How to Create a SEO Friendly Blog Post

Last week we installed one of the best SEO plugins for WordPress called Yoast and used it to optimize our blog’s homepage.

This week lets utilize some of Yoast’s other features to help create the perfect SEO friendly blog post. I will actually use this post as an example.

Brainstorm an Outline

First, put together an outline of what your post is going to be about. I know with fashion and style blogs, a post consists of 5-15 pictures with little text. That’s ok and there’s nothing wrong with that, but really try to hit a minimum of 300 words. Google loves content (text).

My outline for this post (and it will change as I start to write):

Subject:
Optimize SEO for blog post

Headers:
– Outline
– Targeted Keyword
– Title
– Content
– Yoast

Picking a Target Keyword

The subject of your post will give some ideas on what to use for the targeted keywords. I like to use longtail keywords, which means keyword phrases that consist of 3-6 words. Keywords with 1-2 words is too broad and has more competition against websites that are very popular and specialize in that topic.

For example:

Subject – How to create an SEO friendly Blog Post

Keyword: SEO

Too broad, you will be competing against websites that specialize in SEO.

Longtail keywords: blog post optimization, seo friendly blog post, optimize your blog post for seo

You want to have different keyword phrases that surround the overall topic. They should express and relate to the post theme.

Remember if your content isn’t that long, you don’t need to add many keywords. Good rule of thumb, 2-3 keywords per 300 words.

Creating the Perfect Blog Post Title

I like to write my title after I write my post, it gives me a better idea on the concept I’m trying to convey. Others write it before, no big deal which way you choose.

Make sure that your title is:

1. Enticing, make readers want to click and read more.

2. Targeted keyword/phrase placed within the title.

I went through a few revisions before I settled on the title I have now for this post.

– Optimize Your Blog Post’s SEO
– SEO Optimization For Your Blog Post
– How to Optimize Blog Post For SEO

It’s funny because when I first started blogging (years ago, obviously didn’t keep it up) I didn’t pay too much attention to the title. I would come up with one in less than 30 seconds…and BOOM, that’s what I used. It wasn’t until I started to research online user patterns and copywriting that I found out the title was almost as important as the article itself.

Think about it…you can write the best blog post, but if your title doesn’t represent the content inside, no one is going to click it.

Putting Together the Content

There’s a fine line between a reader friendly blog post and an overly optimized blog post. I’ve seen it go both ways.

What do I mean by overly optimized?

Well, say you are writing a blog post on Top 10 Fat Burning Foods because you run a fitness blog. You have some knowledge of SEO and understand there are certain keywords you would like to target. For this particular post, your targeted keyword is fat burning foods.

You sprinkle the keyword here and there throughout your content and at the end of your 750 word article, you mention the targeted keyword 50 times.

That’s a little overboard and called keyword stuffing.

Back in the day, internet marketers found that if they mention a keyword over and over again, they would rank higher within the search results for that keyword. Google was easy to manipulate years ago and keyword stuffing actually worked.

Since then Google has corrected the algorithm and keyword stuffing has become a thing of the past.

Truthfully, there is no magic number on how many times you should mention your keyword. My suggestion, just write natural flowing content that’s appealing to your readers. Then go back and see where you can optimize your content and add the targeted phrases. Like I said above, 2-3 keywords per 300 words.

Using Yoast to create a SEO friendly blog post

Yoast is a fun tool that will “grade” how your blog post looks for SEO per your target keyword.

After you are done writing your post, make sure to:
– Title automatically pulled, but go ahead and enter it again.
– Add meta description: Same rules as title, make it enticing and include your keyword
– Add your target keyword within the Focus Keyword box
– Save draft

Once saved, Yoast will produce a red, orange or green dot. Colors mean exactly what you think.

Red: Need to work on.
Orange: It’s ok to leave as is, not necessary.
Green: Great job.

See my results below for this post:

The goal is to have your overall color be green. On the top left next to “Content”, there is a circle that displays the overall grade color.

Now if you happen to have more red than green, it’s ok, follow Yoast’s recommendations and make the corrections.

Optimize Facebook

Another neat feature in Yoast is being able to optimize Facebook meta title and descriptions along within picking which image it pulls up.

I don’t mess too much with this because I already optimize my title and description and that’s what Facebook will automatically grab. If anything, I use the image function more to ensure the correct picture gets pulled. Note Facebook image dimension size (1200 x 628).

Conclusion

I know it may seem like a lot to do for one blog post, but trust me, this will help your SEO efforts and improve your overall blog quality within Google. The more you do it, the easier it gets as you train yourself to write content that not only is pleasing to your audience but too Google as well.

Have a great week, we’re half way to the weekend!
AX