10 SEO Post Writing Tips That You Often Ignore

Often times, when bloggers begin “blogging” they stumble over themselves.

Some seem to have a natural knack, while others think that a few riveting paragraphs will do the trick.

While they wait aimlessly for traffic to come to the site, they begin to question the relevancy of blogging.

After ghostwriting a few blog posts I can offer up some juicy tips that work every time without fail. It’s just a matter of organization and marketing.

Listed below are some pretty useful  SEO post writing tips that should get you on track.

Do your research

The name of the game is research; do your homework on any given topic to see if the market is thoroughly saturated or in need of content. Two things that always work in the research field; use Google’s Keyword Tool. Type in the terms you plan on using in your blog post and then input those same terms in Google’s search engine to see who your competition is. If you can mix some tools together; Google’s keyword tool + Market Samurai, for example.

By doing this I can easily estimate how my blog will rank in search results for determined keywords.

A Headline by Any Other Name…

Creating a headline that will appear in your prospective readers search results is formulaic. Be sure to use standard HTML formatting as follows: [#][keyword][insert your attention capturing phrase here]

When choosing a title tag for optimal SEO recognition, put your important keyword or keywords at the front of your headline. Be sure to also cover alternate uses, like for instance, substitute ‘publishing’ with designing’ to cover all bases. Encompass other uses like entrepreneurs, motivational videos or top ten Google Chrome extensions.

What is a Post Slug?

A post slug is the word that follows the domain name or website title for every single post or page contained within that website. When you fill in the headline of your post, web editors like WordPress automatically fill in the slug; making it look long and cluttered. Change this manually by using your primary keyword here instead. For example;

Instead of this: rebelgrowth.com/10-SEO-Post-Writing-Tips-That-You-Often-Ignore/
Do this: rebelgrowth.com/seo-post-writing-tips/

Include a Photo

Images grab reader’s attention initially, summarizing content and adding a bit of design sense to your page.

You can optimize your SEO ranking by doing a few small things like naming the image with the keyword phrase (for example; keyword_phrase.png) and additionally; add the alt text and the title in the same way (remember to be natural).

Plus the title tag should reflect the same phrase in brackets [ ] when looking at the HTML code. When I get my images from the internet, I always open them in Adobe Photoshop and make it unique, with a simple green stripe (sometimes i add the Moneydiver logo) then I save it as a .PNG file.

Now, I can’t tell you those last two steps are an actual factor on SEO, but I figured, if Google has created a tool that identifies images, they could just as easily determine repeated images as repeated content.

So I thin twitching the images I upload on my site with a personal style wouldn’t hurt no one (unless it’s copyrighted and you are altering someones work).

Add a Video

Well, I’m guilty of not doing this as often as I should.

Google and other search engines see pages with a video as a full comprehensive resource, and will show these pages first in search results. When you add a video, wait a while. It should update and boost your rankings, it just takes some time to process. Make interactive Youtube videos (or vlogs) a part of how you market your business. Start a Youtube, it’s free and easy now with a new user interface. You can also embed a link in your post to attract traffic. If you aren’t sure about creating your own video, find a relevant video and link back to that individual or group. Always be sure to credit your sources, the online community is both big and small, so shout outs are always welcome.

Subheads and What to do With Them

Like what we did with images, subheads give the reader a clue as to the content of the blog. They do boost your SEO considerably if you follow these simple steps in your HTML interface;

<h2>First Subhead</h2>  h3>Second Subhead</h3> so on and so forth.

Always know that every title and headline must be opened with <h1> and closed with </h1>, in the case of WordPress the post title gets automatically tagged as h1
So don’t just bold your titles, wrap them on their determined tags

Interlinking to Get Readers to Subscribe

Interlinking between posts is a great way to guide readers to older content they may have missed, while also adding interest to past publications; therefore getting your viewer to linger longer. Before any new post is published, read through carefully and find at least two spots where interlinking to a past post will make sense and tie into your current topic.

External Linking Builds You Up

Linking to other bloggers is a great way to build your image in the community and gain respect as a trusted source. Choose a well known site like MSNBC, PBS or the New York Times; they love it when stories go viral and spark responsive content. The key is to find a common story and pull out a link to their content that is relevant. If it doesn’t make any sense it won’t be well received.

Linking back to other blogs boosts your value in the eyes of other bloggers, it shows that you place importance on their content and that you want to share it with your audience too. It also cements your persona and reputation in the field. The best feeling? When you get a shout out of Twitter or a personal ‘thank you’ email from these people.

Meta Data, useful or wasteful?

Meta data includes keywords used in a small description, much like a tweet it is limited to about 150 to 180 characters. Sometimes it shows up, other times it doesn’t  but to err on the side of caution always include a meta description. It will appear as a small quip under the link back to the page, highlighted in blue usually.

Do include your keywords in the description, Google will bold that text for the viewer to see its relevancy. Keep in mind it should read like an actual sentence, and that readers automatically scan your post for that same sentence once they click the link. Use it as the first or last sentence, to sum up your topic. But don’t just take my word for it, a lot of people consider that even if keywords meta tag doesn’t directly affect your rankings as a context meta data is still useful.

A Call To Action

The last stage would be to utilize your readers addiction to social media and ask them to share on Facebook, tweet on Twitter or physically act on whatever you are talking about. A few have links back to sites like LinkedIn that post to a closed group, with your specific subject in mind that relates back to the group interest.

I always follow bloggers and personas that offer intelligent and useful content. When I relay these opinions and tips in my own life, I always come back for new content.

Now it’s your turn; Comment in the box below, share on your favorite social site or act and write your next blog post with all these tips in mind! I would love to see your next blog post at the top of my next search, but doing all three would really make my day!

Matt Cutts talks about the importance of content and how it helps your site on this video:

I hope these seo post writing tips where of some help to you now  would like to know what would you like to learn? Share your ideas below and I’ll schedule a post on your interests.