intent behind the keywords – are people looking for information, a specific product, or a solution to a problem? Writing blog posts that satisfy the search intent, can significantly improve your SEO performance.
3. Create The Blog Post Structure
The next step is to write down the structure of your blog post. By structure, I mean to define the different parts of the post.
Splitting a blog post into various parts can make writing easier. Writing 200 words to cover a specific part of the post is faster and more efficient than writing larger sections.
HINT: This is particularly useful when you don’t have the time to finish the post in one sitting. Once the structure is ready, you can work on the different parts independently without needing much time to re-generate your focus and organize your thoughts.
For example, before writing the blog post you are reading now, I created the structure which looked like this:
Generally, a blog post should have an introduction, main part, and conclusion (similar to writing an essay).
The main section can then be broken down into several parts. Look at the structure of this post again and scroll up and down the page to see the result.
Notice how I divided the main section of the post (10 Tips for Writing SEO Friendly Blog Post) into different parts.
4. Craft The Page Title And URL
The next step is to decide on the title of your blog post and the URL.
I know some bloggers prefer to do this step first and then create the blog structure, but it’s easier to come up with the title once you have a good idea of what the post will cover.
If you feel that you need to work on the title first and then the blog structure, by all means, follow what is more efficient for your case.
Page Title Tag
Writing a good and interesting title is a very important step for SEO purposes and user-friendliness.
An optimized title is essential for SEO because it gives Search Engines a big hint about what the page is about.
A good title should have the following characteristics:
- It has a character length between 55-60 so that it is shown without breaks in the SERPS.
- It includes your target keyword (but not keyword-stuffed)
- It accurately describes the content of the blog post
- It is enticing to make users click on it when displayed on the search engine results pages.
Take, for example, the title of this post. My target keyword was 'SEO-friendly blog posts,' instead of just creating a title with that keyword alone, I added the ‘How to’ and the '(10 Steps)' to make it clear to search engines and users what to expect in the content.
Here is another example for the keyword 'learn digital marketing'.
URL Optimization
When it comes to the URL, the rules are simple:
- Use “-“ to separate the words that make up a URL. If this is not the case for your blog and you are on WordPress, you must change your permalink structure.
- Consider making your URLs shorter by removing unnecessary words. Usually, the URL is auto-generated by your CMS based on the title. What you can do (before publishing a blog post the first time) is to manually change the permalink (URL) and remove some of the words.
For example, the default URL for this blog post was /how-to-write-SEO-friendly-blog-posts –10-steps/, but I have optimized it by changing it to /seo-friendly-blog-posts/.
5. Optimize Your Headings
A well-optimized blog post follows these rules when it comes to headings:
There is only one h1 tag on the page – Which is usually the same as the <title> of the post, although it doesn’t have to be the same.
What is important is to have only one h1 tag and that heading to include your target keywords.
Use headings in a hierarchical mode: The post's title is the h1 tag, the main sections should have an h2, and the subsections should have an h3.
So, the order of the tags should be H1->H2->H3.
When you create a good blog structure, getting the headings right is easy. Look at the screenshot below, which shows how I used headings for this blog post.
You should have your content organized in this structural way because It helps search engine spiders during the crawling process and makes the blog post easier to read (and scan) for users.
Resources to learn more
- H1 Tag - Everything you need to know about H1 tags and headings.
- Page title Vs H1 Tag - Different between a title and an H1 Tag for SEO.
6. Add Links When It Makes Sense
Whenever you write a new piece, try to ‘associate it’ with already published blog posts by adding internal links.
Internal linking is a very effective and easy-to-follow SEO technique that has many benefits:
- It helps search engines discover new pages on your website – when crawling a page, search engine spiders will follow any link (that doesn’t have the nofollow attribute) and add it to their index (if it does not exist).
- It’s another way to give search engines a big hint on what a page is about – for example, when I add a link like this: SEO Checklist, I’m telling the crawler what the linking page has to do with the SEO checklist.
- It’s a great way for users to click a link and read more about a topic.
- It’s one of the techniques you can use to reduce the bounce rate and keep users on your website for more time.
Don’t be afraid to use keywords in the anchor text. There is no penalty for doing so.
