What is Blog SEO?
Blogs used to be a major SEO ranking factor, but are primarily now used for informational purposes, like answering searcher’s questions on topics. Publishing blogs covering issues & topics within your market are still very worthwhile as they can drive well-qualified traffic to your website. SEO is required to rank your blog well organically, and that is the primary role SEO takes in creating your blogs.
Search engine optimization (SEO) for blogs is intended to increase traffic to your web page. Search engines (Google, Bing, Baidu,….) have guidelines their search algorithms look for to assign page rank for blogs, or any web page. Page rank is where your web page appears in search results when searchers use a search engine to research a topic; you want your blog to appear on page 1 of search results as close to the #1 organic position as possible. Organic means non-paid results, usually paid results appear above non-paid.
Writing a blog for SEO isn’t much different than SEO for a product or service page. You need to follow SEO rules or guidelines set by search engines. When a search engine crawler visits your website, it uses an algorithm to give your individual pages organic search rank. Google is the most used search engine in the United States and other search engines use similar rules, so if you use Google’s rules you’ll meet standards for other US search engines.
Blog SEO Best Practices Guidelines
The following is a list of blog SEO guidelines that can be used for almost any web page, blog or non-blog.
- Content
- Create original, interesting content focused on your topic. If another source is quoted, use references and point a link to it (make sure you have the author’s permission). Duplicate or “borrowed” content won’t improve your blog’s search rank and can even result in a penalty.
- No sales pitches! A blog should focus entirely on an informational topic. Save Success Stories and Testimonials for a…Success Stories and Testimonials category.
- Close with a non-sales pitch invitation…like, “Name has over 20 years’ experience in digital marketing. He can be contacted here (add a link).”
- Repurpose old blogs: yes, old blogs can be brought up-to-date. Include new information related to the topic, add a video, new images.
- Questions: searchers using mobile devices frequently use the microphone and ask a question, like, “Where can I find guidelines for blog SEO?”. Research the most popularly searched questions on your product or service and include it as a header followed by a great answer!
- Research other top-ranking blogs on your topic. You’ll be competing with top-ranked blogs, so why not find out how they did so well? Check the content, METAs, headers, links, etc….
- Keywords
- When you decide on your blog’s topic, start researching keywords to include. Look for a main keyword (the general focus of the blog) and secondary keywords (keywords that support the main keyword).
- Tools (free and paid)
- Google (free): use a search engine like Google. Type in your blog topic, scroll to the bottom and you’ll find a list of common search terms.
- Google Ads Keyword Planner (free if you have an account). If you have a Google Ads account this is a great place to find keywords and search volume.
- Google Analytics (free): use this free tool to find search terms related to topics your visitors are using.
- Google Search Console (free): find more search terms visitors use to find your site.
- Google Trends: type in your topic or keyword and get insights on how searchers are finding pages with similar topics.
- Paid tools: SEMRush, Moz, SpyFu to name a few. But try the free tools first.
- METAs
- METAs are the search engine results you see as a result when you type in a search query into Google,. You will bold title followed by a description. Searchers on average decide which search result to click on in less than a half-second. METAs can be cryptic, they should show main features of your blog including front-loading the main and if possible secondary keywords. Also, create them for mobile search using the lengths listed below.
- Titles: Include the keyword first, then show main features.
- Example: Blog SEO | How to Search Engine Optimize Your Blog | Company Name
- Don’t go beyond 68 characters excluding your company or organization name.
- Descriptions: also front-load the main keyword. Follow it with as many features as possible within 130 characters or less, and close with a call-to-action (CTA).
- URLs (slugs): front-load the keyword. Don’t create a long slug, keep it short, descriptive and keyword rich.
- Titles: Include the keyword first, then show main features.
- METAs are the search engine results you see as a result when you type in a search query into Google,. You will bold title followed by a description. Searchers on average decide which search result to click on in less than a half-second. METAs can be cryptic, they should show main features of your blog including front-loading the main and if possible secondary keywords. Also, create them for mobile search using the lengths listed below.
- Headings (h1, h2,…h6)
- Headings help search engines understand the content of your blog or web page. They’re html code that act as headlines. Focus the <h1> on the general page content and main keyword. The following headers <h2>, <h3>,…<h6> should describe sub-topics about your overall blog topic in cascading order. It’s ok to use several <h2>’s and not use all headers. Example follows:
- <h1>Main topic of the page including main keyword focus </h1>
- <h2>A subtopic of the page based on the main keyword</h2>
- <h3>A subtopic of <h2> </h3>
- Multiple <h2>, <h3>,…<h6> can be used
- Resource link on Headings
- Headings help search engines understand the content of your blog or web page. They’re html code that act as headlines. Focus the <h1> on the general page content and main keyword. The following headers <h2>, <h3>,…<h6> should describe sub-topics about your overall blog topic in cascading order. It’s ok to use several <h2>’s and not use all headers. Example follows:
- Internal linking
- Link other pages on your website to the new blog and add links from the blog to internal pages. This will share “link juice” within your website, increasing organic search rank for those pages.
- Backlinks or external links
- Backlinks or external links are links from websites other than your own to your website or a webpage. Reach out to sites you believe will be interested in sharing your blog or including it as a reference in their blogs.
- Image descriptions (alt tags)
- Include images related to your blog topic and write short descriptions using researched keywords. Be sure your descriptions accurately describe the image, otherwise search engines will consider it keyword stuffing, which will cause a loss of search rank.
- Categories
- WordPress, and most content management systems (CMS), provide categories to organize your blogs or other pages. Use the Category title and description boxes to SEO your blog categories.
- Videos
- Include a short video describing your blog, or if it’s a “how-to” a longer video detailing each step. Use YouTube’s SEO section to include a keyword rich title and description and provide a transcript of the audio.
- Blog location (bullets not working, insert correct bullets)
- Make sure your blog is within your website’s domain. Sometimes bloggers use a separate domain or blogging service. Doing this will allow searchers to find your website and you’ll get valuable link “juice” credit from search engines.
Following the above blog SEO guidelines will help your blog rank well in organic search & increase traffic. The same concepts can be applied to almost any web page when SEO-ing your website.
By Andy Hoover
Manager, Search Engine and Social Media Marketing
Beasley Direct and Online Marketing, Inc.
Andy has over 20 years’ experience optimizing SEO and paid digital marketing for SMBs to large enterprises. He can be contacted here.
