How to Optimise Your Blog: A Simple Guide
Last update: 15 March 2023 at 10:36 am
5.00/5Every day millions of blog posts are published. With such high volumes flooding the internet, it isn’t easy to stand out or rank high on search results. As important as writing an interesting article with relevant information is, taking time to optimise it makes all the difference.
Wanting to get on the front page of a search engine is ideal, but you need to learn how to get there. You can search for SEO optimisation, but chances are you’ll be overwhelmed with a large amount of information. With this guide, you’ll get a better idea of making the best of this marketing tool and getting the blog post noticed.
What is SEO?
Before you can use SEO, you need to understand what it is first. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a set of tools and techniques to ensure that your content is shown at the top of search results when a specific keyword is entered.
For example, let’s say there’s an article titled “How to optimise your blog post?”.The ideal situation would be to have the search engine rank the post-high on results when keywords related to the topic are searched. Using SEO tools ensures your site is more likely to be seen on the first page.
Get Professional Help
If you’re not able to single-handedly optimise every post, seeking help from professionals is your best option. Like many services, it isn’t easy to find the right company that fits your needs and budget.
You also should be able to find On-Page SEO Agencies in the UK without having to guess if they’ll do a decent job. Comparison shopping is always a good idea and should be a top priority when looking for an outside party to optimise the blog post.
Understand Your Target Audience
If you decide to optimise your blog post,then the first thing you need to do is understand who you’re trying to reach. This doesn’t only mean people interested in the topic but also new or returning readers. You may also be trying to reach people who can spread the word about your website or business.
Knowing your audience’s search intentchanges how you’ll approach the article and what SEO tools will be used. If you’re looking to attract more cyclists to your fitness website, using the right keywords will help get the blog postto the correct people.
Research Other Websites
To have your blog post rank amongst the best, you need to know your competition well. Look at who comes up when you search a specific keyword and see what information they provide about a topic. By doing this, you’ll know if you’re adding unique and new knowledge or if what you have, has been thoroughly covered.
To do this kind of research, you can do a standard search. The better option might be to look at the SERPs in a keyword explorer or the title tag. Also, look where most information is being shared to try to get the blog postshared on those sites. There are plenty of search tools that can help you find these websites.
Do Proper Keyword Research
Keywords are a basic necessity when it comes to SEO for a blog. Many content writers and SEO experts use this technique. A beginner mistake is blindly guessing what topics and keywords to use. The first thing you need to do is ask yourself: What is the Search Intent of users when it comes to your blog post?
Doing keyword research helps you discover what users are interested in using search engine data. The keywords can be used to write articles that users will read and help you find new blog ideas. You’ll also want to research fitting long-tail keyword phrases because they’re particular and usually used by customers close to making a purchase.
Use tools that give in-depth data, including keyword position tracking, competition analysis and other information that’ll give you a better idea of what is needed.
Use an Effective Title
When it comes to content marketing and search rankings having an enticing title is vital. It makes an article more relevant, which is essential because most search results are ordered by relevance.
An excellent way to use SEO with your title is by including the focus keyword in it. Another critical thing to do is to make the blog post title catchy. If more people click on your post, then the click-through rate (CTR) will increase, which plays a vital part in SEO.
There are many ways to write a compelling headline, but one of the best ones is emotional marketing value (EMV). You use powerful words that elicit the desired emotion from users. There are tools available that analyse the blog posttitles and tell you how strong it is.
Make It Readable
After you’ve written your blog post, you have to check for mistakes and typos. Don’t be afraid to take your time during this step because it’s quite essential. Nothing removes credibility like a fundamental grammar error.
Another thing you need to do is make sure the blog post is readable. If you find yourself getting lost or confused while reading your article, then it’s time to make changes. It’s not possible to only rely on your instincts when it comes to readability.
It would help if you used tools that’ll analyse the blog post and give you a score. A decent one will provide you with feedback and even suggestions on where to make changes.
Use Links
This is for anyone who has a lot of blog posts on their website. You can start using internal links to get users to look at your older posts related to the current one. This way, you’ll increase traffic within your site.
Trying to remember every blog post topic you’ve done can prove, which is why there are tools that’ll do it for you. In-post editors, you’re able to search old posts by using keywords and see every related article.
Using links is one of the best ways to do on-page SEO for your blog post. It ensures that older posts continue to be seen, and newer posts are visited often.
Include Images and Videos
Images and videos in a blog post do more than make the page look nice. They help a blog post be more engaging, which often increases search engine ranking. The number one thing to remember is that you need to make sure you don’t use media with copyrights. There are plenty of resources that provide royalty-free images and videos that are perfect for any blog post.
To improve your media for SEO, you should use alt text. This way, search engines can read the images better. Additionally, they help people who use screen readers.
Royalty-free images can be used as-is on your blog post,but videos are a bit trickier. It’s recommended that if your video is going to be included in the post, you should upload it to platforms like Youtube first and add it as an embedded video.
Meta Descriptions
A meta description gives a summary of your blog post that is used by search engines. It’s recommended to use them on every post you publish to help optimise your articles. They are also used to describe your blog post when shared on other platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook. This means that to get users to click through, you should make sure the meta description should sound exciting and include a focus keyword.
Things to avoid
We’ve discussed things you need to do if you want to optimise your blog post, so now let’s look at what to avoid.
Plagiarism
Plagiarising other people’s work will never work in your favour. The original author can quickly take action against you, and your site can be taken down. Additionally, having duplicate content will make your content less original, which works against your effort to optimise your blog post.
Despite your best efforts, you may accidentally plagiarise another blog post. It’s impossible to know what every site has written before you, so you should use plagiarism checker tools. They compare your blog post to millions of others to make sure there are no matches.
Keyword crowding
Using keywords in a blog post helps with your SEO, but having too many will have the opposite effect. Search engines like Google can penalise keyword stuffing by having your ranking drop. Experts say the amount of keywords used should have a density of 2-5% to be safe. Many keyword density checkers are available for your blog post. If you find that the percentage is high, try using synonyms or rewording sentences.
Optimise Your Future
Optimising your blog post may take some time, but the long-term results are worth it. If you’re not able to get professionals to help you, then make use of the many tools available online. Remember that there are do’s and don’ts when it comes to SEO.
With a couple of SEO techniques, your blog postwill have the potential to be more competitive and seen by more users.
If you are still wondering how to optimise your blog, take a look at some of our SEO agencies that are ready to help!