7. Use Keywords Strategically In Your Content
Having your target keywords (and variations) in your blog posts will not get you into trouble. It is recommended to do so.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, what is not recommended is keyword stuffing.
In other words, don’t add keywords in the text for the sake of doing so, but do it only when it’s natural to read.
Where should you add keywords? I get this question a lot, and the answer is simple:
- In the title of the post
- In the main headings of your post
- Within the context of the post
- In the 'conclusion'
Here is a hint for you
To avoid keyword stuffing and repeating the same keyword repeatedly, go to the Google Keyword Tool or SEMRUSH and search for your primary keyword.
These tools will give you a list of keywords closely related to your primary keyword. Make sure that you mention some of those keywords in your blog post.
8. Optimize The Meta Description
The meta description tag summarizes the post in less than 160 characters. Google may choose to show your description in the results, so it has to be informative and interesting to encourage users to click your link and visit your blog.
Here is an example of an optimized meta description:
9. Improve On-Page SEO
You need to work on your on-page SEO to increase your chances of higher ranking. The most important elements to optimize are:
Page Speed
The time it takes for a page to load should be less than 2.5 seconds. Page speed is a known ranking factor and part of the Core Web Vitals scores.
As a first step, use Google Page Speed Insights to analyze your blog's performance and follow the recommendations to improve your page speed score and core web vitals values.
Mobile Friendliness and Page Experience
Google is using mobile-first indexing. This means it uses the mobile version of a webpage for indexing and ranking purposes.
What does this mean to you?
- You must ensure that your website is mobile-friendly.
- Content can be viewed on all devices without problems.
- You use a big font and a good contrast ratio.
- Ads are easily distinguishable from the main content.
- You don't have any intrusive interstitials.
Blog Post Length
Studies have shown that longer posts perform better in search and tend to receive more likes and mentions on social media. While this is true, it does not mean that shorter posts will not rank well. What is more important is the quality of the content and not the quantity.
You should understand that when writing a blog post for a particular topic, you compete with hundreds of other posts published about the same subject. Your goal is to make your blog post better.
The best way to find out how long to make your blog posts is to open Google, search for your target keywords, and examine the results. Open all ten entries on the first page and take note of the number of words and types of content they provide.
Aim to publish a better piece in all aspects (word length, formatting, quality of information). Hit the publish button and then use all available white hat methods to drive traffic to your blog.
Images
Images, graphs, infographics, videos, statistics, and other media elements make a blog post more interesting to read and enhance the quality of the content.
Although Google has made it clear that they cannot yet understand the context of an image or video (while crawling a page), many webmasters fail to follow the rules of making their images SEO-optimized.
All it takes is to use meaningful file names and a human-friendly ALT TEXT.
10. Update Your Blog Regularly
Many people are asking in various forums, “How often should I update my blog?” and “Is content freshness a ranking factor?” and I can understand why.
It would be great if someone told you that you don’t have to update your blog regularly; that would make things a lot easier for all of us, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.
You need to have fresh content on your blog for several reasons.
- It will increase the number of pages you have in the Google index. This makes your website and domain stronger.
- It’s another incentive for users to come back to your blog.
- It’s a great ‘excuse’ to contact your subscribers.
- It’s one of the ways to stay in synch or bypass your competitors.
- It will help you improve your writing skills
- It can generate more page views
Conclusion
The takeaway lesson from this blog post is the following:
Before starting a new post, spend some time doing your research and have a clear mind about what to write about and what you want to achieve.
Follow the guidelines explained above to write SEO-friendly blog posts, and if you have existing blog posts that are not optimized, allocate some time to go back and make the necessary changes.
Create a publishing schedule you can follow and stick to for a long time.
If you have started learning SEO, don’t lose hope. The results in the first months may not be so good, but keep publishing high-quality, optimized content, and the traffic will eventually flow in.
Jaime Olaer says
Hi Alex,
I will definitely follow this process. This is worth more than a thousand dollar knowledge and experience.
Jaime
Alex says
Hi Jaime
Good luck with your blog post optimization process!
Thanks
Alex
Saeed says
Last night I was looking for something about how can i make a proper post? When I arrived to this site but I didn’t find anything about this issue and then went looking for other sites But, this afternoon, when I opened my browser, I get this message (push notification). I was so glad to this post, exactly what I was looking for, with the right images that are used in the text
Thank you so much
Narinder kumar says
Thanks Alex for sharing great post once again SEO friendly blog post it’s really necessary part of the blog post and definitely its really helpful for my future blog post.
