You did it! You just finished that blog post that’s been sitting on your to-do list for awhile.

You’ve heard that writing blog posts help to establish you as an authority in your field plus helps with your SEO strategy (the thing that helps your website rank well in search results).

This is definitely true, however pasting a few words on your website doesn’t really do it for Google.

So here’s some advice… I’m here to give you my step-by-step guide that we use with clients and for writing our own content. This helps give our content structure plus ensures that we are consistently writing SEO friendly blog posts.

The Guide

  1. Pick the topic
  2. Pick the focus keyword
  3. Do keyword research – Sounds harder than it is! Go to Google, type the keywords and check the content that comes up in search results. Is it relevant to what you were planning? If not, check the ‘related keywords’ section for a better way to word it.
  4. Fill in the outline below with the keyword you choose
  5. Start writing the content

SEO Friendly Blog Outline

  • Topic: What is the article about? This will help you hone your writing.
  • Focus Keyword: Your focus keyword is the keyword that you would like your post to rank for and is what you were previously searching on Google.
    • See my last post, Keyword Research In Ten Minutes, for more guidance on this.
    • I also use Google Trends here to see how many times this word / phrase is searched.
      • URL:  Make sure to add the keyword you want to rank for in the URL slug.
      • Title / Header Tag: Make sure the Title / Header Tag includes the keyword. It’s best to have it close to the beginning of the title.
      • Meta Description: It’s important the meta description contains the focus keyword. If it doesn’t and you are expecting people to search for a particular keyword, then you may not show in search results for those keywords. If you don’t choose a meta-description, Google can scrape your page and may add the relevant content for you.
      • Related Article: I like to use a ‘Related Article Feature’ to help with my linking strategy, which is another important part of SEO. There are two types of links – internal and external. An internal link goes from one page to another on the same domain. An external link is a hyperlink that directs you to a new website. My goal is to have readers view more pages on my site and since I have other relevant and useful content, I want to let them know. It’s common sense and it shows to Google that you are serving up relevant and interesting content.
      • Main Body: Remember! Content ALWAYS comes before SEO so think about the content structure here. Put effort into writing attractive, structured and readable text. Use bullet points, bold words and phrases and add links that will be useful to your reader. If your content is clearly structured, then the higher your chance to rank well in Google.

Hot tip! Check how many people are linking to your article using this app.

Important note

    Google can pick up if you have added your keyword too many times on a page. This is a bad tactic (called keyword stuffing) and will have you penalized. If you are writing naturally, then you shouldn’t have a problem.

Here’s How I Outlined This Article

      • Topic: How To Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts
      • Focus keyword: SEO friendly blog posts
      • URL: /seo-friendly-blog-posts
      • Title / Header: How to Write SEO Friendly Blog Posts – A Guide for Bloggers, Coaches and Entrepreneurs
      • Meta Description: A step-by-step guide to create SEO friendly blog posts that will make your blog posts relevant and easy to read.
    • Content: What you are currently reading 🙂 I made sure to include my focus keyword in the content.

Most content management platforms (WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace) have an SEO section added to your draft posts so you can edit Headlines, Meta Descriptions and Focus Keywords.

For WordPress users, I recommend the Yoast SEO Plugin for WordPress.

Final Conclusion

Your content is really valuable, but what’s it worth if no one is reading it? My theory is that we should always work with Google, so if you can make a structured blog post that is SEO friendly, then why not!

Want even more tips? Check out this Must-Have Guide for Decoding the Google Rankings.

I love feedback. Did you find this useful? Tell me in the comments below.

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