How to Write SEO-Friendly Blog Posts [Beginner's Guide]
If you have or are planning on starting a company blog on your business website, you must learn how to write SEO-friendly blog posts. Otherwise… who’s gonna read them?
Sure, your existing audience will see them on your social media or newsletter.
But the superpower of SEO blog posts is that they help you grow your audience in the first place and generate more leads.
To do that, you must make it as easy as possible for them to find your articles on Google when they’re looking for insights or answers to questions they have on your industry.
In other words, you need to learn how to write SEO blog posts correctly.
At the same time, though, never forget about your actual audience.
DON’T. YOU. DARE.
So, before diving into my beginner’s guide to writing SEO-friendly blog posts, let me clarify something.
What makes a good SEO-friendly blog post?
A good SEO-friendly blog post is written with your audience in mind, brings value to them, AND is optimised for search engines. It’s not just about keywords!
When writing a new blog post, you should always focus on creating excellent content for your target audience. Not for Google.
Then, you can optimise it in a way that incorporates the best SEO practices, from keywords to headings and UX. This will make it easier for your audience to both find and read your article.
But don’t ever make the mistake of writing with only search engines in mind!
Search engines aren’t going to invest in your products or services.
7 steps on how to write SEO-friendly blog posts for your audience
Now that we’re on the same page, let’s see exactly how to write a good blog post for SEO and your target customers.
Choose a topic and do some keyword research
The right topics will depend on your specific audience, but you should always aim for something that:
brings them value/answers their questions
is related to your industry, niche, products, or services
Once you’ve got a general idea, find the best keyword to describe it.
Ideally, it will be a long-tail keyword, which is just a fancy word for “a phrase consisting of three words or more”. Why?
Because it’ll be more specific and therefore help you generate the right traffic.
For example, if you were breaking down the steps to brew your own lavender tea, your keyword shouldn’t be just ‘lavender tea’. That’s too vague!
Your potential readers are more likely to Google ‘how to make lavender tea’ or ‘lavender tea recipe’.
But you don’t want to leave that to guesswork.
To find the right long-tail keyword for your blog post, use some keyword research tools to see what people are actually googling.
Google’s own Keyword Planner is actually a great place to start as a beginner (and it’s free).
So, type your idea, and see how people are using it. For example, ‘how to make lavender tea’ gets searched between 100 and 1K times per month in the UK alone.
All you have to do at this stage is keep your chosen keyword in mind.
2. Write quality content that brings value
As we’ve already established, when learning how to write SEO-friendly blog posts, you must never stray away from bringing value to your target audience.
After reading them, they should always walk away with something, whether that’s the answer to the title’s question or a deeper understanding of a specific topic.
So, carry out some research, add your own insights, and write an excellent article that tackles your chosen topic in a way that speaks to your own target audience.
3. Make your blog post scannable
Had you bumped into this exact same article but without any paragraph breaks or headings, would you have still read it?
Probably not.
And I don’t blame you: you simply haven’t got time. Neither have your prospects.
When you write SEO-friendly blog posts, you must also make them easy to scan so that your readers can immediately figure out what you’re covering, skim read it if they wish, or just… read it without straining their eyes.
Meanwhile, this will help search engines understand them more easily, and they’ll always prioritise articles that favour UX.
It’s a win-win.
So:
create a hierarchical heading structure (only one h1 per blog post, some h2, and some h3 nested underneath your h2)
use line and paragraph breaks
avoid lengthy paragraphs
consider using bold text to highlight key concepts
include images
4. Integrate keywords organically when writing blog posts for SEO
One thing your target audience and search engines have in common?
They HATE robotic keyword stuffing, so don’t you dare repeat your long-tail keyword in every other sentence.
Your blog post must flow smoothly!
My main tip on how to write a blog post for SEO is to sprinkle your keywords strategically by adding them to:
the blog title
the URL
some of the headings
the body of the article (in the first 100-150 words, the last or second-to-last paragraph, and a few times within the actual text)
your meta descriptions
image names and alt text (more on that in the next paragraph)
5. Optimise your blog images for SEO
You’ve found the most Pinterest-worthy pictures to go with your blog post.
That’s great!
Your human readers are going to be very impressed, but I’m afraid search engines can’t see them, even if there’s text in the image.
What they can see, though, is their name and alt-text.
So, ditch any lazy ‘image07.jpg’, and use relevant keywords instead (as long as they actually describe the picture).
Oh, and be sure to resize and compress your images on websites like TinyJPG so as not to compromise page speed (heavy files are a no-no for SEO).
6. Add a call to action
I assume you don’t want your readers to just read your article and then forget about it for the rest of their lives, right?
You might want them to subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media, or check out the product that you’ve positioned as the solution to their current pain point.
That’s why it’s vital to include a specific call to action.
7. Choose the perfect title
You might have written the most impressive article since the birth of the Internet, but… who’s going to read it, if nobody clicks on it when they see it on Google?
Your title should hook the reader in, getting them to click on your blog post rather than all the other results in the SERP (search engine results page).
The reason why I recommend doing this after you’ve written the actual article is to make sure the title actually describes its focus.
Use your long-tail keywords, tickle their curiosity, and make an implicit promise to them by teasing exactly what the blog post is going to offer (e.g. “How to Write SEO-Friendly Blog Posts [Beginner's Guide]”: it seems to have worked for you. Gotcha!).
You could also ask a question, or even state something controversial or unusual that your readers will want to check out (“What No One’s Telling You About Growing on Instagram”, or “Why Your Beard Needs Caffeine Just like You”).
Listicles perform particularly well too, especially when they include odd numbers (e.g. “13 Ways to Cook with Avocados”).
And be sure to address the reader directly whenever you can (“How YOU Can Quit Your Day Job & Live the Life You Deserve”).
A little disclaimer on writing SEO-friendly blog posts
So, is that it?
Well, not really.
If that were the case, anybody could do my job.
Learning how to write an SEO-friendly blog post that:
- has higher chances of showing up before those of your competitors
- actively helps you grow your audience
- works as part of a bigger content strategy…well, that requires a lot more knowledge and experience.
From finding the right keyword variations to structuring your blog posts in a certain way and knowing how to analyse those of your competitors before writing yours, A LOT of work goes into most articles ranking on Google’s first page and generating actual leads.
HOWEVER, trust me: what you’ve just learnt will be enough to get you started and write your first SEO-friendly blog posts.
But do you already know how to:
plan your blogging strategy in the first place?
identify the right topic ideas for your audience at this specific stage?
turn those visits into subscribers and leads?
create a sustainable blogging schedule and actually commit to it—even when you’re busy?
If you don’t, I’ve got you. It’s all clearly explained in my Boost Your Business by Blogging eBook, a step-by-step guide written for complete beginners.
It’ll show you exactly how to start (and keep up) blogging on your business website. And, most importantly, how to do so in a way that grows your audience, brings you more leads, and positions you as an expert.
How I can help with your SEO blog posts
Now that you’ve learnt the basics of how to write SEO-friendly blog posts:
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