We recently published a video tutorial on how to SEO blog posts in under five minutes. And with the level of engagement we saw from the SEO community, we had to keep the conversation going.
So we reached out to our expert SEO community to share their tips on how to SEO blog posts. Here are their outside-the-box techniques to use in 2017.
Haven’t seen our blog post SEO tutorial? If not, have a look and discover how to get on Google’s first page in under five minutes.
SEO Keyword Targeting – Before you Begin Writing
To SEO your blog posts, techniques like keyword targeting have stood the test of time for a reason. They work. Kate Walker from Get Better Traffic shares her blog post SEO tips.
Know what you’re targeting before you begin writing. Understand where your blog content fits into your overall keyword strategy before setting pen to paper. Having a key search term in mind before you begin will increase focus and eliminate the need for awkward rewrites later on.
Gaining Top Position with Through Valuable Blog Posts
The idea behind a blog post is to engage readers with useful content. Going beyond technical SEO, Kyle Buzzell from Adcash tells us why providing value in your blog posts is essential.
Let’s start from first principles and build from there: Google wants to provide search results that deliver the greatest value.
Keyword stuffing has been replaced with article stuffing due to the correlation between 2,000-word articles and top SERP positions. But it’s not the length that is key… it’s quality.
It’s simple: start with what your audience is asking for and provide a thorough, authoritative answer.
These are the articles that are picked up, read and shared. And those are the articles that claim top position.
Mapping Out your Blog – Table of Contents
Your readers love seeing a table of contents. And so does Google. Dmitri Kara from Fantastic Cleaners shares a unique tip on how to SEO blog posts.
A short but clever on-page trick I can share is to make use of a table of contents. If you properly set your #anchor-slug within your table of contents, Google might render it as part of your meta description to a relevant query.
Optimize Blog Posts with Expert Contributions
Expert contributions add a ton of value to your content. And once your publish your blog posts, the social boost you’ll get from your expert contributor can take blog SEO to the next level. Hannah Corbet from EdgeThreeSixty goes into detail.
When creating content for your blog posts, ask for contributions from influencers and authorities on that given topic or in your target market overall.
By asking these people for a quote, or to write something for your article, They’re automatically invested in the content. This means that once your post is live, they are much more likely to share it with their followers (generating positive user signals for search engines) or even link to it (passing valuable page rank to increase your position in SERPs).
By including contributions from third parties, you also get the added benefit of aligning yourself with industry leaders and providing value to your audience.
Building SEO Authority with Topic Development
When you find a blog topic your audience loves, build on it. Korey Kashmer from Kashmer Interactive shares his tip for boosting blog SEO.
One specific tip is to write a collection of posts that paint a picture and create a story. The typical blogger writes one blog post covering a topic, story, or thought.
But they can create a series using this strategy. Within the strategy each post cross-references and cross-links to related posts helping provide internal links for SEO. You can then leverage posts individually and collectively for more inbound link value.
Optimize Blog Post CTR – Crafting Page Title and Description
One of the first things we learn in SEO is page title and description optimization. Brandon Schmidt from YDOP shares wisdom on this essential technique.
Spend time crafting your title and meta description. It is important for CTR. Consider your meta description as a teaser enticing people to read the rest of your article. Be sure to also include a keyword you’re targeting. When someone searches for your keyword, it will appear bold in the description, helping your post stand out more.
Captivating Readers with an Awesome Blog Title
For anyone into copywriting, you know the power of a great title for piquing reader interest. Jean Gustave from Antean Studios shares one of his blog SEO tips.
You should focus on the title of the article. This means thinking of what a user might search for when looking content relating to your blog. The more precise you match your words the easier it’ll be for your article to crawl up on search engines. The How-To-Why and the Best-Most article title combined with your target keyword have better chances to crawl up organic ranks because these posts inherently add value.
Optimize Blog Posts for Voice Search SEO
Mobile search is on the rise. And with the rise of mobile comes the rise of voice search. Jenna Weinerman from Updater tells us why to focus on voice search in the future.
Make sure your content is optimized for voice search by targeting long-tail keywords. People are more likely to speak naturally into a phone with longer and verbose phrasing, as opposed to typing on the phone where people are more condensed and precise. Think how people speak, in real phrases, not keywords. Make sure to test the theory yourself – ask natural questions that you brainstormed and be better than the current results.
How to SEO Blog Posts in 2017 – Techniques from the Experts
That does it for our Expert roundup on how to SEO blog posts. Thanks to our expert SEO community for sharing their knowledge with our readers.
Make sure to include your top tips on how to SEO blog posts in the comments below and don’t miss our video tutorial on how to get on Google’s first page in under five minutes.