Alex says
Hi Narinder
Thanks for your nice comment.
Alex
Walter Lewis says
Thanks Alex you really know your onions, some really good stuff here…
Alex says
Hi Walter
Thanks a lot. Good luck with your blog writing process.
Thanks
Alex
Kavita says
Hey Alex!
Thanks for sharing an all-inclusive checklist to stick to for strategies to work around. I would love to read more such content.
Vishwajeet Kumar says
Hello Alex,
Crafting a blog post is an art and practicing will make it more attractive. Creating a optimized blog post can help you get quality readers and also increase the authority of your blog. Thanks for writing this beautiful and informative post. Its really very helpful.
Bradley says
Great Post Alex, I think you have covered pretty much everything a new blogger would need to be SEO friendly. I wish content like this was available back in the day when i started. I had to learn everything by experience and testing new stuff.
Bhavesh Sharma says
Hey Alex,
Awesome stuff! This is a great post for optimizing a blog post. Will surely follow this process in my next blog. Thanks for sharing.
Vikas kardam says
Such a knowledgeable post-Mr. Alex it’s almost covering all the SEO Tips, Thanks Again.
shreelatha says
This is very informative post !you explain here how to make fully SEO optimized blog post which is drive traffic to our site .
Gilbert says
Hey, This is an informative and valuable article to read. Thanks for sharing it. I totally learned to write an SEO friendly post for my blog.
Maria Tayer says
Hey Alex,
Great post. I’ll definitely follow these process. thanks for giving such useful and informative content. Its great to read this.
Thank you for sharing.
Maria.
James says
I just love the way you explained the points . Even a complete newbie shouldn’t find it difficult implementing these SEO strategies. I am glad I stumbled on this. Thanks for sharing
prashanth says
Hi,
It’s a nice article. Your point on “to avoid keyword stuffing and repeating the same keyword over and over again…” was new to me.
I know the post should be search engine friendly and at the same time reader friendly. It’s a tough task to balance both and your tips to avoid keyword stuffing is good at this point.
Thanks.
Amol Sarise says
Amazing post and well written. I learn new things about seo friendly article writing. Thanks for sharing and keep it up!
mann says
Hey alex, This is an informative and valuable article for me. Thanks for sharing this. I totally learned to write an SEO friendly post for my blog.
kd kashav says
Great post, the post you have put together with so much information is awesome and I like the way you communicate with readers. I hope to learn more from you.
Daniel says
Exactly what I was looking for to share with a client. Very detailed – I always try to explain all these when in meetings I think I might just print it and bring it with me! Kuddos. I particularly like how not everything is about SEO but you included the human element – for instance short paragraphs it just makes sense – to break down content in easily digestible snippets.
Stalin says
Hello Alex,
I really like the way you have structured your article. You have perfectly defined all the points about “how should write the seo friendly blogs?” which will be useful for bloggers and readers.
Thank you for your efforts.
Kapil Heera says
Hello Alex ,
Thanks for providing such a informative article…
I hope so, this article helps me to increase my website ranking ranking. i will definitely implement this strategies on my website.
Thanks Again…
Kapil Heera
Saayed says
hey thanks for such Great post about SEO friendly blog post. its help to me also to use this type of strategies on my blog to boost my seo ranking as google like my post.
thanks
Brandon says
Fantastic write up.. however it may need an update. I just watched a video by Google, they say that up to 5 H1 are ok on a single page. But structure is important for sure. Thanks for this.
Doronize says
Thanks a lot for the guide to write a complete seo content
Tom Buckland says
This article is really helpful when it comes to blog conversion which will get higher traffic ranking.
sumit kumar gupta says
Hi Alex
Thanks for sharing this information. This is very helpful for me
Mitchelle Williams says
I’m really impressed after reading this post. You exactly explained what Google crawlers and readers love to read
Alex Chris says
Hi Mitchelle
Thanks for your nice comment.
Alex
Stella Martin says
Good article. I have read that using a keyword in the tag is helpful for the ranking of a website. Is this true, should I try it for my website?
