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Blog Post Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 101

April 23, 2019

I’m Miranda.
You can find me in Indianapolis, Indiana with my hubby Andrew, daughter Ryan and our pup Porter. I believe everyone has the power to create a home, life & business that they LOVE.
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Blog Post SEO 101 | Help your posts get found in search with organic search engine optimization 
 Miranda Schroeder Blog

This post contains affiliate links. Thanks for keeping my creativity afloat.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for every blogger under the sun! After a quick consulting session on basic blog post SEO, I figured why not share a simple guide here on our very own blog? Enough with the fluff. Let’s get started.

Identifying Key Words

Key words are essential for crafting an optimized blog post. If you do not currently have a list of key words, identify 10 core keywords and use those to start creating a massive list. There are two types of key words, short and long-tail. Short, common words can be extremely difficult to rank for since the Internet is flooded with people designing content around them. Try to identify long-tail key words. Long-tail keywords are strings of words that would be used together. For example, instead of purse, use “leather cross-body purse.”

You can use the tools below to help grow your keyword list. Try to create a list of 200 key words you would like to rank for. Another way to think about it is identifying what your customer would be using in search to find your content/products/services.

  1. Keyword Research Guide
  2. Google Keywords Planner

  3. Google Trends

  4. Keyword Tool

  5. Google Search Keywords Analytics

    • Verify your site with Google Search Console to check search terms/traffic/clicks etc.

Why do we need so many keywords? You want to focus on a unique key word for each post you write so your content doesn’t compete with your own content.

Where to Place Your Keyword(s)

Once you have identified the key word you want to target for your blog post here is where you will want to place it:

  1. In the link itself (preferably in the front)
  2. H1 tag (Header 1)
  3. H2 tag (Header 2)
    • It’s likely your website builder will apply these automatically if you select a text format. 
  4. Meta title tag
  5. Start of the article
    • Include the focus keyword in the first paragraph of the copy
  6. End of the article
  7. Add relevant images and use your target keyword as anchor text/alt text
  8. Check your keyword density
    • 1-3% keyword density is good! You don’t want your article to look “stuffed

Inbound/Outbound Links

You should always include inks to normal outbound links (at least one, but preferably a handful). Make sure you are linking to highly credible sources an ensure to stay away from nofollow links! A no follow link is a link someone has told search engines not to follow, so these pages don’t get any SEO juice. Here is an example of a no follow URL: <a href=”http://www.website.com/” rel=”nofollow”>Link Text</a>. For your outbound links, make sure to set them as “open in new tab,” so people remain on your website even if they click a link.

Include as many inbound links as possible! You can link to products, services, blog posts, pieces of content etc. Google loves a site that is packed with value and provides easy navigation. Links to your own blog posts help them “feed” off of each other. 

Keep the actual link for the blog post short and sweet. Include the key word at the front, and stay away from “stop words,” like “the” and “and.” You can find an entire list of stop words to avoid here

How Long Should my Blog Post Be?

This is an unanswerable question, but I will say this. Don’t just keep writing to hit a number of words. Make sure you words are providing value because if they aren’t forget SEO… the people who do read your blog won’t care to read it again. Start by searching for your blog post topic on Google. Read the first three posts which are ranked #1, #2 & #3. Now make yours better. Without giving you a maximum, I will give you a minimum of 300 – 500 words.

More Blog Posts You Might Enjoy:

    Wish you had time to incorporate SEO into every blog post? We offer done for you copy writing with SEO optimization. All you have to do is provide us the topic. We also provide SEO optimization inside of your website on previously written posts or new posts you are writing. Schedule a free 30 minute consult to learn more!

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