How to Optimize a Blog Post for SEO
When it comes to making sure the time you spend creating content is “worth it,” perhaps at the top of the this-can-be-a-waste list are the blogs you manage to write. Because since writing really isn’t your jam and they can be a struggle to get done (let us take a wild guess), you’re just trying to get words on the page. The thing is, it doesn’t matter how much time you spend writing a blog post, how pretty it is or how much of a story it tells—that blog post isn’t doing anything for you if it isn’t optimized for search. So today, we wanted to walk you through the steps to making sure your effort isn’t for not. Read on to learn how to optimize a blog post for SEO.
Starts with a topic and keywords
After you’ve decided what you want to write a blog about, the first thing you should do is research the keywords to include. (Your keywords are essentially “labels” you use to get Google to understand the content on the page.) You can use the free version of a tool called Ubersuggest to do your research, but you can also type things into the Google search bar to see what they suggest in the auto-filled options as you type and in the related keywords at the bottom of your search results.
You’ll want to use a mix of broad keywords that are searched for a lot (ex. wedding venue) and more niche keywords with a smaller search volume but targeted intention (ex. outdoor wedding venues in Portland Maine). Come up with a list of 1-5 keywords you can use as you write.
Use your keywords in the copy
Which brings us to the step most wedding planners and pros struggle with—writing the damn thing. And, while we’ll save a crash course in copywriting for another day, here are a few important things to keep in mind.
Let yourself write an ugly first draft! No one (not even professional copywriters) write the final draft from the very start
Write like how you would speak to relieve a lot of the pressure
Write a minimum of 500 words. If you find it easy to get there, start to word towards the 800 to 1,200 word range
As you write, be sure to include your keyword(s) about 2 times for every 500 words. And here is where they should go:
In the title of your blog post (H1 or H2 headings)
In the introduction of the article
In section titles (bolded)
In the body of what you’re writing
Write a meta description
Before you hit publish on a new blog post, there are a few things to take care of behind the scenes. The first is to write a page title and meta description for your blog post. Not only does this information show up in a preview when you share a link, it also gives Google a summary of what the blog is about. Focus your title and description on the 1 or 2 main keywords for your blog and know you have 60 characters for the title and 160 for the meta description.
Customize the URL
One of the most important things in the “how to optimize a blog post” checklist is customize the URL. If you look at your website’s blog URL, it looks something like www.yourwebsite.com/blog. What you want to do is customize what’s called the “tail end” of the URL (everything after “/blog”) with the main keyword for the piece. It should look something like this www.yourwebsite.com/blog/main-keyword-for-blog
Rename your images and adjust the file size
The last thing you want to do to be confident that you’ve optimized your blog post is rename your image files and resized them. Optimizing your images for SEO is important because Google can’t actually “see” an image—it understands what the image is showing people in part by the file name. In addition, you want to resize the image file to make sure it isn’t huge because Google doesn’t like website pages that take a long time to load—and large image files slow things down.
Feeling pretty good about your next blog post? We hope so! But if you’re looking for ways to make getting great blog content published, think about becoming a Sourced Co. member! Our library includes blog outlines that have the keyword research done for you, an outline of what to write, and plan for you to promote it—making things go way faster and with tons of confidence.