Richard says
Hi Alex,
I have been in the seo industry for many years, but this is the most comprehensive guides I have come across and have shared this with my staff.
Vikas Bhatt says
SEO is important. True, one should write meaningful paragraphs. Thanks for sharing this article with us.
Jyoti Bhatia says
Nice tips and easy to understand. Keep sharing awesome content.
Surya Prakash says
I’m really impressed after reading this post. You exactly explained what Google crawlers and readers love to read
Abhishek says
Thank you so much sharing wonderful post with us.Its very useful for me now to write a seo friendly post.
Sachin says
A well written and optimized content can rank well on Google without getting too many backlinks. Thanks for sharing these useful guide!
Dr. Rissy's Writing says
Nice tips, these are very helpful for improving blog quality and make optimized blog. Thanks for Sharing, this helps a lot.
albert sagan says
I’m really impressed after reading this post. You exactly explained what Google crawlers and readers love to read you can name this SEO checklist
nikul says
Nice article . It is easy and simple to understand the concept of SEO.
Suresh Verma says
Thanks a lot!
I have read out a numbers of website but could not get complete information
only and only this website is complete how to write a proper blog post.
nitesh gautam says
nice trick I have tried this and it works amazing.
Arshil says
Hello alex
This is definitely a great article to write blogs. As a Newbie like me, we faced those problems that you discussed but i got confidence that i will be able to solve those problems during my blog post!!
Many many thanks again
Kunal Vaghasiya says
Great!
This is a very informative post! you share the most concise guide to SEO friendly blog posts.
Thanks for sharing!
Karan says
Great!
This is a very informative post! you share the most concise guide to SEO friendly blog posts.
Thanks for sharing!
Sarah Russell says
This article was very helpful! So much information to absorb, I had to come back and take 2 pages of notes so I can start using these methods myself! Thank you for the tips.
Sarah Zuniga says
Thank you so much for sharing this post. I have learned a handful of tips to put into my blogging journey. I am still trying to figure out what keywords would be best, but I feel like I have a better idea of what direction I am going now. Thanks again.
Alex Chris says
Hi Sarah
Good luck with your blogging journey!
Alex
Romi says
This is one of the best posts I’ve read. The information provided is very useful. This article has helped increase my blog’s ranking. Allow me to share this article.
Dustin Cruz says
Thanks for sharing – How to Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts. This blog post is very helpful for me and others. Thanks again for writing a nice post.
Yukti Arora says
Thanks for sharing such a very informative blog about how to write SEO friendly blog, if we want to rank our blog then we need to write an SEO friendly blog so your post is really helpful for me and I want to say your way of explanation and writing is very easy and understandable, I liked so much and thank you very much for sharing this step by step guide
Keep posting and have a nice dai!
priya iiadm says
Learning online saves much time well your blog was pretty interesting and helpful 🙂
I really appreciate your work 🙂
Alex Chris says
Hi Priya
Thanks a lot!
Alex
Akeib says
Hai, Alex
I’m just new in Blogging world and i learned lots of things of Blogging. And this post will help me larned more about Seo .And build lot more confidence in Blogging. I just bookmark your post so that i read more times and make things clear!
Gee Joy says
This is very informative and useful blog article. I also love writing, and making some blogs, and this article is really interesting. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on how to write SEO Friendly Blog Posts. This blog article provides the best tips that a writer could ever see. Keep up the good work.
Alex Chris says
Hi Gee
Thanks a lot for your comment. Glad I could help you learn how to write SEO optimized blogs.
All the best
Alex
Michael Clarke says
Hi Alex
Thanks for sharing such an informative post. I am pretty sure that I can utilize these strategies for my SEO company. Expect more from you in the future.
Keep it up.
Thanks.
Sudip Bhattacharjya says
It is a good article with lots of useful insights. Especially I liked your ‘Craft the title and URL’ section where you discussed and gave tips on how to select an SEO friendly title. Thank you very much for writing this amazing post.
Matija Zajšek says
Hi, tnx for post. Question about meta: Google does sometimes use their own meta or not? Am I doing something wrong?
Alex Chris says
Hi
Please read this: https://www.reliablesoft.net/meta-keywords/ -> it has all the details about meta and what Google and other search engines are using.
