Steps of SEO Content Writing Blog
Are you writing blogs and posting on your website for a long period of time and have not gotten so much traffic yet? You will be wondering that despite excellent content where you are mistaken to not get a lot of readers. Then you are at the right place. This article is just for you.
Writing the blog posts requires skill but a blog is not good enough if it is not readily available to readers. For this, it is necessary that the blog comes in the top search results when someone searches anything related. It requires the blog content to contain those keywords which the searches are most likely to search.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process by which the quality of content is enhanced in such a way that it drags an unpaid traffic to your website as well as it ranks the website in top searches of a search engine such as Google.
In contrast to a general notion that writing search engine optimized content is a complicated task, it is rather a quite simple process. There are a few steps needed to ensure that the content you are writing is search engine optimized.
It is to be kept in mind that a search engine optimized blog does not necessarily need to have quality content. It should only have features that can attract traffic to your website. But to keep readers bound to your blog, and to make sure that they visit your website in future, you also need quality content. A good blog should have following main features along with search engine optimization:
- It should be comprehensive and answer major questions of the reader.
- It should be well structured and the vocabulary should be digestible. It should be moderate, neither too fancy nor too simple.
Now let’s move towards the steps of writing a search engine optimized blog.
Select a Topic
For a search engine optimized post, it is necessary that you also choose trending topics that the audience is most likely to search and those in which the public is interested rather than those in which you are interested.
Research Well
If you are lucky enough, you will have to write a blog that is of your interest and area of expertise. But most of the time, you have to write on topics that are not related to your field. In this case, you have to do a thorough research on the topic. Gather the material from reliable sources. Wikipedia, Quora and Reddit are some websites that provide a lot of material on any topic. Don’t just rely on a single website for research purposes. Rather we can verify it by comparing the facts and figures from different websites with one another. Try to get a command on the topic. If not fully, you have to at least understand the basic terminologies, jargons and concepts of the topic.
Grasp Search Intent
Search intent is the point of view of the user by which he is searching something. For example, if someone searches ‘orange’, we can tell by his search intent that he searched for orange color or orange fruit. Before writing a blog, first understand the search intent of user
Devise a Title
Give your blog post an attractive title to catch the attention and interest of the reader. In a good title you can add teasers (do you know why there is no traffic on your blog?), numerical figures (e.g. 9 Steps to an SEO Blog) or enticing suggestions. Its length should be between 55 to 60 characters and it should accurately relate to your blog.
Create an Outline
Before writing any kind of content either a blog, article, advertisement, caption or product description, you should first create an outline for the content you are going to write. The outline will obviously vary for the type of content you are going to write. For a blog, it should contain all the points you want to discuss in your blog. The points should be arranged in such a manner as they are to be discussed in the blog. It will provide convenience during the writing process. It will also help you in maintaining the flow of your blog so that it will be convenient for readers to understand and digest the information.
Another benefit of an outline is that you can concentrate on each point separately independent of others and at the end join them relatively. It enhances the quality of each and every portion of a blog.
Use Headings
In a blog, you should try to divide the whole topic into subtopics and use headings for them. It is usually easy for Google web spiders to read and identify the headings and scrutinize the material according to this. Moreover, a reader will also find it handy when you have used headings instead of writing the entire topic in a single or a few paragraphs. It looks unprofessional, cumbersome and boring at the same time.
Rough Draft
Following the headings, prepare a rough draft of the article. It is necessary because there are many mistakes left in the text. Moreover, sometimes we also overwrite or add unimportant information. So this needs to be addressed.
Blog Length
A good blog should neither be too short nor too lengthy. The lengthier is your blog, the more effort Google has to put in it to scrutinize the keywords used. An ideal blog should have length as short as 300 words and as long as 2100-2400 words.
Transitional Words
While writing, try to use transitional or linking words. These words link the two portions of a text. They help the reader to get and follow the idea and explanation you are trying to convey by depicting the relation between different parts of a sentence or paragraph. Transition words include however, consequently, moreover, initially, furthermore, firstly, secondly, lastly, as a result, to sum up and many others. They also help the reader to have a bird’s eye view of the text to get the major points and conclusion of the text.
Keywords for SEO Content Writing
Keywords are those primary words or phrases that the major population is likely to drop as a query. They are the most fundamental component of an SEO content. Keywords are mostly to be used in following parts of blog:
- URL
- Headings
- Meta description
- Body of text
Do not Go Overboard
While keywords are crucial, never use them excessively. It ruins the overall structure and build of the article. Just use the keyword where they seem to be fit.
Interlinks
If you have already discussed something in another blog and it is mentioned in your current blog, you can also add interlinks to your previous blog. Users do not have to search that separately and your impressions on other blogs also increase.
Meta Description
When someone searches something, they get an SERP or Search Engine Result Page. A Search Engine Result Page includes the links to various websites where your query can be answered. Usually just below the webpage link, two to three lines of description are present. This is a Meta Description. It summarizes the whole article in a few lines.
For SEO, you must add a meta description to your blog. It provides large exposure to the posts. It also helps the user to get a quick view of the article and provides ease to them. On top of that, if you add keywords in your meta description, it will improve the ranking of your website in Google search.
Image Alt Attribute
If you are inserting images, charts or tables in your blog, Google is unable to comprehend what your uploaded image is about. For this, image alternative attributes are required. Image alternative attributes are the short description of what an image is about. Instead of writing image 1, table 1 etc. write the attributes of that image. It is helpful when the picture is not loading due to the slow speed of the internet. Reader gets an idea of what the image is about and they do not have to wait for loading the image if it is not relevant for them.
Proofreading
When you feel like completing your first draft, proofread it to eliminate spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and other blemishes.
Get Feedback and Finalize
Before uploading the blog, make sure that two or three people read it and provide their feedback over it. It helps to further eliminate the mistakes and overwriting. It also covers the point you have missed just in case. Then finalize your draft and upload it.
Fast, Responsive, Comprehensive
There are approximately 99,000 queries per second and 8.5 billion per day Google is carrying out. So, make sure that your page is fast loading, responsive and comprehensive than almost 10 of your top competitors to end up in the top of the search engine result page.
While making your content SEO, never forget that you cannot compromise on the quality of your blog. An ideal blog should be a spoon-feed for the search engine as well as the reader. All these qualities collectively determine the organic traffic to your blog.