In my last blog post, I warned against letting perfectionism get the better of you. It’s better to publish than to procrastinate, people!
Having said that, you will want people to read what you’ve poured time and effort into writing. And for that reason alone, you should spend a little time adding some SEO sauce to your post.
(Note the phrase ‘SEO sauce’. Personally, I like to focus on creating content first, following the steps I’ve outlined previously. I then squeeze on the SEO sauce before serving up my post to the public. Why? If I get too hung up on SEO too early on in the writing process, it takes the fun out of things, making blogging seem like a box-ticking exercise. And it’s supposed to be fun, remember?)
You may well have heard of Google’s EEAT Guidelines (yes, they recently added an extra E!). EEAT stands for:
- Experience
- Expertise
- Authority
- Trustworthiness
These guidelines are one of the ways in which Google assesses whether your content is of value to readers. And doesn’t this seem a logical way of doing things? Who doesn’t want to read reliable content written by someone who knows what they’re talking about?
Bear this in mind whenever you write a blog post. Well-researched content should be the bedrock of your blog.
Do your keyword research
This is the basis of SEO – so don’t skip this step! If you do, you’re building your castle on shaky foundations.
Follow these steps to make sure your keyword research is sound.
- Brainstorm the key phrases customers would use when searching online for your blog post topic. Say, for example, you’ve written a blog post about cycle hire in the Netherlands. In this case, your key phrases might include ‘bike hire in Netherlands’.
- Search for this term. As you do this, check out Google’s predictive search (see below) – this is a great place to get secondary keyword ideas. Look for the related terms at the bottom of the page too (also below) – another gold mine for secondary ideas.
- Now use a keyword research tool. Type in any key phrases you’ve come up with from your brainstorming and your Google predictive search/related terms. Use your competitors’ URLS to find out how they rank for these phrases. Doing this will help you to decide on your primary and secondary keywords that might work for you.
- These keywords are the ingredients of your secret sauce. Now you need to use them!
Use your keywords
How to use your keywords?
You don’t want to smother your post in sauce (if you’ve ever shaken a bottle of ketchup too violently you’ll know that soggy chips are never good!), and you want to make sure there’s a nice even coverage.
Remember too, that Google penalises what’s known as ‘keyword stuffing’. Read your post aloud – do your chosen keywords sound natural? Or does your post sound repetitive? If the latter, time to make some edits.
Some further tips for using keywords:
- You should aim to use your main keyword in your title, URL and meta-description.
- If it makes sense to put your keyword at the beginning of the title, do so. If not, don’t.
- Include your keywords in the meta-description you write.
- Sprinkle your main and secondary keywords throughout the post, but don’t go overboard with this.
Include links
Your blog post should include external links – as long as they are relevant to your topic and come from trustworthy sources. Why? Because this is another way of showing Google that your content is authoritative and helpful.
Include internal links (links to other pages on your own website) too. This helps Google to index your content more efficiently – and gain a better, more holistic understanding of what you and your business are about.
Just make sure:
- all of your links work (Google doesn’t like broken links!)
- where possible, your anchor text includes keywords
Utilise images
Images have an important part to play in boosting SEO.
Make sure you always include an alt-text description for any images you share on your blog post. Not only does this make your images accessible for people who use screen-readers, it’s also an opportunity to add keywords. For example, the alt-text caption I wrote for the above image is: ‘women conducting keyword research for her tourism blog.’
Make sure your pictures aren’t huge! Large images load more slowly, which hinders user experience. And that won’t exactly work wonders for SEO. There’s useful information about sizing your blog images here.
Consider plug-ins
And finally – why not get a plug-in to give you feedback on your SEO before you publish? I use Yoast (the free version) but there are others.
A word of caution though: plug-ins like Yoast are handy, but they don’t do your keyword research for you and you should always use your own instinct when it comes to deciding how natural your keywords sound within your post.
Do you need input personalised to your business? Why not book a Copy Boost session with me? This hour will be laser-focused on your specific needs, giving you the confidence you need to blog with confidence. Interested? DM me on LinkedIn or email me at genevieve@campioncopy.com