Thanks
Bridgette P. Williams says
Hi, ALEX CHRIS , tnx for this content. It is very helpful to me . Again thanks for your bonus tips. I am hopeful to get more content.
George Lewington says
On page SEO is really important. It shouldn’t be taken for granted. Getting a website to be on top of search results is really challenging but it is worth it.
Daniel says
Great content! I was starting my blog and this really gave a good start on my first post I am going to publish!
Would like to hear from you other recommended advice for the blogging starter like me!
Dilip Mothariya says
Thank you very much for SEO on blogger tips
Nithya says
Thanks! This is a well-written article. Normally, I don’t post comments on any sites…but here I had to. Bookmarking this and enrolling to your course 🙂
Wally says
Thanks Alex for these great tips. They were very helpful to help me improve with SEO on my sites. I have heard a lot about Semrush, but I think I will definitely start using this keyword tool.
Arun MK says
Hi, This is a real, eye-opening info for me too. I’ve been struggling to get some of my best contents to ranked high, felt like I’d done everything I could.
I’ve read this article of yours twice now and am going to apply as much as I can. Thank you for sharing your advice!
Deepti says
I’m new to blogging. This article is real eye opener for me. M learning about SEO, I find the article very interesting and informative. M sure this info will help me to improve my blog SEO. Thanks for amazing tips.
Yasmin says
Wow this was very beneficial Alex, thank you so much will share this with our clients that do Blog writing
Alex Chris says
Hi Yasmin
Thanks a lot!
Alex
Souvik Karar says
Nice article, i will definitely apply these steps on my digital marketing site. Thanks again. 👍
Alex Chris says
Hi Souvik
Thanks for commenting. Yes, applying these steps to all your blogs will definitely help your site.
All the best
Alex
Olid Ahmed says
its really an awesome piece of an article, and now I’m using images on my article.
Thanks 🙂
Alex Chris says
Hi Olid
Thanks for your comment!
Alex
Robert says
The meta description tag serves the function of advertising copy. It draws readers to a website from the SERP, and thus is a very visible and important part of search marketing. I’m glad that I came across this amazing article! Thanks for posting such an important piece of content.
Shubh says
Hi Alex,
This is a very informative article about SEO friendly blog post I have ever read . I have deeply understood the concept and will keep trying my best.
Thanks
Claire Harper says
From relevant keywords to links from other websites, there are several ways to optimize your website for SEO success. Great article you have shared here.
BrackNelson says
Thanks for sharing such a great article, it covers all the necessary tips which help us how we write an SEO-friendly blog post and explained the importance of optimization of the title for SEO.
aries avella says
Kudos to this blog. It gives me more knowledge on how to post a blog.I hope you will create more articles just like this. Thank you for the crucial steps.
Gilda Horgan says
Great content, but spelling error on this paragraph, “Don’t just through large paragraphs on a page and hit the publish button.” Should be “throw.”
Alex Chris says
Hi Gilda
Thanks a lot for catching that error.
All the best
Alex
Yash Kumar says
I learned a lot about SEO from your post great work. Thanks a lot
Jitin Mishra says
Thanks..Really an informative blog post. I will check all my old post and start changing them for good SEO ranking.
Robi says
Thanks for such a detailed and step-by-step guide. Writing content optimized for search and conversion is an art.
Gunjan Gandhi says
Seriously! A great post for beginners looking to learn more about SEO and content. Thanks a lot for this beautiful piece of information.
vamshidhar says
Thank you for the amazing post. The complete guidance of SEO results in google search. The content is wonderful to read its easily understand to every users.
Wally says
Awesome article Alex! This was very informative and super helpful for beginners! Definitely something that we all can improve with for content. This is really nice guide to learn SEO friendly blog posts.
Thanks for sharing!
Alex Chris says
Hi Wally
Thanks for your nice comment.
Alex
Shazia says
Great information about SEO I got great results from these tips. thanks a lot please keep it up…
minal says
A great post for beginners who want to learn more about SEO and content. thanks for sharing
Alex Chris says
Hi Minal
Thank you as well.
Alex
Atif Ahmad says
Hey, thank you for sharing such valuable content. This is exactly what I was looking for.
Alex Chris says
Hi Atif
That’s good to know.
Alex