I’ve been blogging for well over a year now and so have some experience when it comes to writing blog posts. In total, I’ve written over 230 posts at the time of writing this blog post (that’s a bit meta hey?) and so I would like to think I know what I’m doing at this point.
However, I won’t sit here and say writing blog posts has become exponentially easier – in fact as I’ve learned more about how to optimise blog posts to get them viewed higher on Google, it has become a long process to complete posts.
In this post, I’m going to give you tips and tricks on writing a blog post to optimise it for Google including language to use, how to format your paragraphs and sentences and so much more.
I hope that the tips below soon get your content to the top of people’s search results and help build Google’s trust in your posts and blog overall.
So what exactly is “SEO”?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. In the simplest terms, it refers to everything you do on your blog and how it promotes getting your blog posts to the top of Google’s (and other search engines) results.
SEO is essentially a vast list of tick boxes that Google’s algorithm looks for from websites and blog posts to help it decide how far up the results it should be putting their posts.
Where do I even begin with SEO?
There is a large list of different things you can do to optimise your post to make sure it makes Google happy; I’m going to try and pick out some of the most important ones that you definitely need to include in your blog posts before you go any further.
The first would be the way in which you write your blog posts. You should ensure simple and concise language when writing up your blog posts. I’ll often go back through my content and make sure it makes sense – especially to those who may not be as well-read as myself.
I would highly recommend getting the Grammarly extension for your browser as this has helped me in so many situations quickly and easily pick out spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and even ways to make the syntax (the way a sentence is written) of a paragraph read better.
Next, make sure you think of a “focus keyphrase” and make sure it is used plenty of times. a focus keyphrase is one or two words (or more if possible) that you consistently use throughout the blog post – it’s essentially what the blog post is all about. For example, my focus keyphrase in this post is “blog posts” so you’ll notice I’ve used this term quite a lot.
It is worth going back through your content and seeing if there are ways in which you can reword sentences to make sure your focus keyphrase is included more. But remember the first rule and don’t go through and make the content not make any sense.
Where do I begin with blog posts?
When trying to think of the first few words to your blog posts, it is always worthwhile remembering that you’re essentially telling a mini-story. You want people to feel like someone is writing this and that it isn’t just some sort of computer-generated set of words.
Look at what you’re writing – if it’s a book review, consider writing about how you came about the book or what made you pick it from your bookshelf/the bookstore.
If you’re writing an article that intends to give people tips or help people, begin the post but writing about a situation where you once didn’t know these tips or maybe why you’re best placed to be able to give out these tips (like I did).
Most often in blog posts, I find that the first line, subsequent paragraph and then the headlines are where people will often most quickly want to get to. The first line indicates if they’re in the right place or not and then the headlines allow them to jump to the information they have come to the post for.
How do I position the content?
As I said above, imagine your blog posts are a story that you’re telling – they’ll have a start, a middle and an end and they’ll often have some sort of logical order to them.
I’d always recommend trying to break your blog posts down into subheadings where you can. I suggest this for a few reasons: firstly, Google searches H1, H2 and H3 headings for when using its optimisations and prioritises these. It’s worth including your focus keyphrase in these too where you can. Secondly, it helps readers jump to the content they’re most interested in and therefore makes it more accessible for more people. And thirdly, it allows you as the writer to give yourself subjects to talk about. Anybody who wrote essays during their education should know this method as a way of making sure your word count was higher and also making sure you covered all of the bases.
If you’re doing a list, I’d recommend ordering them from worst to best as this ensures people scroll further (so they can get to the “best”).
How should I end blog posts?
The final paragraph of blog posts tend to be fairly dull affairs actually. More often than not, they’re a good place to summarise what you’ve written in the article and give people the chance to read your other blog posts, follow you on social media or subscribe to your newsletter (do all of these for me please).
The ending should round off your story and offer people the opportunity to get a quick-glance understanding of what it is they have to your blog posts to learn.
I’d suggest keeping the finale short and concise as it is likely a lot of people may not have made it is this far. Though I say this knowing I write book reviews where many people may just jump the final summarising paragraph – so if this is the case, obviously make sure it is optimised for this.
What sort language should I use?
I’d recommend keeping the syntax of your sentences and paragraphs very simple. DOn’t try and use long and flowing sentences – keep them short and sweet. Not only does this make it easier for those who are better at reading to read but for those who aren’t necessarily as strong readers will have no problem reading it too.
It’s always smart to go back through blog posts and see if you can rewrite any sentences to be easier to read for all.
I’d also suggest hitting the “enter” key more regularly than you maybe would when writing in any more formal situation. We live in a world where people want to consume information quickly and concisely. They will set aside time for reading longer form posts but, more often than not, they don’t come to blogs to read 10-line long paragraphs. So maybe break every few sentences into paragraphs.
Is there anything else worth noting?
When you write your first blog posts, they won’t be the best thing you’ve ever written and they also won’t possibly be the best optimised for Google either.
However, with some curation and some simple learning, you’ll soon find yourself writing blog posts that are reaching higher on Google’s lists and blog posts that you’re happier with.
I think the key lesson to take from this article is that optimising your post for search engine optimisations should be a forethought in your mind as you write and then edit your posts – it will inevitably help you write better blog posts in the future when it becomes second nature.
I hope this article will help you to become a better blog post writer. I’ll be writing a few more upcoming articles that I hope will help people when it comes to blogging. I’ve had a fair few questions lately on social media about it all and so want to offer people some advice after the experience I’ve picked up over the past 15 months.
