Are you new to the blogging world? If you are, it must be quite interesting and intimidating at the same time. Writing valuable content, finding an audience, and using SEO — everything seems to come with a unique set of challenges. Among them, SEO happens to be the one area that confuses a lot of people.
You may know how to use the right grammar and spelling in a blog post, but do you know how SEO works? It is an important lesson if you want to ensure success for your blog. Don’t worry; you don’t need to hire any professional for SEO in Geelong. You can do it well yourself in no more than 6 steps.
Following this guide will help you optimise every blog post for SEO. And you’ve guessed it right; it starts with the keyword research.
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Step 1: Keyword Research
To a great extent, SEO revolves around keywords. Do it right, and you are off to a great start.
Keywords are the terms and phrases that a person searches for online. The best case in point is “restaurants near me”; we use this all the time. So, in a way, you can say keywords are basically the wants and needs we have.
Every website has its share of relevant keywords, and it is your first step to find them. You can start by putting yourself in the shoes of your potential customer. Think about what you would search for then.
In this research, you will find 6 types of keywords:
- Seed keywords: Broad terms that are used to begin the search process
- Primary keywords: Words that form the main topic
- Secondary keywords: Synonyms and close variations of the primary keywords
- Semantic keywords: Related terms that let you understand the main topic more clearly
- Long-tail keywords: Phrases with more than 3 words that reflect higher user intent
- Short-tail keywords: Popular terms with higher search volume
You can use tools like SEMrush to conduct keyword research. Typically, you start it with the seed keyword and build it from there. Create a spreadsheet with all the relevant keywords you want to include in your blog posts.
However, consider this little tip: Look at the search volume of each keyword. High search volume has the potential to drive substantial traffic to your site, while the keywords with low search volume are easy to rank for. So, maintain a good balance between both these for optimum results.
Step 2: Create Content Outline
When creating SEO-friendly content, we often lose sight of what’s most important. It’s the content that comes first, then the SEO. However, many forget this basic lesson and put the content in the back seat. Refrain from doing so.
As we always say, content is king, and it should be so. Choose your content topic and create an outline for the blog post. Here’s one way to do it:
- Write a headline
- Create subheadings (H1, H2, H3…H6)
- Craft opening lines for each subheading
- Use bullet points wherever necessary
- End with a conclusion or key takeaways
Step 3: Incorporate the Keywords
Now, it’s time to blend the first two steps together. Write your blog post and include the selected keywords strategically in it. Make sure to add a combination of all six types of keywords. Doing this not only helps readers understand the topic fully but also search engines.
However, you must not stuff keywords beyond what is sensible. It can affect your blog adversely. Ideally, you should keep each keyword around 1% of the total word count. For instance, if it is a 500-word blog post, you can include each keyword about 5 to 6 times.
Step 4: Link to Other Helpful Sources
Good blog posts not only present authentic information about a topic but also link to other helpful and credible sources that provide additional value. It can provide extra information, related events, or fun quizzes; basically, anything that hooks your reader.
The links can be of two types:
- Internal links (inbound): These are the links that lead to the other pages on your blog itself.
- External links (Outbound): These links lead to other websites or blogs with relevant information.
Both these links help your blog’s SEO in different ways, so they are essential. Only make sure they are not simply there for SEO; they should be valuable to the reader. Then, it improves user engagement, helping search engines find your blog.
Step 5: Add Visuals for Added Impact
Reading a long text without visuals can get a tad boring, especially for technical topics. That is why we need visuals, be it images or videos. In fact, you have more ways than these two to add visual elements to your blog post.
- Infographics
- Charts
- Comics
- GIFs
- Animations
- AI-generated images
Visuals keep readers engaged for a long time, reducing the bounce rate. This can be incredibly useful for your blog’s SEO metrics.
However, adding alt text (abbreviation for alternative text) to these visuals is something you shouldn’t forget. It’s simply a concise text that describes the visual, which boosts the blog’s accessibility.
Step 6: Title Tag and Meta Description
A title tag is the element that is displayed on the search results page, whereas a meta description is the content you see below it. These two elements are important SEO strategies, so ensure you optimise your blog for them.
It is better to have the following features in your blog’s title tag:
- Keyword must be included
- Must be between 50 and 60 characters
- Convey exactly what the blog is about (no sensational titles)
Similarly, meta descriptions must also follow certain guidelines to draw attention:
- A short summary of the topic
- Contain the keywords
- Better to keep it under 160 characters
Final Thoughts
SEO is a vast topic. However, this guide tried to put the best information together for you. Yet, to experience the full potential of it, consider hiring a professional for SEO in Geelong. Perhaps you may like to explore Make My Website for the same.
The experts at MMW have great industry experience that may help boost your blog’s reach through SEO. Visit their website for any more enquiries.
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