SEO Blog Writing and Content Guide
General Starting Recommendations - Things to keep in mind when starting out
- Keyword Insertion: It is important to utilize some of your top industry specific keywords within your blog posts. Don't go overboard, but try to pinpoint a few places where a keyword will fit into the post seamlessly. Placing keywords into the blog post title is also a very effective SEO technique. Try to avoid 'keyword stuffing' by inserting keywords too aggressively and compromising the general flow of the article. A general rule of thumb is never to go beyond a 2% keyword density (keyword/normal word percentage).
- Blog Title: This is where you can grab the reader's attention by utilizing a catchy but relevant title. The title is a key factor to your post because it will be archived and may display within search queries. Be sure to generally utilize target keywords within the post title.
- Internal Links: For SEO purposes it can be helpful to provide links within your blog post that direct a reader to relevant products or services on your main website This is a good place to use anchor text to embed a link within a specific target keyword.
- External Links: It is also good practice to link outside of your own site to other blogs, news articles or web pages. People will sometimes notice this and reciprocate a link within their own post.
- Anchor Text: It is helpful for SEO purposes to utilize keyword specific anchor text on internal links. For example, "Many people are looking for dog food products. One great brand is Purina Dog Food that can be bought at your local pet store."
- Pictures: A good way to make the blog post aesthetically pleasing is to insert a relevant or eye-catching picture within the text. Pictures can help generate clicks when the post is submitted to social networking sites.
- Use your Official Social Media Accounts: Social media is a great way to help distribute new blog posts. If you have official company accounts on social media sites such as Twitter, Digg, Facebook or Reditt be sure to distribute a link for every post when you publish them to your blog.
SEO Blog Writing Tips - Tips for crafting the perfect SEO friendly blog post
- Create linkable content: Page Rank and search engine standings are in part determined by the number of incoming links from content specific sites. These "linkbacks" are most helpful if they are coming from high traffic sites related to the keywords you are attempting to optimize for.
- Become an authority: Use your blog as a means to establish your site as an authority in your industry.
- Fill the Gaps: If you know there are gaps in available information for your industry, then attempt to create posts to fill in the blanks.
- Create a Conversation: Find other bloggers in the same space and write posts that respond to topics they bring up. If you get yourself in the mix of established "topic specific" bloggers, your own credentials will benefit.
- Keep a Narrow Focus: Write a post with the knowledge that you will use a specific keyword in the post title and specific keywords throughout the post copy.
- Make it easy to digest: Social media plays a major role in generating incoming links and readership for your blog. Make sure to write articles that are easy to read and informative for someone who may not be directly involved in the industry.
- Be yourself: Despite the fact that you are intentionally creating search engine friendly content, it is critically important to be yourself. This means writing about industry specific topics that you find compelling and writing in your own voice.
- Feel free to be creative: Feel free to throw out standard SEO blogging conventions and write a post for your own purposes. Just having fresh content in the ballpark of your industry will benefit your search engine standings.
Suggested Blog Post Topics - a list of topics to help get you started.
- Authority Post: Write a post from an insider's perspective on the industry and provide an informed perspective. Authority posts can be very link friendly. If you craft your resource to include interesting statistics and opinions about the subject, your post will be more likely to generate incoming links through organic readership.
- Piggyback Social Trends: Write a post in relation to a hot topic going on in the world today. This tactic is also very useful when generating traffic through social media sites.
- Get List Happy: Lists are very link friendly and tend to be an effective way to generate long-term traffic. A well-crafted list can act as both a resource and reference point. List posts are a great way to come up with fresh content with less time investment.
- Crack a Joke: While this may require a greater time investment, humorous posts allow for greater topic flexibility, while still targeting your keywords. Using humor in your writing is a great way to generate incoming links and future readership. Be careful to balance professionalism with your content when writing a funny post.
